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With so much drama in the gym you see,
It’s kinda hard to be liftin’ weights like a g,
But I somehow someway,
Keep adding up 5 more pounds like every single day..
– Snoop (probably)
If you wish, you can grab the N.W.A. Newsletter Playlist on Spotify here, all of the songs that have been featured in the newsletter are on the playlist.
Happy Friday, Coach J here from Anyman Fitness – and welcome to the latest edition of The N.W.A. Newsletter.
Each Friday’s N.W.A. Newsletter will have 3 parts:
- A Nutritional Tip to help make your diet healthier and easier to stick to.
- A Workout Tip to help make your training sessions more effective and fun.
- An Attitude/Mindset tip to help you strengthen your greatest asset – your mental toughness.
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I will also give you my single favorite piece of social media content from AF over the past week and link to it on either Instagram or Twitter.
Without any further ado… let’s get started, shall we?
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N.W.A. Training Tip of The Week
A few weeks back, I went viral on TikTok, and a video I made got over 1.6 million views.
The video was about how to start a cardio regimen for fat loss if you’re a beginner – you can check it out here if you’d like.
And of course, social media did what social media does – and lots of people in the comments told me that “lifting weights is better for fat loss than cardio is”.
The funny thing is, the video wasn’t about lifting weights, it was about doing cardio, but hey, that’s the way it goes when something goes viral.
There’s always going to be someone interjecting their opinion and being “Mr. (or Mrs.) Smarty-Pants”…
But let’s talk about this – what is actually better for your fat loss goals?
Cardio or lifting weights?
Before we really look at the numbers, understand I will always tell you lifting weights and getting stronger is the most important form of exercise you can do for your long term health and fitness.
Bar none.
If someone held a hypothetical gun to your head and said you can only choose 1 option – weights or cardio – for the rest of your life, you should choose weights 10 out of 10 times.
There are a myriad of reasons for this…
The biggest being if you’re trying to lose weight, and you only do cardio, about 1/2 of the weight you lose is going to come from your muscle.
This is a big reason traditional “yo-yo” dieting is so damaging to the metabolism.
Without lifting weights, if you lose 50 pounds, you can expect 25 pounds of muscle to be lost.
This is very damaging to your metabolism – which makes it much easier to regain the weight in the future.
Let’s say you regain the 50 pounds…
And then you try to diet the 50 pounds off again…
Since your metabolism is now lower than what it was the first time you dieted, it’s going to be even harder to lose the weight this time around.
Many people rinse and repeat this cycle many times during their lifetimes, totally destroying their long term metabolism and making weight gain almost inevitable.
There are lots of other benefits to strength training as well…
- Protects you from falls as you age
- Protects your joints, tendons, and ligaments from strains and tears
- Makes daily tasks easier
- Keeps your insulin sensitivity high
- Gives you confidence
- Helps you look better naked (very important!)
But what about pure fat loss?
Does lifting weights truly burn more calories than cardio does?
Actually… no.
The facts are facts – acutely, doing cardio actually burns more calories than strength training does – by a pretty good margin.
By “acutely”, I mean “in the moment”.
Long term, lifting weights is going to build muscle.
Which in turn is going to build your metabolism.
Which makes it easier to lose weight in the future, and remain lean.
So, in that sense, weight training may be superior.
But for a flat out “calorie burn” scenario, cardio beats strength training.
Here are the numbers…
A 45 minute strength training session will burn around 100-200 calories.
A 45 minute cardio session will burn around 350-400 calories.
As you can see, minute-for-minute, cardio actually does burn more calories than strength training does.
So, what’s my recommendation?
In our coaching program, we rarely prescribe “cardio” to clients in the traditional sense (running, elliptical, HIIT sessions, etc).
But we do highly recommend the simple act of getting your steps up (aka, “walking more”).
Walking is far and away the most effective form of “cardio” there is (if you can even call it that).
Most of us are very sedentary overall.
We sit a lot, we tend to use computers for our work, and we don’t get as much movement as we should.
Scheduling time to simply walk is going to have enormous benefits, and it will boost your metabolism considerably, making it much easier to lose body fat.
If you can get your steps into the 8k-10k range, you’re doing yourself a massive favor and you’ll lose fat much more quickly as a result.
The best part of walking is that it won’t get in the way of your strength training results.
Anyone can do it, and it doesn’t require any “recovery” at all.
This is very important when dieting.
You should be lifting weights with intensity, and getting stronger should be your primary goal.
Performing traditional cardio such as jogging could impact your recovery, making it more difficult to gain strength.
In summary, lifting weights is easily the best exercise you can do to improve and maintain your health.
But if you can fit lifting weights and a simple walking regimen into your routine, even better.
3-4 strength training workouts combined with 8-10k steps of walking per day is a guaranteed recipe for long term fat loss, health, and longevity.
N.W.A. Mindset Tip of The Week
My 13 year old is trying to “level up” in her volleyball career.
Last year was her first year of organized volleyball, and her first year on a “travel” team.
She improved tremendously over the course of the year.
It was obvious watching her – as the weeks went by, she got better and better.
We were very proud of her – she’s a hard worker and she practiced non-stop for about 6 straight months.
After the season was over, we chatted about the next steps.
She told us she wanted to try to play for a different travel team – one that is definitely at a higher level than per previous team.
In fact, the program she wants to play for is the #2 amateur volleyball program in the state…
She recently started attending camps put on by this new program.
After the first day, she came home and went directly to her room.
When my wife went up to her room to tell her dinner was ready, she found my daughter crying in her room by herself.
We asked her what was wrong and she said, “The other girls were so much better than me…”
My heart went out to her, but this was very natural and very normal.
I cracked my knuckles… it was time for a “Dad talk”…
This is what I told her…
There are a LOT of people out there in the world who never attempt to “level up”.
And that’s because leveling up is scary – and it’s humbling as well.
When you try to level up, you’re going to quickly realize that you’re now at the bottom of the totem pole.
You’re no longer the “big stud” you thought you were.
I’ve been through this before myself.
When I was her age, I “leveled up” from my neighborhood baseball team to a travel team, similar to what my daughter is going through.
On my old neighborhood team, I was the “big stud”.
I was the best pitcher, I started at first base, and I batted 4th.
And on my new, travel team, I sat the bench for pretty much every game in my first year playing.
That was a tough pill to swallow…
I clearly remember my Dad driving me home from (yet another) game where I didn’t play.
I stared out the window in shame, my eyes welling up with tears.
I felt bad for my Dad – he had to go to all these games and watch me sit the bench…
But I’ll never forget what he told me.
He said to keep at it, and not let the situation get me down.
He told me to keep working hard, and be patient, and I would get my chance one day.
It was “fluff talk”, for sure, but it was the message I needed to hear.
That year, in the championship game, our best pitcher got knocked out of the game, and my number got called.
I went into the game in the 4th inning with the bases loaded and nobody out.
I only allowed 1 run to score in the 4th inning, I shut the other team down the rest of the game, and we ended up winning the championship.
The following year, I was a starting pitcher.
And by the time I graduated high school, I had a state championship ring and a D1 college baseball scholarship under my belt.
But enough about me – back to my daughter…
I hugged her and told her to keep her head up.
I told her this is how it works when you try to level up.
I told her the girls she was up against had been playing for this elite club for the last 4 years, and she had only been playing volleyball for 1 year.
Then, I told her the most important part…
I told her when you level up, you have to be okay with sucking at first.
It’s a part of the game.
When you try to get to another level, you are be the “new girl” all over again – there is no way around it.
But you will get better if you keep working hard.
You will improve more quickly if you’re around higher quality players, too.
You’ll gain more confidence, and eventually, you’ll be at their level, hopefully.
It’s just going to take some time.
That seemed to snap her out of her funk.
She immediately started looking at the calendar for more clinics to attend at the new program – she wasn’t going to shy away.
She’s going to meet this challenge head on, and not back down.
Attagirl…
Some people never try to level up.
It’s quite the humbling experience.
Some people are totally content with staying at the exact level they’re at.
They never even try to go for that new promotion, that new job, that new business venture, or go say hello to that pretty girl they’re interested in.
And that’s no way to go through life.
If you never try to level up, you will never reach your full potential.
So, even if it means you might suck at first…
Go for it.
What’s the worst that could happen?
One Favorite Social Media Post Of The Week:
One of the simplest ways to stay on track on the weekend is to eat the same as you did on the weekdays.
It might be a bit “boring”, but it works great.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of the Anyman Fitness N.W.A. Newsletter.
I’ll be back next week.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Best,
Coach J
Anyman Fitness
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Speaking of 7th grade, this was the song back then.
All of us had our Discman’s with this bad boy bumping through our ear drums…