Got a reader email this morning:
Maybe you've mentioned this on the blog at some point when I wasn't payingattention, but I can't recall seeing it.
Since I joined the Y six weeksago, everywhere I go, I hear about the importance of strength training.How, with only cardio, people get skinny-fat and have high body fat percentages because they're burned muscle along with fat. Do you incorporate strength training into your workouts? How so?
So, my answer is "not really, but kind of sort of." Here's what I wrote back:
One of the reason I chose swimming as my main form of exercise (besides the fact that, compared to running, it's more fun) is that swimming is inherently strengthening — at least somewhat — because you're always moving against theresistance of the water.
Swimming is not great cardio, and it's not great strength-training (it's probably insufficient for warding off osteoporosis because it doesn't load the bones along their lengths), but it's one of the few things you can do that combine both pretty well.
Like my reader, I have small kids and not tons of time. At this time in my life I can't imagine going to the gym for "just weights." I feel like I need to do cardio every time I have a chance to go to the gym. So, the short answer is that I don't do *separate* strength training,but I always swim once or twice a week. That being said, when I am ready to make weightlifting a priority, the first place I should start is in bone-loading exercises, because that's what my routine is missing. (I do get impact workouts from running once a week.)
If you, like me, are attracted by multitasking exercise, there are at least two other things you can do at the Y that incorporate both cardio and strength training. These are the kettlebells classes and the Body Pump classes (Body Pump is sort of aerobics-with-barbells). Fitness Yoga is a fun entry-level class that is surprisingly grueling, even if it only uses bodyweight.
Another alternative if you use cardio machines is to design a workout that incorporates weight machines and cardio — either some kind of circuit training, or steal a little time from your cardio workout to use weight machines at the beginning and/or end. If I were going to go that route I'd probably sign up for a personal training session to help me figure out the most efficient use of my time. I hear it is money well spent, and you may well be able to snag a free personal training session during member appreciation events.
If you want to read a really great site about strength training, particularly for women, I totally recommend Mistress Krista's enormous site at www.stumptuous.com . Very empowering, logical, evidence-based, and no-nonsense — if you like the way I write, I think you'll like her, probably even more! Check out her articles on free weights especially, for example her series on the squat — here's Part 2, "Why Squat?"
Side note: Now that I've been over to Mistress Krista's, I feel shame at having neglected weight bearing exercise and must go flagellate myself, perhaps with a kettlebell. Fortunately, I know darn well that I don't have time today, so swimming during my daughter's swim lesson will have to be it…
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