Should you only do weight lifting if you're trying to gain thickness/muscle, or still include cardio in your workout?

[Anonymous]

I'm a thin girl, 105-115 lbs. and 5'5. My hips are nonexistent and my arms are very skinny. I really wouldn't like to gain much weight, I'd like to stay thin, but I do want to add some roundness to my lower half and some thickness to my arms.

Recently I've started doing 30 mins of weights at the gym, focusing on building my thighs and arms. I'm trying to get an actual schedule together, though. So far I'm just thinking of alternating thighs and arms days. But do I need to put some cardio in there? I jog to the gym to warm up and stretch afterwards but should I have actual cardio days? It seems counterproductive to add cardio to my workout considering I'm not trying to burn any fat but I don't know.

Focus on weight-lifting

Do cardio as well

[CourtJester]

Doesn't matter. As long as you're in a caloric surplus you would still gain weight/fat. I feel like you just want some definition so I suggest eating more protein (1.5gram per bodyweight) to build some muscle tone-ness and maybe add a little of cardio just for conditioning purposes.

[MyNameIsJonas]

Both are important for a healthy body. You will add longevity and various other health benefits from cardiovascular exercise.

You could in-fact do cardio oriented weight lifting. For example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peLFTePbfDQ

Best of both worlds.

[aamy811]

You can Jarod weights if you want because your already thin. Super heavy weights with low reps is for muscle growth. Low weight with higher reps just tones preexisting muscle

[xapplebottom]

I think 10 mins of cardio is enough :) Maybe as a warm down since you're already jogging to the gym. Weight training is the most important!

[genericname85]

cardio is important too, to get the stamina to do more reps and more different exercises.