Hi all,

I know that we are supposed to do both cardio and strength training to fully enable our muscles to increase the basal metabolism (to use up more of those calories). So cardio is basically where you get your heart pumping more, breathing heavier, etc. And then strength training is where you work your muscles to have them become stronger.

I read on some of the threads in the exercise forum that with strength training you should do the strength training for a muscle one day and then let it rest the next day. That it's in the resting that it builds. And by building it bigger you get the greater basal energy used.

So, getting to my question.... For those of us in the TDC who are just getting started, and weigh quite a bit, isn't cardio also strength training? I mean, for some of us who haven't been exercising, just walking is strengthing our muscles... And if that's the case, should we really be exercising every other day rather than daily? At least until we feel the muscles are stronger?

For example, I am using the Walk Away the Pounds video for my routine workout (2 miles). In part of this workout you do a knee lift, which is bringing your knee up so that the thigh is parallel to the floor. You do this with each leg several times (maybe 20?) in a row and repeat it several times (maybe 4?) throughout the video. When you weigh as much as I do that's a lot of weight for the leg muscle to be lifting, so it's strength training, right? So, should I be doing this every other day in order to build muscle? What happens to the muscle if you don't give it that day of rest?

Just call me confused in Ohio.