Appropriate time for cardio

I got a great question from a reader this week about cardio. The question asked what is the optimal time to do cardio, before or after a workout?

This question is very individual and depends on the persons goals. However, there are some guidelines that I hope to outline that will let you decide when the appropriate time to do cardio is.

Similar to the structure and design of your program, when you do cardio depends on your overall goal.

Let's first look at someone who is trying to cut or lose fat. Someone who is looking to cut usually focuses more on cardio and workouts that will increase the heart rate. So, for this person it would be okay to do cardio before a weightlifting session or on off days that you're not lifting. The reason for this is, you want to put most of your energy on the things that are focused on your goal. Your focus here is not to bench 500lbs or make the varsity football team, your focus is cardio. So, you want to do it when you have the most energy, off days or before a weightlifting session.

Now, we look at someone who is trying to gain weight or bulk. This person usually has a focus on gaining size, strength and power. They have increased their caloric intake and is gaining weight. They want to do cardio on a regular basis to maintain their cardiorespiratory fitness, but their goal is muscle gain. The optimal time to do cardio for this person would be on off days you are not lifting. This way, you can put all your energy into the lift on those days, and worry about cardio on off days. Also, if you are doing too much cardio while trying to gain size you are pretty much cancelling the two out. A second option would be after a lifting session, however your energy would be pretty low and your body is going to go to your muscles and glucose to get the energy, thus affecting your results of muscle gaining.

People must have a goal, and they have to stick with it. I can't stress it enough. If your goal is muscle size, stop running 6 days a week and start hitting the weights. If you need to drop 50lbs, then cardio is going to be your best friend.

I'm not going to go into what type of cardio is best, and the other key factor, nutrition. I will save that for a later blog. Both of these will affect your results more then the timing of your cardio.

I hope I was able to distinguish between the two options for cardio. If you have specific questions about how to organize your program, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.

Enjoy the weekend and the nice weather!

Best,

Doug Spurling

Spurling Strength & Speed

dspurling@une.edu

Interval Training and EPOC

After a amazing week in Florida completed with a long 26 hour drive home, I am in zombie mode right now as I write this. However, I wanted to check in with my viewers and give you guys some new reading.

High Intensity Interval Training(HIIT)

Today, HIIT is extremely popular, producing great results in fat loss and anaerobic capacity training, with plenty of research to support it. However, I still find several people just running/walking on the treadmill for hours on hours, while getting frustrated with their results.

Everybody has busy schedules and is lucky to get to the gym. So, when you are there why not make the best of your time. The benefit of HIIT is you can get the same results both metabolically and cardiovascularly from running on the treadmill for 60 minutes in 1/3 of the time.

HIIT is typically completed in about 20 minutes with about 5-10 minutes of warm-up and cool down. The intervals can be done on any piece of cardio equipment or even better, going outside and running. After a good warm-up beginners usually complete a 1:3 ratio. For example, you would sprint for 15 seconds, and then walk for 45 seconds. Continue that pattern for 15-20 minutes. As you advance you can work up to a 1:2 or 1:1 ratio.

There are extreme benefits to HIIT training in addition to saving time. HIIT training increases your Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). In layman's terms, by doing HIIT training you increase the amount of oxygen you take in after exercise resulting in burning more calories after the exercise bout.

So, by exercising at a higher intensity in a shorter time, you are able to increase your EPOC. Thus, burning more calories each hour after the exercise bout.

HIIT Training is intense. It should not be done everyday, and is not for beginners. If you have more questions or would like more information on programming HIIT into your program shoot me an e-mail.

Also, be sure to "Like" my Facebook page "Spurling Strength & Speed."

After being up for about 30 hours straight, the mattress is calling me.

Any questions or topic ideas please e-mail me anytime.

Best,

Doug Spurling, CSCS, NSCA-CPT
Spurling Strength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu