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Originally Posted by kathairein
3) Is there some magic to doing intervals after you've done weights? Did I read somewhere that your body is more efficient at burning fat while doing cardio if you've already used up the quick stores of energy in your muscles with the weights? Is there some science behind this?
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In the book's chapter about getting off the treadmill, he does recommend intervals for 15-20 minutes, then stopping completely for 5 minutes, then getting back on and doing your steady-pace endurance for as long as you want. He claims that the intervals, being anaerobic, use glycogen for energy, but when you stop, your body floods your blood with triglycerides, which then are burned up for energy when you go back on for steady pace. The theory is you will burn more fat that way than with the steady pace only. I don't know the science behind it, though. I don't think he says much about how he came to that conclusion.
But I have been doing this method on my off-lifting days, and my gut instinct tells me it works, because after the intervals and the 5 minute break, I can get back on the elliptical or bike and go for what seems like forever, with a ton of energy, even if I was dying from the intervals.
I guess it's the same idea with intervals following weights, though I'm not in that stage yet. But he does say you can do the intervals the day after the workout, right? And he says don't do more cardio after a day with intervals and weights? So you wouldn't do lifting, intervals, then steady-pace cardio. So I'm not sure how that fits in with how he recommends doing the endurance like I described above. I just imagine that intervals after weights will be pretty killer!