2Inspire Health & Fitness Magazine #25 - October 2021

Nebras Hayek on Using Challenges to Give Life Meaning

Which is Best for Beating Stress and Anxiety: Cardio or Strength Training?

Why Exercise Will Boost Your Self-Confidence

5 Habits of Fit and Healthy People

Should You Workout Longer or More Often?

An Introduction to HIIT An Introduction to Tabata Can Walking Improve Your Fitness?

2Inspirenutrition.com October 2021 FREE

INSIDE THIS MONTH’S ISSUE

5 Habits of Fit and Healthy People - pg. 3 An Introduction to HIIT- pg. 5 An Introduction to Tabata - pg. 7 Can Walking Improve Your Fitness?

- pg. 9 Why Exercise Will Boost Your SelfConfidence - pg.12 Nebras Hayek on Using Challenges to Give Life Meaning - pg. 14 Should You Workout Longer or More Often? - pg. 20 Which is Best for Beating Stress and Anxiety: Cardio or Strength Training?

- pg. 22

2

5 Habits of Fit and Healthy People If you look at fit and healthy people in awe and wonder how they do it, their secret comes down to two words: healthy lifestyle. They live a healthy life and everything they do centers around that concept. If you want to be more like them, here are five things you will have to start doing:

3

4

1. Eat breakfast

do these things.

Listen to your mother when she tells you breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because she is right.

After fasting all night, get your body going by having a good healthy and nutritious breakfast.

Make sure it includes lean protein, healthy fat and good complex carbohydrates. It gives your metabolism a kick in the butt that can last for hours, making sure that you are burning the maximum number of calories possible each day.

3. Start your day with exercise Exercising first thing in the morning not only gets your body going, but also your mind. People who exercise early in the day tend to have a more positive outlook on life, which transcends to the choices they make, like choosing what they eat and how they burn calories throughout the day.

beverage of their choice is water. They know that not only does it hydrate them better than any other drink, but water contains no calories, which in many other drinks comes from added sugar.

5. Don’t obsess over your body

If you are a scale watcher, you can learn a lot from fit and healthy people. They don’t even have to look at a scale, because they know their healthy lifestyle and habits will keep them around the same weight.

They typically consume and burn off around the 2. Always be on the same number of calories move each day, thus keeping them at the same weight If you are sitting still, you … within a few pounds.

4.

Cook and eat at home are burning fewer calories Most healthy and fit than if you were up and people monitor their As strange as it may sound, moving. Fit and healthy fitness level by how tight fit and healthy people people are always on the (or loose) their clothes feel. only eat when their body go. They park at the far tells them it is hungry. end of the parking lot, or Doing these five things And when they do eat, it they get off a stop or two routinely will put you is generally at home (for before the closest stop to in the healthy and fit breakfast and dinner) and work, and then walk in the category. If losing weight, a light healthy lunch most rest of the way. They take ensure you burn around likely brought from home. the stairs instead of the 500 calories more per If they do have to eat out, elevator. They ride their day than you eat. Once they make smart choices stationary bike, elliptical at goal, then add in 500 as far as portions and type trainer or treadmill at night more calories to maintain of food – fresh vegetables while watching TV, instead your current weight. Once and lean meats. of just sitting on the you choose the healthy couch. In doing so, they lifestyle, you will never Along with making burn many more calories have to worry about smart eating choices, the than people who do not dieting again.

An Introduction to HIIT

5

If you are looking for an extremely effective way to burn calories, then you need to give HIIT a try. For those who don’t know, HIIT stands for “high-intensity interval training.” This is an exercise system that embodies the principle that “less is more.” If you are unfamiliar with this exercise system, but you are interested in learning about, then you have come to the right place. In this short article, you will find out what HIIT is and why it is so effective.

What Is HIIT?

6

As was mentioned in the introduction, HIIT is an exercise system that works on the principle of “less is more.” HIIT encourages you to do very short bursts of intense exercise, punctuated with breaks in-between. The “breaks” often consist of doing light exercise to keep your heart up. To give you an example of what HIIT set looks like, here is a very typical set that a lot of

people who practice HIIT do on a regular basis.

You start out by doing 30-seconds of sprinting, burpees, or deadman sprints. Then, you do 60-seconds of light jogging. This is considered a single set. You then repeat this set as many times as desired (typically, people do 8-10 sets per session).

high-resistance levels and going as fast as possible for a short period and then going back to a brisk jog. So, no matter your preferred form of exercise, you can do HIIT that you enjoy and that works best for you.

Why Is It Effective?

So, what is it about HIIT that makes it effective?

Why is it that short bursts of intense exercise are better than long periods of moderately intense exercise? It has to do with the way that your body responds to extremely One of the major intense exercise. The components of HIIT and high-intensity exercise, why so many people love even though it is done it is that it gives you a large in short bursts, kickstarts degree of freedom when your metabolism in a way it comes to choosing what that moderate exercise sort of exercise you do. just doesn’t. Kicking your The example given above metabolism into high gear is just one of the many really helps you to burn ways that you can do HIIT. calories at a faster rate For example, if you like than you would otherwise. treadmills, you can do HIIT on a treadmill by setting

An Introduction to Tabata

7

Are you looking for a workout that is intense, that burns a ton of calories, is easy to do, and that takes less than 5-minutes? Sounds too good to be true right?

Well, there is actually an exercise regimen that accomplishes everything that was just mentioned.

As the name of the article probably gave away, this is an exercise regimen known as the Tabata system or just “Tabata.” This is a quick but effective exercise system that you have been waiting for. In this short article, you will find out everything that you need to know about this amazing exercise system.

What Is It?

8

The Tabata system is a form of what is referred to as HIIT (high-intensity interval training). It was developed by a Japanese doctor named Izumi Tabata. Like all HIIT, Tabata focuses on short bursts of very rapid exercise, with breaks in-between. The purpose behind the Tabata system was to create an effective exercise system that could help people burn lots of calories in a short period of time.

The Tabata system looks like this: • You start with 20-seconds of a very intense form of exercise, like deadman sprints or burpees.

the gaps in-between the • After the 20-seconds more intense exercise with less intensive exercise are up, you take 10 seconds to rest. like jogging, the Tabata • Repeat this sequence system encourages you to rest. But this is up to you, around 8 times. as some may find taking • The entire workout a breather negatively should end being around impacts them.

4-minutes.

Obviously, there is a high degree of customization available to you. You can do whatever high-intensity exercise appeals to you.

You can also rest however you want, some will just prefer to stand and catch their breath. Others may want to quickly hop on a bike for 10-seconds. It is up to you.

How It Differs from Other HIIT Systems Tabata differs from other HIIT systems in a few key ways. For starters, whereas many HIIT systems fill

Another key difference is the length of time spent doing exercise. Most HIIT sets are pretty short, but the Tabata is extremely short. A single session will only last around 4-minutes, which is extremely quick.

So, now that you know everything that you need to know about the Tabata system, you are ready to give it a try. Look around and check out a few different Tabata systems to see which one appeals to you.

Can Walking Improve Your Fitness?

9

The beauty of walking is that it can be done anywhere and with minimal equipment.

Usually all that is needed in the beginning is a pair of good walking shoes and some comfortable clothes.

As you become more used to walking, you can add a pedometer, or one of the newer accelerometers, and a pair of light hand weights for an even better workout.

groceries, etc. Once you start wearing a step tracker, you’ll be surprised just how many steps you do put in during a day.

Walking for fitness just adds more steps to that amount getting you closer to your daily step goal.

If we keep doing the same thing over and over, our bodies become more efficient at it and consequently we end up burning fewer calories Like most other forms doing the same thing. of exercise, start slow …

To challenge your body, and on a fairly level route. change to your routine.

As your body adjusts to Three ways to do that is to walking, you will want to vary your normal walking challenge it more to keep route, add hand weights getting the all the benefits and change the intensity. of the exercise. One way is to add more steps to your Vary the route routine. You can do so by adding a set distance or Instead of always walking track the additional steps the same flat level route, with your pedometer. choose one that has some changes in altitude. By Many walkers choose a adding in some uphill and goal of 10,000 steps per downhill parts, muscles day, but may not be purely are worked differently than from your scheduled daily they are on flat ground. walk, but can also include steps from all the other Add hand weights walking you do as part of your normal daily routine; Or walk holding a pair of such things around the light hand weights; swing house as washing clothes, your arms back and forth putting them away, as you walk to give your cleaning house, carrying upper body some exercise 10

and increase your heart and breathing rate.

Change the intensity Changing how fast you walk adds a dimension that your body is not expecting; Instead of walking at a normal rate of 3mph, walk at a faster pace of 5mph for a while; then drop back to your normal speed.

Any change to your routine will raise your heart rate, challenge muscles and help you burn more calories. In the end your heart will be stronger, muscles more defined and you’ll weigh less.

Of course before starting any new fitness routine, be sure to consult with your healthcare professional first. The second part of a successful exercise program is proper nutrition. Be sure to eat right; if unsure what that means, your doctor can suggest a diet that will give you the best nutrition to help you achieve your goal.

DOWNLOAD TODAY 11

on

Amazon

Why Exercise Will Boost Your Self-Confidence

12

To determine if exercise will boost selfconfidence, we first have to know what it is.

On a broad scale, selfconfidence is what we believe and actively set out to achieve, or a goal if you will. Most peoples’ mental self-confidence improves if their physical appearance improves.

Exercising improves the body in many ways. The most obvious are its health benefits, but there are more benefits that are subtler. Immediately after exercising, most of us feel good mentally due to the body releasing a hormone called endorphins and dopamine and reducing the hormones associated with stress like cortisol and adrenaline. If we mentally feel good, we have more selfconfidence.

Feeling Good

13

If our goal was to run three miles and we were able to do that, we achieved our goal.

However, if our goal was set higher than what our body was able to accomplish, the “feel-

good” hormones would have still been released, but our self-confidence would have taken a hit, because we failed to meet our goal. When setting goals, don’t set yourself up for failure by setting a goal so high that you have no chance of attaining it.

Improved Physical Appearance Exercising over time makes up look better.

Our muscles become more defined, we have less body fat, our weight is down and because we are happy with our physical appearance, we are mentally more self-confident. We have a sense that all the work we are putting into exercising is finally starting to pay off.

Increases Brain Power While it is true exercising improves one’s physical appearance, it can also make you smarter.

Exercising raises both our respiratory and heart rate. Our increased rate of breathing pulls more oxygen into the lungs and exhales out more

carbon dioxide. This in turn means our blood is more highly oxygenated leaving the lungs and more concentrated with carbon dioxide coming back in. By pushing more oxygen to the brain, it gets stronger too. Our mental focus increases, and we have a more “incharge” feeling, which in turn boosts our selfconfidence.

Improves Sex Life Exercising increases stamina which can help you last longer in bed. With an improved physical appearance, a positive mental outlook and ability to “go the distance”, who would not want that? Having the sexual prowess again is a self-confidence booster by itself, let alone all of the other improvements gained from exercising.

So if your body and mental well-being is not what it used to be, start exercising. Over time, not only will your physical self-confidence return, but so will your mental outlook on life.

Nebras Hayek on Using Challenges to Give Life Meaning

14

This month we’ve got an enlightening interview with award-winning bodybuilder and former Miss Arab USA, Nebras Hayek. In 2019 Nebras joined the Army National Guard. Shortly after completing training, she began prepping for her first bodybuilding competition, placing in the top 10 among 71 top-ranked women in her height class. Today, she shares some of the things she learned during that journey.

Dennis Postema: Nebras, can you give us a bit of your background of where you’re from and what’s going on, what your backstory is?

15

five years ago, I moved to North Carolina because I wanted something fresh and new, because things had become too easy in Chicago.

that when you do so well, people don’t forget. The owner of the company that I used to work for told my new employer that I’d brought them numbers they’d never Nebras Hayek: I was born When I came to North seen before, and that I’d and raised in Iraq. My Carolina, I assumed I could gotten four promotions in dad is a nuclear physicist get started right away eight months. And I’m still for the Iraqi government and just pick up where I’d having the same success and the U.S. government left off. But the beautiful with this company, so I feel brought us to Chicago on part about my life is that I like I’m making him proud. an asylee status, a move always struggle a lot, and that changed our lives. it makes me appreciate Dennis: What do you Even though the natural what I get a lot more. I think makes you crave thing would’ve been for us struggled for three years challenges? to go to Germany, where trying to get a job that I my parents had previously felt like I deserved, until Nebras: I guess because lived the majority of their one day I was in tears and I’ve overcome so many lives, we came to the U.S. I contacted the owner difficult things that when I think that was a really of the company that I’d there’s nothing difficult in good decision, especially worked for in Chicago. I my life and things are just due to the opportunities don’t know what made happening, instead of me that me and my brothers me call him, but I said, “I having to work for them, have here in the U.S. versus need help.” He told me I get complacent and what we would’ve had if on the call, “I’ve got you. it becomes depressing. we’d lived elsewhere.

I’ll take care of you. In a I need challenges to couple hours you’ll have a appreciate life.

Dennis: Tell us a bit job.” about your career.

Dennis: So mundane Sure enough, I got a call does not work for you, Nebras: When I was in from my current employer and you get bored easily.

Chicago, I had a really offering me a job. I never Is that what attracted good job as VP Assistant sent my résumé, I never you to bodybuilding?

Development for 16 had an application, I never nursing homes in Illinois even had an interview. He Nebras: I never considered and 16 in Indiana. I earned called to offer me a job, myself athletic, but people the respect in healthcare and I got the chance to in my life would say, marketing really quickly, say, “Can you tell me what “You’re crazy for not saying because people used to this job is about? And it.” I just feel like athletic always say I was like a how much does it pay?” It is somebody who does dog with a bone—really kind of made me feel like cheerleading or plays persistent with a very I regained the power in football, but I’ve always good work ethic. About my life again, which shows loved lifting weights. I’ve

been doing it my whole life, but bodybuilding came as a surprise. I was working on this fitness show a while back. When I first moved to Charlotte, I’d go to new yoga studios or AIR Fit, where you have the curtain hanging from the ceiling and you do yoga on it, and I started taking on new fitness challenges and having people record them. I’d post the videos on my YouTube channel just to tell people experiences I’ve had for the first time.

Then one person told me, “Why don’t you just do bodybuilding?” That was in, like, 2018 and I was like, “No, that’s not for me.”

Because when I thought of bodybuilding, I’d think, “I don’t want to look too muscular and masculine, I still want to look feminine.”

Then the person said, “You can do bikini.” So I looked into it and said, “Actually, that’s exactly what I do. I like lifting,” so that became my thing.

16

how lean they were, I was. So I thought, this is going to be my new challenge.

I need to do this. People told me I would be hooked and I didn’t believe them. Did a second show and I placed a lot higher, but still I wasn’t there.

Once I shipped out for the army, I came back completely lean after not having lifted any weights there. That was because all the lifting I did before was revealed.

I was in a national show, and that’s when I placed ninth, so top 10, and I was really proud. I was like, “I need to continue doing this,” because I felt really good when I was training, when I was dieting. It felt like I had a purpose.

Dennis: How long did you prep for your first show?

Nebras: The prep for my I did my first show as first show was about 10 part of the challenge, weeks, and that’s why and I looked really good, I didn’t place that well. but onstage, compared The second show was to everybody else, I was probably about 10–16 overweight. And it was weeks. But the national funny because I wasn’t show, I came back June 5 overweight but compared and the show was August to everybody else and 26. When I prepped for

that one, I didn’t start right away, because my coach and I wondered if I had enough muscle tone. For that last show, it took 10 weeks of prep to win the top 10. And the other competitors had been prepping for, like, 11 months, and I felt like, “How am I gonna win against them?” But I was happy with my placement.

Dennis: That says a lot for muscle memory and having those years of working out. I always love that because people don’t understand how important that is in working out. How do you go about managing time with a full-time career and fitness? How do you do that?

Nebras: It’s really funny, because I just told one of my colleagues who happens to be my good friend that you have to pick what matters to you, and if you know fitness is

a top priority, you’ll always have time for it. Because you’ll have time to stop for Starbucks, you’ll have time to watch a Netflix show … fitness is my escape.

I travel a lot and stay in hotels, so I started looking for hotels with a good gym—not just a treadmill. I would actually look through the galleries and reviews for every single trip, and then plan accordingly to work around my meetings, maybe doing cardio at night and weight lifting in the morning. If it’s important to you, you’ll make time for it, and that’s really with everything in life.

My cardio time, people will say, “You do an hour of cardio in the morning?” and I say, “It’s one Netflix show. If you’re going to watch it sitting down, why not watch it on a treadmill?” It’s really not that difficult. It’s all a mental game.

Dennis: Can you give our viewers a little bit of nutrition advice on how they can make a better plan to work for them?

17

Nebras: I’ve tried so many things, so it’s hard.

If you’re on prep, then

your nutrition is so much different than if you were just going to live a healthy lifestyle. I always tell people if you’re trying to lose weight, you have to be at a calorie deficit. It’s a no-brainer. What you’re putting in your body versus what you’re getting out.

A lot of times people think that if they don’t eat, then they’re going to lose weight. But you have to feed your muscles, because your body has to be taken care of. If you’re not feeding your muscles, then your body’s getting weaker. The main thing I tell people is that you have to make sure you always hit your protein intake every single day.

Every single meal that you have, you have to have a good portion of protein, whether it’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, or the two “snackers,” always have a protein.

So for me, breakfast would be egg whites. I love Muscle Eggs—I just make a crepe out of it, put a tablespoon of peanut butter on it, and it’s my protein for breakfast.

It tastes delicious and it doesn’t feel like I’m depriving myself. Lunch can be chicken breast.

Dinner can be a turkey sandwich. In between lunch and dinner, I would have a shake with protein.

That should be it—it shouldn’t be complicated.

People a lot of times feel that they have to deprive themselves but also complicate things in order to eat right. Just make it work for you.

Dennis: What do you tell women who are afraid of lifting weights? How does it compare to just doing cardio?

Nebras: Well, first of all, I wish that women could get muscles as fast as those who are afraid think we can. Because it is a struggle for us to get the raw muscles, like, in the shoulder. It takes a lot of work and a lot of reps.

If it was that easy to get masculine looking, then I would love for that to work out for a competition. But it’s not.

Also, women need to lift weights a lot more than men. Our bodies tend to get weaker, our bones tend to get weaker, especially when you hit your 50s. By the time women hit their 40s and 50s, their bodies are very fragile. When you have muscles, it protects your

bones. When I went into basic training, I was older than most of the people there. They were all 18 or 19, and I got concerned when I saw everybody around me dropping from hip injuries. But when I talked to a doctor about it, he said, “You have a lot of muscle around the joints that everybody is getting the injuries in. You’re not going to get injured.”

I think it’s the mental determination when you go in. I went in knowing I wanted to be a certain weight and I want to look a certain way.

There were times in training when we’d be told to hold a plank for a minute until every single person, out of 150 soldiers,

Women who train their arms and legs don’t have to get really bulky. It doesn’t work like that. But you are going to get stronger. You are going to protect your bones and you’re going to look a lot leaner because there is such a thing as skinny-fat.

18

Dennis: Do you think that during basic training, it was your weight lifting and your muscle stays upright for a minute. building and working We wouldn’t be able to out that kept you going? drop until everybody held the plank for a minute.

Nebras: That, but I also Soldiers were sagging at think it’s the mindset. A the hips and knees, crying, lot of people who left falling, and I just thought, basic training gained a “Okay, you can do this. lot of weight. A lot of the This is what needs to be women gained 20 to 30 done, because you’re now pounds. I lost 20 pounds. lifting weights. This is what

you’re doing.” Those are the things that helped me when I went through basic training. I focused on using whatever we were doing to actually better my body.

Dennis: How did you develop such a strong thought process for accepting a challenge?

Where does that come from and how do you keep that mindset all the time?

Nebras: I truly believe that when you go through a lot of struggles in your life, you begin to learn that you’ll always be okay, that things will always turn out the way they’re supposed to. So you either accept them and embrace them and build yourself through the process, or you just sit down and cry. I told one friend who was going through a lot in her life, “You can put the victim hat on. It’s very comfortable when you have it on, because people don’t expect much of you.

But do you want to be that person that people don’t want to be around?

When you call and your name shows up on a caller

ID and people say, ‘Not her again’?” I don’t want to be that person. I want to be that person where people see my name like, “It’s Nebras, answer the phone!” Or, “Nebras is coming to this party!”

“Nebras is visiting!” and “Nebras is talking to us, what did she say?” You want to be the person who brings joy and happiness and positivity to people. That’s basically what happened. I just felt like, with every challenge, I became stronger and then I have more stories to tell and I can motivate more people.

19

Converse. If I’m running or more cardio, then I want Nikes. So you dress up yourself.

Then you have music.

Listen to whatever music you want. You can listen to a podcast and completely zone out. And go to a gym where people won’t care what you’re doing and what you’re wearing.

The gym is just for you to zone out and be in your own world. So to make it fun, you have to find out what it is that you look for, what makes it fun for you.

If you like to watch movies, then play something funny. Sometimes I listen Dennis: What kind of to the show “Friends.” I advice do you have to don’t even have to watch help people enjoy going it, because I’ve watched to the gym instead of it so many times that I seeing it as a chore? can imagine the scenes, and as I’m doing a set, Nebras: Pick whatever I’m laughing like a crazy workouts you enjoy. But person. Sometimes I listen let’s say it’s zero. Let’s say to my work calls and it there’s nothing that you takes hours and hours enjoy doing. When you and people just talk and go to a club or a party, everything, and I get a you buy a dress or buy workout while I’m listening heels and you get your so I’m not wasting time. hair done to get yourself You can do whatever excited about going. So works for you. do the same for the gym.

Dress up for it. When I’m To find out more about in prep, I buy really cool Nebras, find her on social shoes that help me with media by searching. You the different aspects of can also check out her my workout. Like, for deadlifts, you need to have new show on 2Inspire TV!

Here’s some advice from Nebras for people who want to start working out or who need to get back into it.

Start with small goals. That way, you’re always accomplishing something. If you sit there and say, “I want to compete on stage in two months,” and that’s your goal, then it’s not going to help you. You’re always going to feel defeated.

But if you say, “I want to be strong enough to do a pull-up or a push-up the proper way.” Or “I want to be able to run, to walk, to do cardio for 30 minutes on a treadmill without being completely out of breath.” Start really slowly, but make it so you have a simple goal so you can celebrate it and say, “I accomplished a goal.” That allows your brain to say, “I have accomplished something,” instead of always saying, “I’m working toward something.” This way, you’re always working toward something, and you accomplish it as you go.

Should You Workout Longer or More Often?

20

Trying to organize your workout routine to fit your busy schedule is a struggle many people share in the fitness community. No matter how serious you are about being healthy, it can be hard finding time to fit everything in.

After all, there are only so many hours in the day. It may come to the point where you’re stuck deciding between one long workout or a few short workouts during the day. Which is better?

to the point of tiredness means they will get stronger and stronger with each passing day. In a matter of no time, this format will have you building endurance thanks to the longer sustained heart rate and the fact that you’ll be pushing yourself for an extended period.

The Benefits of One Long Workout

The Benefits of Multiple Short Workouts

A single long workout can prove to be a very effective way to workout and get in your fitness routine for the day. You’ll just need to commit one solid block of time to exercise and then get it out of the way. Go as hard as you can and give it all you’ve got. You’ll be raising your heart rate and sustaining it for a good amount of time, which can increase calorie burn.

21

Workout your muscles

Another benefit of this Many people have format is that you’re trouble committing to going to have time to a single long workout. recover in between the Finding a block of 30short workouts. This can 60 minutes or more lead to better form and during the day where posture during each you can consistently workout. Overall, this workout is extremely can make the workouts difficult for many people. more effective. With time That’s when breaking a to recover in between, routine up into multiple you are likely to end up shorter workouts of 5-10 going harder overall minutes each can prove once you add it all up. to be very effective. After This can make it more all, most people can efficient to break your manage to find 10 free workout up. minutes to workout.

Which is Best for Beating Stress and Anxiety: Cardio or Strength Training?

22

Cardio and strength training each have their own purpose as far as exercise and their effect on the body. To understand which one is best for reducing stress and anxiety, let’s look at the advantages of each.

Strength Training Weightlifting or resistance training is a good way to burn calories – in some cases better than cardio training. Strength training also keeps burning calories at a higher rate longer after finishing a workout. A study from the University of Wisconsin proved the metabolisms of subjects in the study kept elevated up to 39 hours in some participants after a weight-lifting workout.

23

Strength training is also good way to burn more calories per day from an increase in muscle mass. Three pounds of additional muscle burns 120 more calories per day than otherwise would have been burned without the extra muscle. Because of the extra calorie burn,

body fat diminishes, and muscles look more toned and firm. In general, your body image will improve.

Because strength training improves balance, strength and agility, it reduces the risk of injury from a fall. And because of additional strength, tasks around the house that require lifting, such as grocery shopping and laundry, will be easier to do.

However, does strength training do anything to reduce stress and anxiety? Basically no – for that you need to do cardio training.

Cardio Training Cardio training reduces stress and anxiety by releasing endorphins in the brain. These are the “feel good” hormones that many refer to as a “runner’s high” or that euphoric feeling runners get after completing a run. Because it takes a certain intensity and duration to release the endorphins, the effect does not happen with strength training. At the same time endorphins

are being released, the level of serotonin is increasing. The increase has been proven to reduce stress and anxiety.

Cardio training also helps improve one’s health. Regular cardio exercise prevents inflammation, raises the good cholesterol HDL, and reduces the risk of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and certain types of cancer.

Ill health is a major cause of stress and anxiety within the body. Plus cardio reduces fatigue and builds stamina. Just feeling stronger and more empowered helps reduce stress and anxiety too.

So to answer the question in the title, cardio is much more effective at reducing stress and anxiety, however the ideal exercise program is a combination of both.

Cardio four days per week, strength training two days per week (but not on consecutive days) and one day per week of rest and recovery.