How many times should cardio and strength exercise a week?

Exercise is a body need that cannot be replaced by anything. It is recommended that it is recommended for every healthy person to exercise for at least 30 minutes each day. However, you certainly can't do it carelessly so that you can reap the maximum benefits. A good exercise routine should ideally consist of cardio and exercise strength training (muscle and bone strength training). So, how do you set it up? How many times do cardio and exercise strength training of the week?

Cardio exercise and strength training have different benefits

Cardio exercise is a sport where the movements are repeated regularly over a period of time. Examples are jumping rope, walking, jogging, and cycling. Usually a physical activity is said to be cardio if it is done for at least 10 minutes.

Cardio exercise is good for improving and maintaining a healthy heart and lungs. The heart and lungs are made up of muscles that have to keep moving to get stronger. When the heart and lung muscles are strong, the blood vessels can flow more and more oxygenated blood to the muscle cells.

This makes the muscle cells burn more fat during exercise even when you're done exercising afterward. The more intense the cardio you do regularly, the more calories you burn. Cardio routines can also help reduce the risk of heart attack, prevent high cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and prevent diabetes and cancer.

Meanwhile strength training is a type of sport whose main purpose is to build, grow, and strengthen the muscles of the body. Having strong muscles will reduce your risk of injury and falls, both during sports and during normal activities.

Strength training also useful for building and maintaining bone strength and increasing metabolism. If your metabolism works faster and more efficiently, you will burn body fat faster, which will help you lose weight faster.

Examples of sports included strength training are lifting weights, squats, as well as sit-ups and push-ups.

Why should it be combined?

Cardio and strength training have different effects but are both required by the body. That's why we are ideally advised to do both to achieve the benefits of a complete body fitness.

Continuously doing just one type of exercise means that you only focus on training one particular part of your body. For example, by running, you will only train and strengthen your leg muscles but not your arms and stomach. This method is less effective for maintaining fitness.

Just doing cardio every day will stress the network you are continually exercising on. An increase in the stress hormone cortisol can actually cause the body to store more fat in the stomach. Therefore, for those of you who want to lose belly fat and lose weight, you should combine cardio with exercise strength training like lifting weights.

Strength training will increase the calories burned from cardio because after you exercise, the muscles will need a lot of energy to repair fiber. Penn State research reports that adding strength training to your weekly exercise regime can burn 3 kilograms more fat than aerobic exercise alone (which is a type of cardio exercise).

How many times do cardio and strength training should be done per week?

We are encouraged to regularly exercise cardio at least 20-30 minutes for 3-6 days a week. While exercising strength or muscle strength should be done 2-3 days per week.

Even so, the duration of strength training can be different for each person seen from the number of reps per one set (how many repetitions). Ideally, you should do a minimum of 1-3 sets per day, with 8-12 reps per set.

Basically, the sports needs of each person must be different depending on the abilities of each body and personal goals. Then it's how many times exercise cannot be equated for everyone.

If you are among those who are just starting to exercise, start with the "package" that is the least bit first. For example, your cardio choice is jogging and your strength training choice is sit-ups. Well, first get used to jogging routine for 20 minutes for 3 days a week and 1 set of sit-ups with 8 reps for 2 days per week.

When you get used to it, you can gradually increase the duration, frequency, and number of sets yourself.