When you’re trying to burn the most calories, which form of exercise is more effective, resistance or cardio. As much as it may seem clear cut, it isn’t, there is a lot more to it than just walking on the treadmill when it comes to burning calories.
There is a lot of confusion over which exercises burn the most calories. There are two forms of exercise that are important in losing weight. The first is resistance-training exercise. This method is straightforward and simple in understanding how calories are burned. For example,
performing squats as opposed to wrist curls, will obviously burn more calories.
Why?
• Squats offer a wider range of motion by moving muscles located in multiple areas but wrist curls concentrate only on one set of targeted muscles.
• There is a greater distance of weight movement as the entire section from the waist to feet is being forced to operate.
• Groups of muscle being worked in conjunction with one another create a larger resistance and this equals more calories being burned.
The second form of exercise that is important in weight loss and burning the most calories is called cardio exercise. This type of exercise builds up your conditioning for more strenuous exercising. Common forms of cardio exercise are jogging, riding a bicycle, and walking on a treadmill. Measuring the number of calories burned in cardio exercise can be difficult, due to several factors.
• No two people perform a cardio exercise with exactly the same passion. A test was performed where three people of similar age and build were selected. Each was given a different exercise machine to compare which machine could deliver the most calories burned, 1 bike, 1 treadmill and 1 elliptical. The results could not be measured because not every participate exercised at the same speed.
• Everyone has a different pace at which they walk, jog or run. Even if you could find two people closely paired, there would still be a difference.
• A person’s mind is the most significant faculty in getting the most out of a cardio workout and since no one has the same mindset, measurement can often be impractical.
There are certain steps that can be taken to prevent the mind from becoming too comfortable with a cardio exercise. In getting settled in a routine, the mind becomes complacent and the activity actually begins to deliver less. Try changing simple items in your cardio exercise such as the number of sets performed, changing the distance of running or anything to change the monotony of an exercise so your mind has to sit up and pay attention.
Vary the type of workouts that are performed so your mind has to stay focused on new forms of exercise. When you feel yourself becoming at ease and your mind wandering, it is time for another change. Stay with exercises that you enjoy. When you know that you have an exercise coming up that you detest, you will not give it your all.
