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Q: If I am not doing cardiovascular exercises, will strength training exercises give me any results?

- B. Ferguson, - Mission Viejo, CA

A: Absolutely, if you're not doing any cardio exercise but continue to strength train with weights, then you should see results. Strength training is extremely important to build a lean body and drop fat.

Studies have estimated that for each pound of muscle that you add to your body, you burn an additional 35 to 50 calories per day. So, an extra 10 pounds of muscle will burn approximately 350 to 500 calories a day, or an extra pound of fat every 7 to 10 days, without making any other changes. In another study, researchers found that regular weight training boosts basal metabolic rate by about 15%. This is because muscle is 'metabolically active ' and burns more calories than other body tissue even when you're not moving.

Depending on your goal, I would suggest a well-rounded workout with adding some form of cardio exercise. Cardio helps burn more calories and fat. Other benefits of cardio are that it boosts your metabolism, improves endurance, increases energy and is beneficial to heart strength.

If your main goal is to get lean, jogging/running is one of the best forms of burning serious calories and dropping body fat. However, if your goal were to add muscle mass, then I would recommend cutting back on your cardio and focusing on weight training to add mass and strength.

Another way to incorporate cardio into your plan is to mix it into your weight-training schedule. You can do 45 minutes of weight training followed by 20-30 minutes of cardio work consisting of any type of cardio exercises to burn calories (moderate to intense). Treadmill work, stair mills, elliptical training work very well.

Again depending on your goal, if this conflicts a little with your weight training sessions, you can limit the cardio work to 3 days per week either incorporating it on the same day of your weight training or alternate your cardio between your weight training days. This should produce great results!

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