Reading time: 5 minutes Training
Three hours. That's all you get each week for training if you're like most people. Three precious hours to improve your body. To build capability. To get results. So why waste it on activities that only build half of what you need?
Calculate this: £47 monthly boutique gym membership. That's £564 a year on membership. Five years of consistent effort £2,820. Thousands of pounds are spent "getting fit." Now look in the mirror. Look at what basic life tasks still leave you struggling. Was it worth it?
Want to see something interesting? Watch a well-trained lifter perform a set of heavy squats. Their heart rate spikes higher than most cardio sessions. Their breathing gets just as heavy as any runner's. Their metabolism stays elevated longer than after steady-state cardio. But here's the difference they're also getting stronger.
Look around any fitness class. Watch the regulars who've been coming for years multiple times a week or even a day. They still stumble out looking destroyed after every session. Not because today's circuit was somehow harder than the thousands they've done before (you can only make a circuit so hard). Not because they're pushing new limits. But because their bodies have never actually adapted to anything.
Five years in, and they're still gasping for air, still wobbling on their feet, still needing two days to recover from every session. That's not dedication - that's proof that something's wrong. When you've done something 500 times and it's still the hardest thing you've ever done, you're not training - you're just repeatedly testing yourself.
This isn't about bashing cardio. It's about understanding a fundamental truth: strength training provides cardiovascular benefits, but cardio doesn't make you stronger. It's a one-way street.
Let's talk about what happens to your body when you train. Not the sweating. Not the soreness. The real adaptations that determine whether you're building something or just burning time.
Your Body After Strength Training: When you lift with real intensity, something remarkable happens. Your body gets the message: being weak isn't an option anymore. Every system adapts - not just your muscles. Your bones detect load and add density. Your hormonal system ramps up testosterone and growth hormone production. Your nervous system learns to generate more force. Even your tendons and ligaments strengthen to handle new demands.
This isn't just about getting stronger. It's about your body building capacity for everything. That elevated metabolism lasts for days, not minutes. Those neural adaptations carry over into every movement you make. That bone density might save you from a broken hip at 80.
Your Body After Only Cardio: When you do nothing but cardio, your body gets a different message: do more with less. Less muscle. Less strength. Less overall capacity. Sure, your heart gets better at pumping blood, but to what end? To maintain a body that's efficient at being weak?
Think about survival. Not the metaphorical kind - actual physical survival. When has being able to run slowly for a long time ever been more valuable than being strong enough to handle whatever comes your way? Your ancestors didn't survive because they could jog - they survived because they could exert force when it mattered.
The Performance Reality: Watch any high-level athlete train. Even endurance athletes lift weights. Why? Because they understand that strength underpins everything. You can build endurance on top of strength, but you can't build strength through endurance. That's not an opinion - it's basic physiology.
A strong runner can always build endurance. A well-conditioned but weak person? Their lack of strength will always limit them. It's that simple.
The Aging Factor: Here's what nobody tells you about getting older: you don't lose endurance capacity nearly as fast as you lose strength. But guess what predicts quality of life in your later years? It's not your 5k time. It's your strength.
Your ability to get up from a chair. To catch yourself when you trip. To carry your groceries.
The Recovery Truth: People worry that strength training is too demanding. That it requires too much recovery. But here's the reality: proper strength training three times a week is enough to transform your body. Compare that to the 5-6 weekly cardio sessions most people need. Which one respects your time and recovery?
Every training session either builds something or depletes something. Strength training builds: more muscle, denser bones, better movement patterns, and higher metabolism. Traditional cardio mostly depletes: burning calories, reducing muscle mass, and teaching your body to do less with less, athletes know this, bodybuilders know this, and Gen Pop doesn't, strength will make you better at running but running won't get you stronger or more often than not better at even running, Strength Always Wins
This isn't about never doing cardio. It's about understanding what builds lasting capability and what just makes you temporarily tired. Those three precious hours a week you have for training? They should build something that carries over into everything else you do.
Your Next Decision: You can spend the next year getting better at being tired, or you can start building strength that changes everything else. Your body doesn't care about your preferences - it adapts to what you demand of it.
Demand more than just endurance. Build something worth maintaining.
Your next training session either builds lasting strength or just makes you temporarily tired. Which will it be?
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