I stopped all cardio and focused on weights only for 2 months. Pros and cons

I tinker with my fitness regimen on a regular basis and for the past two months I have been doing zero cardio and focusing entirely on weights and diet. There are some aspects of this program that I am quite happy with, and others that I am not so happy with. Every person's body is different but here is my personal take on what the benefits and downfalls of this change in my life have been so far.

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Let's focus on the positives first and some of these should be very obvious:

Much easier to get motivated to lift than run because of weather

This is a personal thing and a lot of it has to do with the weather where I live in Chicago. It is bitterly cold outside and I absolutely hate running on treadmills or riding stationary bikes. It is very difficult for me to get motivated to get all geared up in cold-weather clothes and get my body temperature up to a level where it doesn't feel like I am going to freeze to death outside. The way the wind whips off the lake here feels as though I am on an Arctic adventure rather than a 30 minute run.

Compare this to the gym that is in my building and also the ones that you pay for nearby. Obviously, they are temperature controlled. Therefore, I find that especially for the gym in my building, I am far more likely to engage in an activity that doesn't feel as though I am putting myself in danger.

I can see the results on my body

One thing I have always enjoyed about weights over cardio is that you can see the results very quickly especially if you are combining your workout with a protein heavy diet and focusing on that magic word in bodybuilding called "macros." In just a few weeks I started to notice rather dramatic changes to my physique especially in my shoulders, arms, and upper body.

This isn't something that I notice with cardio. Sure I'll notice that I am getting faster because of an app or just my overall times, but I don't see the results in the mirror and that for a lot of people is a strong motivator for continuing to exercise. We all want to look as good as we can and this simply happens faster with weights.

Now let's talk about some aspects of all this that I consider to be negatives of totally cutting cardio out of my life for the past 2 months

I've noticed my face / head is bigger

This is a funny one to me, but also a very noticeable one. I am not getting fat, I am just getting BIG and this extends to all of my body, not just my chest and arms.

I am undeniably larger after 2 months of daily weights, my friends have noticed as well. The side effect that I am not so happy about is that my head and face have gotten bigger too and I could do without that. I don't think this phenomenon would happen to people younger than me but your body changes a lot in your 40's I guess or at least mine has. I don't really want to have a big head even if it does come along with ripped arms and chest. This was not a factor with cardio and there is probably some scientific reason why that is, but I don't know what it is.

I have less energy from not doing cardio

This is a big downside in my mind because everyone who exercises regularly can attest to the very strange phenomenon about how overexerting your body during a run or some other cardio actually increases the amount of energy that a person has for some reason. With weights, even when I am doing HIIT and keeping my heart rate up for 30 mins to an hour, this increase in daily energy doesn't seem to happen.

It might have something to do with the fact that it has been shown in countless clinical trials that weight-training continues to burn calories for far longer after the exercise is finished than with cardio. I don't know in my specific situation. All I do know is that what is happening for me is true and I know because I am me. I feel a bit "drained" unless I am actually in the process of lifting at the moment and that in my mind, aint cool.

What to do now?

I have a number of options available to me but I think that the main thing is going to have to be re-introducing cardio into my life, even if just a little bit. It's a tricky game fitness, especially in the bodybuilding realm. Most bodybuilders don't actually do cardio or if they do it is just a 5-10 minute warmup, nothing major.

My next step is going to be to try exactly that. I'm going to do 10 minutes on a stationary bike or treadmill, both of which I hate doing, and then do my normal weight routine. I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks or so.