How to combine aerobics and strength training?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2012-12-09

Let's start with the fact that combining aerobics with strength training is necessary in two cases:

Either you intend to lose weight overall.
Or you want to make your body more defined.

If your goal is to gain mass, then aerobics is unnecessary, and you can skip this article. ))

Those who have read many of my articles know that strength training does not promote fat burning. However, it develops your muscles well. At the same time, aerobics will not give the needed volume to your muscles but is excellent for burning fat. That is why if you want to achieve a defined and beautiful body, you need to combine these two types of physical activity.

Personally, I distinguish three ways to combine these types of workouts.

The first option – complete separation

This means that you perform aerobics and strength training on different days. For example, you "work out" on Monday and Thursday. Then you do aerobics on Tuesday and Friday. This option is feasible for those who have enough free time. You do not cram everything into "one heap," but space out different workloads over different days. This way, you can train more often.

The second option – partial separation

In this scenario, you first do strength training, and then immediately afterward, you perform aerobic exercise. This option suits those with much less free time. However, I advise using it only if you cannot do everything separately (if you don't have enough time). Additionally, in this case, you won't be able to train often because it will take a long time to recover after these workouts.

The third option – no separation

This is the so-called strength aerobics. That is a workout that is something between aerobics and strength training. A good example of this is circuit training. For example – Circuit training workout routine.

In other words, you train with dumbbells, barbells, and machines, but you do it in a very intense manner. This increases your heart rate and effectively converts (in this way) strength load into aerobic. The weights you use prevent your muscles from wearing out. Thus, you get two in one, and the need to separate loads disappears.

Conclusions

Which of these options is better? It's hard to say 100%. But I personally prefer the first option the most. As practice shows, it’s more effective for weight loss to train less but more frequently. And with the second option, it is impossible to achieve that.

I personally advise beginners to start with the first option. Then, either switch to the third or stay with the first. It depends on the circumstances and individual features of your body. Good luck!