Balancing Strength, Endurance, Flexibility and Core Work

Why bother thinking about each of these components? Doesn't strength work build your muscles and cardio trim your fat? That's it, right? Case closed.

Not so fast.

The reasons that it's important to include each of these components in your training program are:

1. They each have a point of diminishing returns

2. They each compliment each other

3. Your body enjoys unique benefits with each

I'm not going to rehash the numerous individual benefits of each type of exercise, which have been written about extensively, and I wrote about diminishing returns in yesterday's post. So let's examine how they compliment each other. Here's the basic framework:

Strength work increases you muscles' ability to move and generate force more easily, which is required for aerobic activity. So the strength work assures that you don't run out of muscle power before you've burned all the calories and fat you want to use. Similarly, the better aerobic shape you're in, the more easily your muscles access the oxygenated blood your muscles need for strength work, and the faster you recover between sets.

Flexibility allows you to move with more freedom and control, and core work stabilizes the juncture between the lower body and the upper body when one is moving while the other is stationary, or, more importantly, when they're both moving at the same time. No area is more important to condition to avoid back problems which plague most people (80%) at some point in their lives.

So how much is enough?

A typical 60-minute workout split for me, if I was doing cardio and strength on the same day, would be:

Light cardio warm-up 5 min

High-intensity cardio 20

Strength 25

Pilates (core and flexibility work) 10

If I split cardio and strength up on different days, I still keep them pretty well balanced (two each) and always do Pilates as my cool-down. I follow a similar model for most of my clients.

The important thing is that each is represented, even if your goals are more slanted toward endurance or strength. Marathoners can benefit from dumbbells, and bodybuilders should be able to jog on the beach without getting winded.