Team Beachbody ¡preestreno!Español Guest

Hi guys/gals in the advice staff gang,

First off, thanks for always being there to answer all our pesky questions. I know you must be swamped! So without further ado, here's mine:

I know that muscle burns more calories at rest than other body components. So it is a good idea to build muscle to increase your resting metabolic burn.

I know that cardio burns more calories during exerceise (usually) than weight training.

I know (I think) that the two, whilst not being entirely mutually exclusive, don't always work well togther, as muscle needs time to recover and build without being traumatised by so much cardio.

So here's what i don't know. My goal is to build some muscle, deninately build strength, but also to lose the extra fat. Would I best be served at this point by getting more cardio burn by doing the cardio intensely, and doing higher reps on weighted exercises to increase caloric expenditure?

OR use higher weights, lower reps, and weights on the leg exercises to build more muscle so I burn more calores 24/7?

My background - Female, 5'6", 163 lbs, finished endurance aerobic block training for a 6 hr triathlon. Now doing P90X (maybe 2 rounds) before going back into another triathlon training program for double distance.

Any help would be great, as I'm not sure what would be best for me at this point. I don't mind bulking up a bit muscle wise, for strength and burn reasons - not just for size.

Thanks!

I agree. It's really what you want to do, but in my opinion, it's all about balance and the two most definitely do work well together. Strength training builds muscle that allows you to push cardio harder and cardio builds up endurance that allows you to lift more. That's why P90x has a combo of cardio and strength training. I'd push them both as hard as you can. They shouldn't compete. That's part of the reason there strength workouts favor upper body, because the cardio in P90x tends to be lower-body-centric, so you don't want to be completely blowing out your legs all the time.

I feel it seems like I'm giving you an overly simple answer to a complex question, but this about sums it up. Is that what you were looking for?

I suppose #2 because it'll build bigger muscles, which require more calories to maintain, so you burn more calories just existing.