Weights

Weights develop and build muscle; with a good weights routine you can also work the full mobilisation of joints and muscles from each and every angle!

You can achieve things you quite simply can’t achieve on the treadmill. Weights give you a large metabolic spike after training and this lasts for

hours afterwards, even the recovery and repair process of the muscles burns calories too. The more muscle you can get, in theory, the more efficient your

body will become at burning fat. Weight training is also very good as working out a specific area of the body and allows you to target specific muscle

groups. You can alternate between quick repetitive sets, with a short amount of rest, through to the other extreme of exercising just one rep max exercises.

Cardio

Cardio allows your body to maximise calorie burn, remember; the key to losing FAT is to exercise at least 30 minutes a minimum of 3 times a week, with

cardio workouts you can simply increase the intensity and/or duration of a session. A short intense session may burn as much as a long steady session.

It’s true that weight training boosts metabolism afterwards, but cardio works in much the same way, and takes hours for your metabolism to return to its

normal level.

A great thing about cardio is all you need is a good pair of trainers so some may argue; it’s easier and cheaper to get a good workout done.
Bottom line is both Weights and Cardio have their advantages but to get any sort of progress I’d recommend planning your goals and deciding you want from

your fitness routine. You’re not going to become Arnold Schwarzenegger over night but it’s important to have a balanced training program as far too much of

one over the other won’t be ideal. A balanced routine is what you’ll see most benefit from.

If you fancy a good run this weekend and you are in or around London, why not check out the 2008 London Tree-Athlon being held this weekend, Saturday 20th September 2008 in Battersea Park, it's also good for the environment

as you get your very own tree sibling to plant and helps fund raising efforts for “trees in cities", which can only be a good thing.

Over the weekend I managed to keep my training routine and have incorporated my dumbbell training into a daily schedule. And I've actually started noticing physical differences, I certainly seem to be getting more "cut".

I am lucky and have a very high metabolism due to my swimming career early on in my life, so the running I am doing 3 times a week is certainly helping to build up a sweat and get my fitness levels up, but once I'm home after my run I'm doing the following sets standing:

25 x Alternate Dumbbell Curls }
12 x Dumbbell Flies } x 3
20 x Dumbbell Shoulder Press }

Between each of these sets I'm doing 25 controlled press ups on the dumbbells.

After these 3 sets I'll do a sit up routine as I'm looking to get a define and cut six pack by September and at the end of the sit ups I'll do another 25 press ups on the dumbbells to make a total of 100.

I will write up my sit up routine later this week as the explanation may require pictures or videos.

I'm also really enjoying access to www.gyminee.com at the moment so I can track my fitness goals and targets, also log pictures to track progress! If you like you can add me as a gyminee.com buddy! My username is "Swimace".