Research Corner - Q&A Aerobic vs. Weight Training by Jeff Thaxton | Date Released : 02 Jun 2006 7 comments Print Close Question: Most of my clients aim to lose body fat. I’ve been told that aerobic training and weight training are not compatible as one is aerobic and the other is anaerobic. As a result, these cancel each other out. Is this true? And if so, why? Which is better for aiding in fat loss? Answer: Aerobic training and weight training are not compatible only if the main goal of a client is to gain muscle. The aerobic training makes it harder to build mass. Aerobic training and weight training are both important for the goal of fat loss. In fact, weight training may actually be more important than cardio to lose fat for a few main reasons. When someone is performing cardio for an extended time, he or she is burning a significant amount of calories during the workout. However, once the cardio is stopped, the calorie burning soon slows down and returns to a resting state, usually within 30 minutes. During weight training, people are burning an increased amount of calories, but more importantly, they continue burning more calories for up to two hours after their workouts, according to studies done at John Hopkins University. This is commonly referred to as “the afterburn” and occurs because the body is breaking down muscle (a process called catabolism) during weight lifting. The body then needs to repair this broken down muscle (a process called anabolism) and build itself stronger. These processes require the body to burn a lot of calories, so even when your clients are sitting down and watching TV after their workouts, they will be burning more calories. At rest, your body burns about five calories per day to maintain one pound of body fat. At rest, your body burns about 50 calories per day to maintain one pound of lean body mass (muscle). This illustrates how significantly one’s metabolism is increased by having more muscle. The more muscle one has, the higher his or her metabolism will be. A common myth is that weight lifting will cause female clients to get bigger. As long as they lift lighter weights and do more repetitions, they will just get more tone and lean. Lean muscle actually takes up less space than fat does. A good rule to follow is to have them perform 12 to 15 repetitions with a weight they can lift that many times but become fatigued by the last few reps. Start with one set for deconditioned clients and progress to two or three sets. Performing cardio after weight lifting helps burn some more calories and helps rid the body of lactic acid (which causes people to get sore after a workout). Recent studies have also shown that performing cardio immediately after a weight lifting workout can increase the percentage of fat calories burned during the cardio routine. Back to top About the author: Jeff Thaxton Jeff Thaxton is a Certified Personal Trainer by the American Council on Exercise. He earned a BS degree in Exercise Science at Eastern Washington University in 2001 and has continuing education certifications in human movement, advanced program design, nutrition for special populations, counseling for health and fitness professionals, overcoming fitness plateaus and others. He is the owner of an in home personal training business called Fit for Life, and he has volunteer experience in physical therapy clinics and cardiopulmonary units. Full Author Details Related content Content from Jeff Thaxton Running vs Walking a Mile Bob Seebohar | Articles Guidelines for Anaerobic Testing Randy Dreger | Articles Preparation for Aerobic Fitness Testing Randy Dreger | Articles Weights vs. Cardio for Weight Loss Dr. Rob Orr | Articles What is the Fat Burning Zone? 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For a start: "they will just get more tone and lean". Tone short for tonus has a specific meaning in exercise science: its the firmness of any given muscle when you arent deliberately flexing it. Tonus improves when you train with weights, but its not anything you can see. Toning is used in books and magazines catering to women who perceive the idea that by using very light weights and high reps that they will somehow make their muscles look better without making them bigger. If weights are unchallenging for example too light which usually happens when women train, then muscle wont grow. if your muscles dont grow, they wont look any better than they did before even if you could strip the fat off that sits on top. With or without excess fat, your body simply will not look healthy and fit without well trained muscle tissue.Women should not be worried of bulking up as it is very difficult for most men let alone women to bulk up and we have more chance due to our hormonal advantage. Reply Morley, Tom | 18 Sep 2010, 21:30 PM I have to agree with the above comment by Chris. This article is outdated. Soreness is NOT the primary cause of lactic acid. Unless the exercise is extreme, almost all of lactic acid buildup is eliminated within about one minute of the last rep during hard resistance training. I'm sure the exercise physiologist guys can back me up on this. I am also not in agreement with the fact that a person should do cardio after a workout. Reply Muhlethaler, Martine | 04 Aug 2010, 07:55 AM Great article that I am going to give to my female clients. Telling them to perform weight training is sometimes not enough to convince them. Hopefully now they will be convinced!!!Martine Reply Magedera, Carl | 15 Jun 2010, 20:23 PM It would be interesting to see research on propensity to build muscle dependent on female somatypes rather than blanket saying that endurance level weights of 12-15 reps. Even though this is a seems a wise rule of thumb it doesn't inspire confidence for ladies to experience smaller rep ranges and heavier weights if their ultimate goal is to loose more body fat more quickly. Reply kennedy, james | 27 Dec 2009, 13:12 PM I can't say i fully agree with this article Reply Block, Chris | 06 Dec 2009, 10:36 AM This article is outdated and once again assumes that if women lift heavy weight they will "bulk up". The author tries to discount this myth, but then goes on to say you need to stay in a high rep range to get toned. He basically just fed himself right into the Myth! Endurance training is not the SAME as toning Reply Mytton, Troy | 25 Nov 2009, 19:22 PM Does Lactic Acid really cause muscle soreness? Reply Back to top