I don’t think it’s as much the specific exercises, but rather the way you organize your workout that matters.
To burn fat, you want to elevate your heart rate a little more than you do with a more conventional resistance workout. You can integrate a lot of movement into your routine and eliminate rest breaks to do that.
Here’s what you should do. First, you warm up with five to ten minutes on either an elliptical or rowing machine to get your heart rate up. If you rode my bike instead of driving to the YMCA where you work out, skip this. Then you have to do supersets of four or six different exercises, with at least one of them being a loaded carry.
For example, Farmers’ Walk is around the 200-yard indoor track. You can go directly from one exercise to another with minimal rest, taking only as much time as it takes to wipe down the equipment you are leaving. Then you should set up the next piece of equipment, dry your hands, and maybe take a sip of water.
You have to repeat the superset three times, aiming to complete all three in a half hour. When you consider that there’s going to be 600 to 1200 yards of walking, plus 3 sets of 4 or 5 other exercises, and if you do that, then it is a pretty aggressive target. If you are doing a full hour, you will do another superset with different exercises, including a different loaded carry (e.g., Waiter’s Walk or any of several other walking dumbbell exercises).
Complications
One minor problem with this style of workout is that other people are competing for time on the same equipment, so when you come back for the second or third set on that equipment, it might be occupied.
Then you can go out of order to the next piece of equipment and try to come back to the one you skipped, or you can substitute a different exercise.
Muscle Building
You cannot build appreciable amounts of muscle mass from running. You might see a bit of leg growth if you were settled before, but if you already were working your legs in the gym, you’ll probably lose size from running.
For upper body muscle, running will do nothing beneficial and get in the way through hormonal interference. If you want to gain muscle, lift.
Strength Gaining
Again, if you are at a deficient level, running might make your legs stronger. But not much. To get healthy, you are going to need to lift. It can be bodyweight movements, but weights are generally better. I like being healthy. I’m not that strong yet, but I’m a lot stronger than I was, and it’s a good feeling.
Less Risk Of Injury
You can still get injured lifting weights, but roughly 65โ80% of runners are injured every year. The best way to prevent running injuries? Lifting weights is safer as long as you aren’t an idiot about it.
More Variety
Running is typically like distance run, intervals, fartlek, sprints, hill sprints, long-run repeat. You can do it by putting one of your feet in front of the other at alternating velocities. That’s it.
Lifting is a lot more complex, and I’ve read thousands of hours about both, so don’t even try to debate me on this. Lifting has many more variables to consider and a lot more variety of movements.
