How to use weights for cardio

When it comes to improving our cardiovascular health, more often than not we tend to gravitate towards the treadmill, Stairmaster, or exercise bike (to name a few). But, did you know you don’t actually have to step foot on any of these to improve your cardio fitness? Probably music to your ears if you can’t stand them.

“A cardio workout refers to exercise that stimulates our overall cardiovascular system, predominately the heart and burns calories,” says Steve Albon, Certified Personal Trainer and Regional Gym Manager at Ultimate Performance. “Put simply, you need to work hard and get your heart rate pumping, it’s not that complicated!”. And we all know you don’t need big bits of cardio equipment to achieve this.

Weight training—whether that be using dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells— is an effective way to raise your heart rate, break a sweat, and burn some serious calories. Below, Steve breaks down exactly how you can do that and incorporate them to become part of your cardio routine.

Benefits of using weights for cardio

It can help you burn lots of calories (and fat)

According to Steve: “A study in the Applied Journal of Physiology by Dolezal and Potteiger demonstrated that traditional cardiovascular/endurance training had no impact upon Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), whereas strength training improved RMR by a very substantial 15%,”. ‘RMR’ is the number of calories your body burns while resting, commonly referred to as the ‘afterburn effect’.

It can boost strength and muscle

While traditional cardio activities—running, cycling, swimming, rowing, etc.— can certainly improve muscle strength and endurance, incorporating weights (particularly if they’re challenging enough) will force your muscles to work harder, which will help them to grow bigger and stronger.

It’s accessible

Free weights, like dumbbells and kettlebells, are far more compact and easier to house than a ginormous treadmill (unless you opt for a compact option like a folding treadmill). This makes them a great addition to your home workouts, plus, you don’t have to set them up either.

How to use weights for cardio

There are a couple of things to consider if you want to create a weighted cardio workout. First, you ideally want to opt for compound exercises. These are exercises that work multiple muscles in the body at once and will raise your heart rate more than an isolation exercise, like a bicep curl. Secondly, you’ll want to use high volume and minimal rest between sets. Again, this will get you puffing and out of breath, which shows you’re exercising the heart and vascular system.

“Find an area of your gym that will be quiet enough to allow a massive giant set circuit (four sets performed back-to-back like traditional circuit training), full-body or body-part split, either is good depending on your goals – and knock yourself out!,” says Steve.

If you need some inspiration, Steve has shared a fantastic bang-for-your-buck routine below, using only dumbbells. "Try this workout and tell me your heart is not working overtime," he says. "It's certainly not your bog-standard cardio training programme, and if you are reasonably well trained and can generate a good degree of force, then this will smash you up beyond belief."

It's a 'giant set', so you'll perform the exercises consecutively, with very little rest. Start on the first exercise, rest for 10 seconds then move on to the next one. Once you finish the final exercise, enjoy the longer rest before going back and repeating it three more times! Enjoy.

Why is cardio training important?

Just as we work the other muscles in our body, we need to work the cardiovascular system in order for it to become stronger. “The cardiovascular system is the heart, the veins and the blood vessels and it takes in pulmonary, system and coronary circulation,” says Steve. “It’s one of the most important aspects of our health, and we should pay it constant attention.”

There’s a wealth of benefits for improving our cardiovascular health, physically and mentally. It can help us live a longer, healthier life, reduce the chance of chronic diseases, strengthen our immune system, improve our cholesterol and blood sugar levels. But, it can also boost our mood, help us sleep better, and aid weight loss too.

“Physiologically speaking, if you want to vigorously pump blood to skeletal muscles and train the heart, then you need to work hard, and the most optimal way to train for cardiovascular health is through intense resistance training sessions.”