No cardio in STS 2 rotations - discussion :)

[Kellyro77]

I'm not complaining about no cardio since a lot of the time cardio is kind of a bane to me. Although I do love my step workouts if only because they're fun. The guide mentions cardio is optional with the main STS 2.0 rotations, but no more than twice a week and no more than 30 minutes at a time.

Later in the guide it suggests "Don't kill it with cardio" under the advice that we'll have a more difficult time building strength if our muscles are fatigued from cardio.

Is it because our lower body and the full body workouts will kind of hit the cardio for us sufficiently? I guess what I'm asking is if there's a risk at all of our cardio capacity diminishing at all if we choose not to do any cardio at all during any of the STS-only rotations?

Thanks!

 

[Debinmi]

TB & LB workouts tend to have a cardio effect so that will help to maintain cardio endurance; I doubt it will increase it IF that's all one does for cardio. I think the general advice is to choose your goal... if one wants to increase strength, then less cardio is better. 2-3 cardio sessions a week for 20-30 (max 40) minutes is the most usually recommended IF hypertrophy & strength gain is the goal. And the cardio is usually recommended to be HiiT type workouts. 3 HiiT workouts/week is rather difficult if one really pushes it to HiiT level. I'm sure there are Cathletes who do, but I find it hard to get to peak heart- rate for the full interval time period.

I'm planning the first month to lift 3 days, do cardio 2 days (HiiT), active recovery 1 day, & a rest or functional movement day (gardening, walking, hiking, etc).

I'm curious as to how those with strength goals are intending to balance their weight work with cardio, as well as recovery work.

Thanks for starting the discussion

 

[ashaw]

I’ve glanced over the rotations and I don’t think I could do 3 lifting days and 3 recovery days. Even though these total body workouts use pretty heavy weights and might move at a faster clip, I need 1 or 2 cardio days. On Friday morning, I ended up doing a Turbo Fire kickbox cardio and had a lot of fun. I do like HIIT cardio but sometimes I like just a fun mainly steady state workout although the Turbo Fire I did Friday had 4 “fire drills” aka short 60 second HIIT drills followed by a 60 second recovery. I’ll do a Turbo Jam or Turbo Fire dvd when I just want to boogie. But with my present rotation I’m only doing cardio once or twice a week. It was hard for me to back off on cardio but I just tell myself the muscle I’m building from the weights I’m lifting burn calories too.

 

[Debinmi]

I’ve glanced over the rotations and I don’t think I could do 3 lifting days and 3 recovery days. Even though these total body workouts use pretty heavy weights and might move at a faster clip, I need 1 or 2 cardio days. On Friday morning, I ended up doing a Turbo Fire kickbox cardio and had a lot of fun. I do like HIIT cardio but sometimes I like just a fun mainly steady state workout although the Turbo Fire I did Friday had 4 “fire drills” aka short 60 second HIIT drills followed by a 60 second recovery. I’ll do a Turbo Jam or Turbo Fire dvd when I just want to boogie. But with my present rotation I’m only doing cardio once or twice a week. It was hard for me to back off on cardio but I just tell myself the muscle I’m building from the weights I’m lifting burn calories too.

Yea, I enjoy my cardio too .... so I may end up doing only one HiIT/week and the other cardio something else like kickbox or step. I'll see how it goes; will have to be flexible so I'm enjoying myself and not feeling like I'm in bootcamp or punishing myself.

 

[vivbc]

I will start the 8 week rotation after my camping trip, and I’ll see what kind of results I get over the summer, but I suspect I’ll be adding cardio along the way. Lots of factors come into play, from weather to summer activities. So I’ll be listening to my body. I like cardio, low impact preferred.

 

[LJB]

I know from past experience (or at least when I was younger) two cardio sessions a week maintained my aerobic fitness, although I usually do 3-4 per week. I’ll start with the two from the low impact rotation, and see how it goes. I have to have some cardio, or I don’t feel right, and I’m not lifting as heavy as Cathe, so I’ll do more reps.

 

[Debinmi]

I was reading in the Cathe newsletter/email about using metrics to measure progress. This got me thinking ... I may do a few fitness tests this week & then repeat in a month (and/or two). The 3-minute step test is quick test for aerobic fitness ... there are instructions online as to how to do it. You can use your phone as a metronome to keep the beat & as a stop-watch. This way I'll know if my aerobic capacity diminishes with only two days for cardio, then I can adjust my rotation if need be.

 

[yamabachi]

With STS 2.0, I've decided that hypertrophy is my goal so I intend to follow Cathe's advice and take it easy on the cardio. Probably something like a segment or premix of X10 that is under 30 minutes followed by the recovery workout (which is short) on the recovery days, or something mild like 20-30 minutes of walking, also followed by a recovery workout. It seems to me that there is conflicting research on what is better for muscle-building - short, hard cardio, or easy cardio. I track my resting heart rate with a Withings watch, so it should be easy to see what the long term effect will be if I reduce the cardio like this.

 

[nickisteen]

TB & LB workouts tend to have a cardio effect so that will help to maintain cardio endurance; I doubt it will increase it IF that's all one does for cardio. I think the general advice is to choose your goal... if one wants to increase strength, then less cardio is better. 2-3 cardio sessions a week for 20-30 (max 40) minutes is the most usually recommended IF hypertrophy & strength gain is the goal. And the cardio is usually recommended to be HiiT type workouts. 3 HiiT workouts/week is rather difficult if one really pushes it to HiiT level. I'm sure there are Cathletes who do, but I find it hard to get to peak heart- rate for the full interval time period.

I'm planning the first month to lift 3 days, do cardio 2 days (HiiT), active recovery 1 day, & a rest or functional movement day (gardening, walking, hiking, etc).

I'm curious as to how those with strength goals are intending to balance their weight work with cardio, as well as recovery work.

Thanks for starting the discussion

Good plan, thanks for sharing!

 

[dww]

I'm doing the program as designed - 3 strength days, 3 recovery days, plus some abs. No cardio (except my normal walking) feels really strange, but I'm going to try it and see how it goes. I had to laugh, I kind of feel like I'm on vacation on my recovery days.

 

[Debinmi]

... I had to laugh, I kind of feel like I'm on vacation on my recovery days.

I kinda feel the same on cardio days - the cardio is much shorter than I'm used to, but that leaves plenty of time to do a core workout & recovery workout. It's an experiment (I worked as a scientist early in my working career) & I like experiments

 

[Hazlady]

(I worked as a scientist early in my working career)

So did I (industrial chemist) and I like experimenting too I started reacting to some of the chemicals and had to change career paths, so I went into Health and Safety but specializing in chemical safety.

I'm not following a set rotation at the moment as I have hip bursitis in my right hip and some wrist issues. My current focus is largely on mobility/flexibility with some strength training.

 

[Debinmi]

So did I (industrial chemist) and I like experimenting too I started reacting to some of the chemicals and had to change career paths, so I went into Health and Safety but specializing in chemical safety.

So cool Hazlady! That's probably why you selected your username. It's nice to meet a fellow scientist, especially a woman. My undergrad was Microbiology with minors in chemistry & math. I was an environmental chemist/microbiologist for an environmental engineering firm. I switched up fields after awhile too as did most all my colleagues due to the potential hazards/toxins we were exposed to. I returned to grad school. Can't keep the science out tho ... I keep stats of my workouts, when I cook I'm exacting as tho I'm in a quantitative analysis class, I enjoy running my embroidery machine while I'm also sewing while also planning another project -- just like having multiple analyzes going in the lab ... ha, ha, ha ...

 

[Hazlady]

I switched up fields after awhile too as did most all my colleagues due to the potential hazards/toxins we were exposed to.

It was common amongst my colleagues to move into Sales roles after about 2-3 years in a laboratory role. I was never interested in sales and stayed working in laboratories for 8 years before I became sensitized to the chemicals and had to stop working with them. Now I try to protect others from experiencing the same thing. I totally get the project planning and record keeping. I also tend to carry out extensive research on things I'm interested in.