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Skipping cardio certainly won't turn you into a body builder nor make you look "big"... It takes significantly more than just lifting weights, 90% is your diet, caloric intake and macronutrient composition, which together play the biggest role here. Compare two genetically similar individuals, both lift weights 3x / week, one regularly consumes a 1000 caloric surplus, and the other consumes their daily caloric requirement. The outcome will be quite different. If you play sports that last more than about 30 seconds, they can provide you with the adequate amounts of cardio you seek. If you play competitively, adding cardio may be a good idea. Cardio is for health and endurance, if you want to run marathons or cycle, then yes, you should include more cardio. Otherwise, weightlifting adequately stresses your heart. Go deadlift 300lbs and tell me your heart isn't going nuts. If you want to get in shape, regular exercise with an emphasis on weight lifting and proper nutrition will get you where you'd like to go. At rest, muscle burns significantly more calories than fat, you don't need to cake on lean muscle to benefit from this, either. You only exercise for an hour or so, I'd rather work to build something in that hour that burns calories for the other 23. Now with all that said, I personally try to do both, my cardio comes in the form of Squash on days I do not lift weights. I despise the treadmill zombie. |
Your heart will certainly go nuts. But deadlifting won't enable your heart to keep going at 80% for 5 minutes straight unless you do some 1x100@100lb crossfit style deadlifting.
I strongly recomment weight lifting for most people. I'm only suggesting that out of 5 days, do 3 weight and 2 cardio days. And yes, the cardio days should probably be squash, heavy bag or football rather than the treadmill.