Weights v cardio

Question to you all:  If you have a choice, which would you pick to reduce fat, lose weight, increase muscle mass?  I've had back surgery, have a wonderful treadmill workout (which I like) and mountain behind my house to hike, and plenty of weight, equipment, yoga, pilates, balance ball all at my house.  I seem to suffer some set backs from pushing myself on the treadmill or hiking.  Can I accomplish the same result from weights/yoga/pilates/balance ball?  Do I need to do a combo of both but at a moderate level?  I expect instant gratification (don't we all) but that's just foolish! I've always been active but lost all my muscle mass from being sedentary before and after my surgery which was in Jan 07. 

Looking forward to your input!

Thanks

Weights, HIIT, aerobic interval training, steady-state cardio, in that order.

 The Hierarchy of Fat Loss shows roughly how to go about it in the most efficient way. You'll have better results, faster, if you start at the top of the hierarchy with weight training instead of down at the bottom with steady-state cardio.

 Oh, and:

1. Yoga Mostly Sucks
I realize that what I wrote above is going to rub a lot of people the wrong way, but like I stated in the beginning, it had to be said. While yoga is an excellent modality to help improve the mind-body connection, and it certainly is a valuable tool in the "overall fitness toolbox," it doesn't hold a flame to resistance training as far as what the majority of women want/need from their time in the gym.

A good rule of thumb most women should follow would be to train three times per week while incorporating a healthy dose of soft tissue work and dynamic flexibility. Once all of that is met, then she can incorporate yoga into the mix.

4 Things Your Girlfriend Should Know
by Tony Gentilcore, CSCS, CPT

Yoga and pilates is mostly the same thing - good place to start if you've never worked out before in your life, very limited in what it can do for you long term.

I like what Krista of Stumptuous.com has to teach when it comes to women lifting weights - she's got a very good handle on how to do it right and I like her overall style.

hiking is really good for heart health.  for cardiovascular health, you must do cardio.  but for everything else (reduce fat, lose weight, increase muscle mass as you say) you can just lift weights.  you won't build a ton of muscle mass if you're eating less than maintenance calories, but you will build some.  and more importantly, muscle requires more calories to sustain, so you'll burn more calories even while you're sitting on the couch in front of the tv.

if i had a choice, i'd choose to lose fat.  and i'd do it w/intense strength training. 

Like Melkor said, weights, cardio, cardio, cardio.  But you pick the order as long as you don't leave any one of the four out.

WEIGHTS

One day I want to live in a world where women do lots of weights instead of the standard Shape workout of 90 minutes of cardio and the occassional 5lb weight fling. If I ever win Mrs. America, that's my speech

Thank you to all of you.  You have confirmed my thoughts.  I especially liked the article "4 things your girlfriend should know"  I have been counting my calories and the analysis of my diet has been an A so I think I'm doing the right thing.  Although I'm not sure I'm taking in enuf calories.  I'm burning more than I'm taking in tho.  I'm usually under 1100 and the calorie counter says I should be at 1600.  I don't think I'm in starvation mode cuz I'm eating several times a day.  Do I also need more calories?  I shudder to think so.

Looking forward to your replies, again.  Thanks

Your calorie needs depend a lot on your body size and activity level, but generally you shouldn't go below 1200 calories a day without medical supervision, and a deficit greater than 1000 calories a day tends to promote loss of muscle mass along with a general slowing of your metabolism.

 Obesity At 700 Calories Per Day lays it out for you in reasonable detail - the trick lies in eating less calories than you expend every day, but not so little that your metabolism starts slowing down to survive the famine situation that a too low-calorie diet resembles, and to do strength training to encourage your body to keep the muscle mass it has.

 'Course, every person is unique, and you need to find a mix of diet and exercise that you can sustain over the long haul as a lifestyle rather than as a 'quick fix'. But that mix should include some weight training as Spirochete says - it's especially important for women to lift heavy as it's the best way to strengthen your bones and avoid osteoporosis issues. (Not the only way, but so much better than the rest that there's really no contest)

 There's a lot of specific routines around that you can try, depending on which specific fitness qualities you want to develop. But if you learn what Krista of Stumptuous.com has to teach about the subject you'll be well equipped to evaluate any proposed routines in terms of how it will fit in with your specific goals :)

Thanks, again.  You sound very knowledgeable.  Are you a trainer or is your knowledge from reading and practice?  I have a small frame and will probably have a problem going over 1200 calories unless I binge.  Of course, I'm heading to Vegas for the weekend so hopefully I can keep everything in check!

 I'm strictly a well-read amateur doing the best I can to make sense of a very confusing area, glad to know I'm making sense to someone - 'cause a lot of the time every time I learn something new it contradicts everything I thought I knew :)

 Well - the basics haven't changed since Eugen Sandow wrote his first book in 1894 or even William Blaikie in 1879 but the fiddly details keep on changing all the time :)

 Well, the 80/20 Pareto principle applies here as well I think - 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Get the basics right first, the fiddly detail work won't make much of a difference until that's taken care of.

 Unfortunately, I don't think "What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas" applies to calories - but it's close to impossible to do permanent damage in the course of one weekend :)

 That said - I really think you should try increasing your calories to the level recommended by the CC tools. It's seriously hard to get all the nutrients you need in the course of a day if you go below the minimum, and having too large a deficit just makes your body hold on to everything it has. If you're small-framed enough that going below 1200 seems an option you really should see a nutritionist to plan out your food intake to get a proper nutrient balance.

melkor- You seem to know what you are talking about can you give me some advice on me and my moms daily program?

 Every day we do interval training on the stair climber for 25mins at a level 20(high intensity)... then do stomach focussing  on all different areas.. then we do either legs or arms.... we do squats lunges donkey kicks inner and outer side presses and calf lifts.. for arms we do lots of different lifts i think with the highest weight we can manage going to about 8-12 reps each set ... then after we do 20 minutes on the elliptical at a level 10 (moderate intensity)

 i feel like i am doing a lot of work but am now worried that it might be a waste of time, maybe there is something else i could be doing to see more results? i think right now i might be just maintaining when i'd like to be getting more toned?

advice would be greatly appreciated :)

It's not a waste of time to exercise - how productive it may be depends entirely on your fitness goals though.

 Your program seems fine from a general health/fitness perspective, but it may not be completely optimal for moving you in the specific direction you're thinking of. To get that 'toned' look you're probably going to be better off by switching around your program a little bit, and maybe tone down the cardio.

 Start with the weights each session, then do the cardio - weights can mostly only use glycogen for fuel, while cardio can use either glycogen or fat. So if you start with strength training and then do cardio, you'll have fully fuelled muscles for lifting, and your cardio will go straight to the fat reserves for energy.

 (Well, okay, the process is much more complicated than that of course, but I think that's a fairly accurate overview)

 You're also possibly overdoing the cardio if you want to see some muscle definition (what 'Shape' calls tone) - more than 90 minutes of cardio a week interferes with the process of building muscle. If your mom is still trying to lose some weight while you're trying to build a litte muscle your fitness goals aren't the same - so you may have to decide on a more individual program for each of you.

 Chad Waterbury has designed a program called Sexy Female Training that you may find useful in deciding how to best use your workout time to move you towards your specific fitness goals - if you follow along with his logic in the article you'll see what you can do to move your body in the direction you want it to go. 

Thanks thats helpful... I think we do have different work out goals but if i don't work out with her she won't work out and i'm willing to sacrafice my goals for a bit untill she gets to where she wants to be... maybe i can do some extra weight training at home .. i have weight etc.. i am going to try strength training first and then cardio though, sounds like a plan... and maybe i'll decrease the cardio abit too...

 thanks for the help..

Yeah, I see your point of helping your mom reach her goals as well - it's worth trying to keep our parents around when we've got the chance.

 One thing to keep in mind: If the both of you switch to doing the strength training first when you're energized and ready to work hard, you'll both reach your goals faster - strength training is more effective than cardio for fat loss. Just read the Cosgrove article I linked to at the top of this thread to see a detailed explanation of why :)

Hi Melkor,

The only comment I would have regarding Yoga, is that there is maximum benefit when it comes to stretching the muscle.  So, while not necessarily a tool for weight loss, it could be thought of as a tool to learn how to treat your body/muscles while participating in a  Weight Training regime.  (that some people fail to properly stretch before working out---thus Yoga can teach them this).

 Certainly - there's room for almost anything in a well-rounded fitness toolbox; and "Lift iron" isn't the answer to every question :)

 Anything that strengthens the mind/muscle connection will be valuable for that component alone, so as long as you're not looking for a weight loss mode of exercise, both yoga and pilates are good exercise systems. Weights are useful for many things, but getting a good stretch isn't one of them, and Pilates/Yoga is probably superior for balance work and general kinesthetic sense developement.

 It's a question of picking the right tool for the job you want to do :)

Another important benefit is body alignment.  With a good teacher, yoga can improve body alignment which protects against injuries in other activities. This can be particularly helpful for people who with back or joint issues. With a poor teacher, yoga is worse than nothing, more opportunity to injure things you wouldn't have thought of moving. 

The OP said that her goal was to build her strength back as quickly as possible, so weights would be the best and primary activity. Yoga/pilates with good teachers would be good secondary activities for flexibility/body alignment.