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Combine weight training with running to accelerate fat loss

Learn how you can combine weight training with running to accelerate your fat loss and get into shape even faster.

Why running is not enough

As mentioned previously, running is an excellent form of exercise to get into shape fast.

But one of the negative things about running is that it targets primarily the muscles of your lower body (quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves) in addition to your core muscles (hips, abs, and lower back) and spine.

While your shoulders and biceps might get involved a bit in your running motion, they don’t really get that much work.

This means that running does not provide you with enough upper body training other than the training of your core muscles. Here is where weight training comes in.

The benefits of adding weight training to your workouts

Adding a few weight training workouts to your running workouts will provide you with the following benefits:

1. Increase the balance between muscles in your upper body with those in your lower body.
2. Increase the amount of muscle mass on your body, which means that you’ll be maintaining and/or increasing your BMR, which in turn will allow you to burn more calories at rest.

The only catch is that you must make sure to give your body enough rest between your running workouts and your weight training workouts, so that you don’t wind up in a state of overtraining.

You should also aim to build muscle during your weight training workouts instead of endurance. This means that your reps should be in the 6-10 rep range with fairly heavy weights to exhaust your muscles.

The effects of weight training vs. running on burning fat

You might be wondering, why not only weight train if it increases your BMR, which will eventually lead to weight loss anyway?

While weight training is an excellent form of exercise to give shape to your body and add muscle mass, it is less suitable to get – and keep – your heart rate in the right zone to lose fat. Remember, fat metabolism requires oxygen. Weight training will cause you to gasp for air in intervals, mostly immediately after performing a set of reps for an exercise.

While your heart rate may rise for a while to provide your body with more blood and thus oxygen, it will only last for a short period of time. Contrast that with cardio exercise such as running where you can usually maintain the exercise for a prolonged period of time and keep your heart rate in the optimum zone for burning fat.

Final words

If you’re still not convinced that combining weight training with running is an excellent weight loss strategy, I can add that it will also cut through getting bored from doing the same exercise over and over again. I don’t know about you, but I like variety, and variety keeps your body off-guard; don’t forget that your body is a very smart machine. Now go for it!