I’m a child of the ’80s — there were many health practices we bought into (almost) without question. Among all those conversations, there was one that stood the test of time and took root in the collective imagination of millennials and boomers. It was a theory that, to some extent, demonised strength training among women. Adding to the prejudice against muscular female bodies was a weight-centric approach that focused on the scale rather than on wellbeing, which simultaneously contributed to directing attention solely and exclusively toward cardiovascular training from a perspective based, above all, on the benefits it might have for losing weight.
Quite a few years later, everything changed and trends (which always swing back and forth) shifted toward the benefits of strength training for women. We now know that muscle is one of the best tools for longevity. As Joel Manuel Prieto Andreu, Ph.D. in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and a researcher in Physical Education at the International University of La Rioja (UNIR), says, “We’ve gone from a phobia of muscle to the tyranny of weights. Now it seems that if you’re not doing hip thrusts with 100 kilos, you’re not really training,” he reflects. And that “is a colossal mistake because strength is essential, especially for bone health and the prevention of sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss). But the heart is also a muscle and if you don’t train it specifically, it falls behind,” he explains. And although we often use the excuse that lifting weights already involves cardio work, for the expert this is only half-true and distracts us from a basic principle: the need to work on both strength and cardio because “if you only have one of the two, you have a sports car with the engine of a compact car or a compact car with a Formula 1 engine. Both are useless for everyday life,” he compares.
In fact, to understand just how incomplete a training program is without aerobic exercise, Henrry Rodriguez, fitness manager at ZEM Wellness Clinic Altea, points out that “if you want to live longer, do cardio. If you want to live those years with quality of life and independence, do strength training. True health lies in combining both.” Given the conversation about longevity that dominates 2026, Rodriguez points out that good cardiorespiratory fitness is precisely one of the best predictors of health we know of. “Various studies have shown that people with better cardiovascular fitness have a lower risk of disease and all-cause mortality,” he points out.
A gift for the mitochondria
If this point weren’t enough to convince you of the need to combine weightlifting, Pilates and yoga sessions with indoor cycling, swimming or brisk walking, let’s talk about other benefits (and we’re not just talking about burning calories and sweating. We’re talking about the other major advantage that Prieto Andreu describes as “a gift for the mitochondria.” It’s the only workout that turns your heart into that of an athlete: it increases stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped with each beat), which lowers your resting heart rate. The result? Your heart works less to do the same thing and that translates to less wear and tear over the years, helping you keep your body young. Plus, it’s your arteries’ best friend—it keeps them elastic and clean, combating the dreaded arterial stiffness. And on a metabolic level, it improves insulin sensitivity, which means your cells “open the door” to sugar more easily. But here’s the thing: what really improves your quality of life is what I call the “vacuum cleaner effect”; low-to-moderate-intensity cardio is a natural anxiety reliever. It reduces cortisol levels (the stress hormone) and releases endorphins that make you see life in a whole new light. Climbing stairs without getting winded, playing with your kids or grandkids without losing your breath or simply having the energy to make it to 8pm without counting down the minutes until nap time — that’s quality of life in its purest form,” he declares.
Does lifting weights count as cardio?
Although a weight-training circuit with few rest periods—where your heart rate rises—already constitutes a cardio workout, it’s not enough. “That type of training improves your anaerobic cardiovascular fitness (short-term endurance and recovery capacity), but it’s not enough to build your basic aerobic capacity,” he says. And this is where the good news comes in for lovers of brisk walking: it’s necessary and effective and can be considered a gentle aerobic cardio workout that, as Prieto Andreu adds, “produces physiological adaptations that weight training will never give you: it increases mitochondrial density (the cells’ powerhouses), improves capillarisation (fine blood supply) and trains the heart to expand its chambers. You need two or three aerobic sessions per week for that engine to have a large fuel tank. “It’s non-negotiable if you want long-term health,” he says. The key to knowing if you’re walking at a good pace? Try the “talk test” and make sure, as Rodriguez points out, that during the activity you can hold a conversation but not sing a song with ease. As for the duration of these sessions, he recommends between 40 and 60 minutes. These types of walks or stationary bike sessions provide a perfect foundation for cardiovascular training, to which you should add more intense sessions, such as one HIIT session per week, and other activities like jumping rope, rowing or climbing.
To achieve the right balance between cardio and strength training, the possibilities are endless. However, if you’re looking for a reference for a potential hybrid workout, Juan Ruiz, director of his epynomous training centre, provides the key. “A perfect routine would include a warm-up that focuses on mobility, a main and dominant strength training segment and a final aerobic workout at medium-to-high intensity. We can intersperse this aerobic work during the main strength training segment, if we prefer. My favourite exercises for this type of workout are air bikes, since they engage both the legs and arms simultaneously. The more muscle mass we involve in the exercise, the better,” he concludes. The key is to combine strength and aerobic training to live a better life.
This article first appeared on Vogue.es
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