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by hellofunk 3997 days ago
Weight lifting is rarely a sustained form of heightened heart activity in the way the other examples are. Yes it works your heart, but there are usually many relatively motionless pauses between short sets, as opposed to the constant push on your heart that accompanies more traditional forms of cardio work. Not a knock against weight lifting, just emphasizing a different type of heart activity.
2 comments
merpnderp 3997 days ago
Aren't those pauses usually people standing around trying to catch their breath, with their pulses coming down from the 180 they hit while doing a set?

Isn't weight lifting more like doing a 40m sprint, then slowly walking back to do it again?

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hellofunk 3997 days ago
My recommendation to the OP, since it was asked, is to engage in sustained cardiovascular activity, where the heart rate is elevated at a consistent rate. I'm not saying weight lifting doesn't have its strengths (no pun intended!) but it's not the type of cardio activity that I'm suggesting, for the same reason as what you've just mentioned: the idea is not to push your heart to an extreme and let the pulse "come down"... it's to get your heart to an elevated rate and keep it there consistently for a long stretch. For that type of activity, weight lifting is not the answer. For other types of goals, it very well may be.
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Thriptic 3997 days ago
It really depends on the lifting. Heavy squats, deadlifts etc? Sure. The pseudo-bodybuilding a lot of people do when they hit the gym? Not really.
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evook 3997 days ago
You've clearly never lifted weights seriously. From a medicinal point of view different types of heart activities don't even exist.
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hellofunk 3997 days ago
Different types of cardio workouts definitely exist, and most trainers will tell you that a well-rounded health regimen requires a mix of many different types, including weight lifting juxtaposed with more cardio-centric exercises. But this thread is not about how to give your body the best workout.
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evook 3997 days ago
Cardiology tells you it doesn't.

Do you really want to go down that road? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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