Cardio and strength training

D

doublelifeofvanessa

Member
I'm trying to gain some muscle tone and I also add some cardio for weight loss. I've heard people say that if you're trying to build muscle cardio can interfere with your development, but I'm confused how much cardio is too much to hinder results.

What kind of cardio do y'all like to incorporate? And how many times a week?
 
Metabolic workouts are the best! You get cardio and build muscle at the same time. I've never heard about cardio interfering with muscle development? Yes, if you only do cardio but if you weight train and do cardio it should only be beneficial!

ICE Total Body Metabolic is fantastic (up the weights if it's too easy!), Super Cuts, Flex Train... all are a combination of both cardio and strength. The great thing about metabolic training is that you burn more calories than you do with cardio alone as it keeps the calorie burn elevated for a lot longer.

I personally can't use the step (knees!) but since most of Cathe's advanced DVDs include both cardio and weight training you can't go wrong. I'm 46 (eek!) and due to Cathe's varied videos I'm at 17% body fat, 39% muscle, etc. I would say try to do strength for the upper and lower body twice or three times a week and do cardio on the other days (or combine the two).

Good luck! :D
 
kathydaffy said:
Metabolic workouts are the best! You get cardio and build muscle at the same time. I've never heard about cardio interfering with muscle development? Yes, if you only do cardio but if you weight train and do cardio it should only be beneficial!

ICE Total Body Metabolic is fantastic (up the weights if it's too easy!), Super Cuts, Flex Train... all are a combination of both cardio and strength. The great thing about metabolic training is that you burn more calories than you do with cardio alone as it keeps the calorie burn elevated for a lot longer.

I personally can't use the step (knees!) but since most of Cathe's advanced DVDs include both cardio and weight training you can't go wrong. I'm 46 (eek!) and due to Cathe's varied videos I'm at 17% body fat, 39% muscle, etc. I would say try to do strength for the upper and lower body twice or three times a week and do cardio on the other days (or combine the two).

Good luck! :D
Click to expand...

Thanks Kathy!
 
I totally agree that too much cardio will interfere with muscle development. I was a perfect example of that until about 2 years ago. I was an avid runner, and ran around 30 miles per week. I also did strength training and HIIT workouts (mainly Cathe). I just never had any real visible muscles even though I was strong and healthy.

I decided to cut way back on my running and focus more on strength training (and also continuing to do HIIT workouts). My body totally changed. I am certainly not muscle bound by any means because of my body type, but I have visible arm and back definition now. It made all the difference!

To answer your original question... my cardio is daily now, but it's HIIT. I went from running 30 miles per week to about 10 miles per week.
 
It depends on a few parameters as in what type of cardio?

Cathe has demonstrated the difference through a ton of dvds, like Hiit, Tabata, Metabolic, etc. I think I'm a good example that you can build muscle while doing a cardio variation (in my world it would be HIIT because that's how I equate mountainbiking, lots of peak heart rates followed by a rest of some sort).

Now here's the thing, if you are serious about building muscle, you have to bring in the triad which is proper food (can include supplements), good technique and adequate recovery (sleep).

Figure out what your maximum heart range (MHR) is for your age, use a woman's formula because we are not small men:
200 minus 67 percent of the woman's age
200 - (age x .67)
Example a 45 year old woman would have a MHR of 169.8
Which now you can figure is your peak, give or take your cardio vascular training history and health.

Take that and multiply to employ your five training zones (or 4)
Example
Zone 1 50%
Zone 2 65%
Zone 3 75%
Zone 4 85%
Zone 5 95%

For me, I train by the MAF principle, but that's a whole different formula.

Btw, a good heart rate monitor will do all this for you too.

Do your cardio but keep it within the fat burning parameters. If your cardio is heavy into your upper limits and its over an hour of constant high heart rate, you are going to eat into muscle, but truth any movement will use a mixture of fat and muscle for fuel. Its just how much?

I'm a good example of this. I am on a constant rotation of STS to maintain my muscle. Even when I'm training for an upcoming race, I'll keep my cardio rates lower to train my vascular system and keep fat off of me, and then when the *day* comes I will be able to let it all out, with my higher HRV's that will be sustained for hours.

This has been over years, so I can't be an odd ball, and I train with a group of women and we are all different sizes and ages and we use the same technique, give or take our age.

Of course, nothing is ever spot on and you have to tweak things.

Don't be afraid of training your cardio system AND lifting. And if you are truly lifting heavy, especially slowly, watch your heart rate soar, that is also *cardio* since its increasing your heart rate.
 
DirtDiva said:
It depends on a few parameters as in what type of cardio?

Cathe has demonstrated the difference through a ton of dvds, like Hiit, Tabata, Metabolic, etc. I think I'm a good example that you can build muscle while doing a cardio variation (in my world it would be HIIT because that's how I equate mountainbiking, lots of peak heart rates followed by a rest of some sort).

Now here's the thing, if you are serious about building muscle, you have to bring in the triad which is proper food (can include supplements), good technique and adequate recovery (sleep).

Figure out what your maximum heart range (MHR) is for your age, use a woman's formula because we are not small men:
200 minus 67 percent of the woman's age
200 - (age x .67)
Example a 45 year old woman would have a MHR of 169.8
Which now you can figure is your peak, give or take your cardio vascular training history and health.

Take that and multiply to employ your five training zones (or 4)
Example
Zone 1 50%
Zone 2 65%
Zone 3 75%
Zone 4 85%
Zone 5 95%

For me, I train by the MAF principle, but that's a whole different formula.

Btw, a good heart rate monitor will do all this for you too.

Do your cardio but keep it within the fat burning parameters. If your cardio is heavy into your upper limits and its over an hour of constant high heart rate, you are going to eat into muscle, but truth any movement will use a mixture of fat and muscle for fuel. Its just how much
Click to expand...

My cardio is treadmill interval 2x a week. I do 9 sets of walking at 4.5 mph for 1 min and running at 7.5-8 mph for 1.5 min - total time of 45 min. The other day is walking :)
 
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