Strength or Endurance First?

T

thea77

Cathlete
Hi Cathe,

Thank you for answering my previous post last week, I appreciate it!

I have another question for you....my current fitness goals are fat loss and stronger, shaplier muscles. Should I work on an endurance rotation (ie MM, ME etc 2-3x/week) or start with a strength rotation (GS series, PS series 1x/week)? Does it matter?

By the way, I just saw the August rotation and HOLY COW! I'm printing that puppy out!

Thanks, Thea
 
I think you have to decide what you work on first: muscle gain or fat loss.

For muscle gain, a GS rotation (each workout once a week, going as heavy as you can), alternating with cardio (and including one interval workout per week) is a good start.

For fat loss, alternating circuit workouts or endurance workouts with cardio is a good start.

You could do 3 weeks of one, then three weeks of the other.
 
Kathryn,

You always have great answers to posts. You are very knowledgable, and i always find my self reading any advice you give. Thanks.:7

Ann Marie:+
 
>I think you have to decide what you work on first: muscle
>gain or fat loss.
>
>For muscle gain, a GS rotation (each workout once a week,
>going as heavy as you can), alternating with cardio (and
>including one interval workout per week) is a good start.
>
>For fat loss, alternating circuit workouts or endurance
>workouts with cardio is a good start.
>
>You could do 3 weeks of one, then three weeks of the other.


Which Cathe's workout is endurance and which one is strenght?? I'M always confused between the two.
 
Which Cathe's workout is endurance and which one is strenght??
>I'M always confused between the two.


PH is the most endurance-oriented one (higher rep counts with no break), while S&H is the most strength-oriented workout.

Everything else kind of falls in between (Cathe once posted her ratings of where she thought they fell in terms of strength and endurance). More strength oriented workouts would be PS, GS, Pyramids (with extra time added between sets to work on lifting heavier, especially with the lower body workout).

MM is more strength than endurance, IMO, but it also needs longer breaks between segments to work that way, and I've found that it's more effective to work spilts for strength, so I will sometimes do the upper body premix for MM one day, and the lower body segment another day. That way, I don't have to conserve my energy for an hour's workout, and maybe hold back from how intenstly I could work a shorter workout).
 
Kathryn - as you know so much (and I mean that very respectfully!), I'm kind of trying to do the same thing, and I have more of a split routine. I put together this rotation (2 weeks of it, there are 4 total). Should I be doing this or should I be going four weeks totally endurance followed by 4 weeks totally strength?

Saturday Body Max
Sunday Long Hike
Monday Power Hour
Tuesday KPC and KM Blasts
Wednesday Step from MIC and Legs and Glutes
Thursday RS and Core Max 1 and Upper body workout at Gym (equivilant to MIS Upper Body)
Friday Off

Saturday Circuit Max
Sunday Long Hike and Core Max Segment 2
Monday 40 minute of Tae Bo and GS C&T at gym
Tuesday Legs and Glutes Tough premix
Wednesday GS BSB and step at gym
Thursday KPC Warm up and first Part, KM Drills, Cardio Kick Drills
 
Hi Christine.
Why don't you go with it for four weeks and see how it works? Though you might want to make each part of it last two weeks (so the rotation you have above would be for weeks 1-4). It's hard to tell how well something is working if you don't give it much time to work!

Some rotations work better for some people than others.
YOu also might want to put more days between GS C&T and GS B/S/B, to give the shoulders more of a rest. When I do a GS rotation, I do C&T on Monday (or whatever day "day 1" falls on), legs on Wednesday, and B/S/B on Friday, so that leaves either 2 or 3 days between the upper body workouts. Gives me more recovery time, and my shoulders like that!
 
Good idea Kathryn - thanks! My shoulders ARE sore! I went as heavy as I could and still complete most of the reps. I'll just switch Thursday and Tuesday around. And yes, I'll go ahead and and keep it up (I do have 2 more weeks but they are similar to the first two).

I'm feeling good so far. I was able to increase weight on GS C&T, so that was nice. We'll see.
 
Well, I guess I disagree with the general trend here.

Since muscle tissue burns more calories than other tissue and since heavy weight training helps the body burn calories for longer after the session finishes than any other form (comparing cardio with both endurance and heavy weight training), it seems logical to me that heavy weight training with cardio is the best way for the average person to lose weight and lose a dress size or two because gaining muscle and strength compacts the body.

Hence I would start a serious Gym Styles program, followed by S&H, and keep rotating. There's only so much that endurance weight training can do.

But, endurance weight training would have its place in a fat loss rotation if used as part of a circuit: Boot Camp and the High Step workouts. Otherwise, upper body endurance work does next to nothing for me.

Clare
 
That theory didn't work for me--I gained a lot of fat as a hardcore heavy-weight, low-rep lifter. What helped accelerate the fat loss was switching to the slighter lower weight, higher rep approach. Every body responds differently to each technique, and ultimately, each of us has to play and massage approaches to see what works for us.

Since I put on fat and muscle so easily (now that I'm past my mid-30's), I can have large muscles under too much fat when I lift heavy--not attractive.

One way to keep your body progressing is to keep changing up what you're doing. Don't JUST lift heavy or JUST for endurance--keep your body guessing!
 
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