I have always mixed in cardio a few days a week with my strength training. I have seen the arguments going both ways as far as cardio/no cardio, its been a while since I read the arguments so I am wondering is cardio really beneficial for a well rounded fitness program, I have been focusing on heavy compound lifts and I feel like I need the extra rest in between my workouts instead of doing any cardio. Sorry if I start any arguments but I needed to brush up a little on the subject. Maybe someone can give me the science behind both ways.
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I do 15-20 minutes 2 times a week after my upper body days. I think its probably best not to do it in the same session you lift but I do it because I just can't make the time to go to the gym twice a day.
I pretty much want to maintain my weight,lose a little body fat though, but mostly just be in fairly good condition.I live in Hampton, I work in Norfolk
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Unless pure strenght is your goal - do cardio
Here is a good read from John Berardi's Q & A Column....
Cardio For Gain, Cardio For Loss
Q: I've seen you recommend doing cardio after training in some situations while recommending cardio on separate days in other situations. Why the difference? Should I do cardio at all and if so, when should I do it? Or should I just eat well?
A: I don't understand why there's a huge cardio debate in weight-training circles. I wish I could just click my heels two times and it would just go away. I guess my first idea is that cardio probably has a place in virtually every trainee's program. Now the one caveat here is that athletes training for pure strength and power should probably do no cardio at all since cardiovascular exercise can interfere with strength development.
Cardio can cause a shift in muscle fiber type from very fast twitch (glycolytic) fibers to slower fibers (oxidative/glycolytic). In strength and power athletes, this can lead to lower total force development and lower rate of force development. This means sub-optimal lifting performance. However, this same shift in fiber type is probably beneficial for bodybuilders, recreational trainees interested in improving body composition, and other types of athletes. They should all do their cardio.
Understand that there are many ways to accomplish your physique goals, too many to discuss in a single article or Q and A column. I've seen people get lean with and without cardio. And I've seen people get big with and without cardio. There are so many other variables involved in improving your body. Cardio is just a piece of the puzzle. However, let me give some guidelines for optimizing your progress.
Moderate duration, low intensity cardiovascular exercise leads to increases in both insulin dependent and insulin-independent glucose and amino acid uptake in muscle and liver cells for several hours after the exercise bout. So as a result, cardio can be somewhat anabolic for muscle tissue (from a nutrient partitioning viewpoint). Also, cardiovascular exercise burns a good amount of calories (and therefore fat) and leads to increased muscular uptake of nutrients for hours after exercise (there's that nutrient partitioning again).
This should make it clear that in addition to anabolism, cardio can also contribute to fat loss. So with the potential anabolic effects of cardio as well as the potential for fat loss, I don't see why anyone interested either in getting bigger or getting leaner would exclude cardio from their training program.
Sure, some have argued in the past that cardio can be very catabolic, blah, blah, blah, but if you combine your cardio training with eating for your goals, and you avoid doing excessive high-intensity cardio work, your cardio will have mostly desirable effects.
So, since I recommend cardio for both getting bigger and getting leaner, let's split them up and discuss the best way to incorporate cardio into both types of programs.
Gettin' Bigger
Since increasing muscle mass is the goal, it's especially important to eat enough to compensate for the caloric expenditure of all your exercise (weights and cardio). Using the Massive Eating plan will help in this. With this plan, cardiovascular exercise fits in quite nicely, as the cardio will help increase nutrient partitioning and the muscle to fat gain ratio. In the perfect world, the best way to incorporate cardio into your program would be as follows:
First, directly after your weight training workouts, you'd perform about 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at about 60 to 70% of your HR max (which is 220 minus your age). Immediately after this session consume a Biotest Surge or a Biotest Surge-like beverage containing 0.4 grams of protein hydrolysate and 0.8 grams of carbohydrate per kg of body mass. Then about an hour later, consume another meal. This time choose food sources that contain about a one to two ratio of protein to carbs.
Next, on your non-weight training days perform 30 minutes of cardio at 60 to 70% of your HR max. This should not be done in the morning on an empty stomach but sometime during the day about 120 minutes after a meal. Immediately after the cardio session, again consume Biotest Surge or a Biotest Surge-like beverage. This time however, you won't need to eat again 60 minutes later. Just get back on track to eating every three hours or so after this, being sure to eat enough calories to match or exceed your maintenance needs.
Gettin' Leaner
To lose body fat, a combination of diet and exercise is the way to go. Obviously, eating below your maintenance level is necessary for fat loss. Using the Massive Eating principles of food selection and macronutrient combinations, subtracting about 25% of your calculated caloric needs should do the trick.
As far as the cardio goes, the idea here is to increase total calorie expenditure, to increase fat utilization, and to decrease potential fat storage. While the focus may be a bit different, the recommendations are only slightly different from above.
First, directly after your weight training workouts, you'd perform about 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise at 60 to 70% of your HR max. Immediately after this session, consume a Biotest Surge-like beverage containing 0.4 grams of protein hydrolysate and 0.8 grams of carbohydrate per kg of body mass. However, don't eat again an hour later. After your post-workout drink, just eat every three hours as usual.
Next, on your non-weight training days perform 30 minutes of cardio at 60 to 70% of your HR max. This time, the cardio should be done in the morning on an empty stomach. Again, immediately after the cardio session, consume a Biotest Surge-like beverage. And again, just get back on your normal diet plan of eating every three hours or so.
Using the aforementioned plans, you should be able to use cardio as an effective tool in achieving your goal of body comp improvement. And by the way, since it can help your physique progress, a few nifty "side effects" include better heart, circulatory system, and respiratory system function as well as better overall health and longevity.
Good article, Littlewolft. I'm currently doing Phase 10 of HGM, so I'm having to do sprints after each workout. I'm hoping this will help me lower my BF%.
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I have no science, but my own experience. traditional cardio (steady-state crap) never ever did a thing for me. no fat loss, no improved cardio conditioning. however, HIIT helped fat loss somewhat & more importantly to me, improved my cardio condition big time. i haven't done any in a while, & can feel myself breathing heavier between heavy sets/reps. walking up 3 flights of stairs was nothing while doing HIIT, but now i feel it.
in summmary, personally for me:
1. HIIT = very good
2. cardio = big ole waste of time
3. nothing = i need to get off my lazy ass & do some HIIT.
MF mag had some nice versions of HIIT (article by staley i think). I am trying feeders right now, but i think Hill Sprints would get me back in cardio shape. Now if only there were any hills in Houston...
What were you doing for cardio? I do both steady state cardio at 60-70% of max heart rate and HIIT. I hardly ever go over 30-35 minutes on either variety at least three times per week. I have a genetic tendency for my blood pressure to soar and my heart rate along with it if I don't do regular cardio to keep my fat levels down. It doesn't take much weight to watch it go up either. Both have been effective in keeping the situation under control. Granted that I don't let my fat levels get above 14-15% anyhow.
Originally posted by JMR: What were you doing for cardio? I do both steady state cardio at 60-70% of max heart rate and HIIT. I hardly ever go over 30-35 minutes on either variety at least three times per week. I have a genetic tendency for my blood pressure to soar and my heart rate along with it if I don't do regular cardio to keep my fat levels down. It doesn't take much weight to watch it go up either. Both have been effective in keeping the situation under control. Granted that I don't let my fat levels get above 14-15% anyhow.
JMR: not sure if the question was directed at me or not, but if so, i did the usual gym cardio machines: stairclimbers, elliptical dealies, treadmills & stationary bikes. they never did a thing for me. but HIIT on the stationary bike worked. i got up to 12 sprints (30/30) & felt very fit cardio wise. my case was obviously anecdotal, but i know it (SS) don't work for me.
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