Does Cardio Improve Your Strength?
Cardio Can Help You Get Stronger, but There's 1 Caveat, According to This Exercise Physiologist
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In order to build muscle and increase your strength, weightlifting should absolutely be part of your workout routine. There are a variety of ways to build muscle, and most experts recommend following a program that focuses on muscle hypertrophy, which simply means maximal muscle growth.
To format your workouts, aim to perform three to five sets of 12 to 15 reps, Rondel King, MS, CSCS, an exercise physiologist at NYU Langone's Sports Performance Centre, told POPSUGAR in a previous interview.
As for specific exercises, you should incorporate compound exercises, such as deadlifts, into your routine because they require more energy to perform, which means your body will burn more calories. Compound exercises are also great to do because they work multiple groups of muscle at once as opposed to isolated exercises like a triceps extension.
Another important thing to note is that you'll need to make sure you're eating enough in order to build muscle. The exact amount of food you'll need to eat will vary person to person, but this guide will help you calculate your daily caloric intake to build muscle and lose fat.
Bottom line: if you're a beginner, cardio can help you increase your strength, but if your ultimate goal is to build muscle and get stronger, you've got to hit the weights. To get started strength training, check out these workouts: