If you have any sort of experience with health and fitness, you’ve likely heard the terms “strength training” and “cardio” thrown around before. Strength training refers to exercise that focuses on building and strengthening the muscle through the use of some type of weight or resistance. A common example would be weight lifting. Cardio, on the other hand, is a much more general category that refers to any exercise that raises your heart rate. The purpose of cardio is to improve your cardiovascular system, and common examples would be running or cycling.

Other than strength training and cardio, there is a third form of training known as conditioning. Conditioning is sort of like a sub-category of cardio because it raises your heart rate, but it can also be a hybrid of both cardio AND strength training because it can involve weights. It refers to exercise that requires you to train at high-intensity for short bursts of time. Common examples would be sprinting, or if you’re familiar with the practice, HIIT (high-intensity interval training). [Read more…]