by Kevin Bahler

Created on: August 23, 2008   Last Updated: September 16, 2008

Say you want to turn your life around and start exercising, but you're not sure if you should lift weights or do cardio. The correct answer is both. Weight training and cardio exercise are equally important for healthy living.

The two kinds of exercises have different purposes, so you should know what you want and do the exercise that helps. There are a lot of popular beliefs about what results to expect, but you can figure out what is right if you just remember the golden rule of training: You do what you train to do.

Lifting weights will strengthen your muscles. Put high weight with low reps into your weight training routine and you will increase your strength. If you lift lots of weight, you will be able to lift more weight.

If you go the opposite route and lift low weight with lots of reps, you will increase your muscular endurance. Remember, you are training to lift a little weight a lot of times, so you will be able to lift a little weight even more times. Many people think that this exercise will tone your arms. That's just not true. Tone comes from losing fat, and that comes from cardio.

If you want weight loss, you want cardio. Cardio exercises get the heart beating faster. To do that, the body needs to burn fuel and the lungs need lots of oxygen. Running is a great form of cardio. If you are worried about your knees, bike riding and swimming are also great and easier on the joints.

Now, you may be thinking that you can kill two birds with one stone by doing cardio and lifting weights at the same time. Don't do it. Lifting weights breaks down your muscle and rebuilds it stronger. Cardio uses the muscles to strengthen the heart. You can't do them at the same time without hurting yourself.

If you want to reach your personal training goals, keep cardio and lifting separate. Do cardio on whatever days you don't lift. If you need to do them on the same day, do cardio first and put a few hours of rest in before lifting weights.

Learn more about this author, Kevin Bahler.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.