What are you still doing cardio ?

[Dreamliner]

Becoming as strong as you possibly can is arguably the best strategy for being able to perform the relevant tasks in your life and is therefore probably the best use of your training time with regards to conditioning:

http://startingstrength.com/articles...g_sheaffer.pdf

[Dreamliner]

Sorry, that should read: WHY are you still ...

[ThomasGoldkamp]

I've been weight training three days a week for a solid two months now. Haven't done much cardio. Still seeing a little fat I want to trim. In lieu of changing my diet, I've started running more to burn it off.

That's why for me, I'd prefer to keep eating how I am.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by ThomasGoldkamp

I've been weight training three days a week for a solid two months now. Haven't done much cardio. Still seeing a little fat I want to trim. In lieu of changing my diet, I've started running more to burn it off.

That's why for me, I'd prefer to keep eating how I am.

You mean you want to exercise more so you don't have to eat less ? Clearly that works for some. But on the ground I don't see it working terribly well for many folks.

Something else to keep in mind: when you couple strength training with endurance training ... your body tends to privilege endurance.

[ThomasGoldkamp]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

You mean you want to exercise more so you don't have to eat less ? Clearly that works for some. But on the ground I don't see it working terribly well for many folks.

Something else to keep in mind: when you couple strength training with endurance training ... your body tends to privilege endurance.

Yeah, basically eat same, work out more. We're talking five pounds at most that I want to keep off.

Also, what do you mean by privileging endurance? I try to make my cardio mostly sprint and plyometric workouts to get the heart rate going really quickly. I really don't feel like distance running does much, to be honest.

[uffeesh]

How about playing two hours of basketball?

[ThomasGoldkamp]

Originally Posted by uffeesh

How about playing two hours of basketball?

I need to find people to play pick-up games with. Derek convinced me to sign up at a gym without a basketball court...

[gator884]

I do cardio because after two years of lifting 5 days a week, I tried to do a 'dry run' for a mini-triathlon I was interested in and there was no way I could finish. Now I try to balance lifting with the tri focused edurance sports.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by ThomasGoldkamp

Yeah, basically eat same, work out more. We're talking five pounds at most that I want to keep off.

Also, what do you mean by privileging endurance? I try to make my cardio mostly sprint and plyometric workouts to get the heart rate going really quickly. I really don't feel like distance running does much, to be honest.

Well, that's what I meant, distance running. It's the last thing a person who likes their fast twitch fibers ought to be doing.

Sprinting is great, but not altogether different than what you're doing with weights. So, arguably redundant. I do it on occasion. Think it's cool. But don't really believe it's doing much for body composition. Seriously, how many calories can I possibly be burning sprinting ?

Not telling you what to do, but since calorie burn seems paramount for you, walking is one thing you could do in abundance without interfering with muscle gain.

Yes, I'm saying get stronger and stronger in the weight room and walk to get ripped.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by gator884

I do cardio because after two years of lifting 5 days a week, I tried to do a 'dry run' for a mini-triathlon I was interested in and there was no way I could finish. Now I try to balance lifting with the tri focused edurance sports.

No doubt that the triathlete needs endurance work. What I had in mind were the 99% who earnestly believe they have to get huffing and puffing, til their hands are on their knees, to prepare themselves for the usual rigors of life.

[LeafUF]

If you are doing cardio and think that high intensity intervals are doing more for you than steady state you may be surprised.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...plication.html

In the research review, Effects of exercise intensity and duration on the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, I threw out a lot of data regarding the actual impact of exercise on the post-exercise calorie burn (called EPOC which stands for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption, essentially the ‘extra’ calories you burn after training). Since that piece was on the long side to begin with, I decided to save some more concrete examples for today’s follow-up blog.

Semi-recapping from yesterday, the paper conclude that high intensity training can generate larger EPOC’s at least in terms of the percentage contribution. The paper suggested that values of a 7% EPOC for steady state work but 14% for interval work were approximately correct values so that’s what I’m going to use.

As I mentioned yesterday, and want to look at in more detail today, although 14% sounds impressively larger than 7%, this can be terribly misleading. 7% of a large number can still be more than 14% of a much smaller number even if the percentage contribution is higher in the second case. And no matter how you cut it, the majority of calories burned come during the workout, not afterwards. As you’ll see, the EPOC doesn’t amount to jack for any realistic amount of activity.

What I want to look at today is how those values might apply in the real world in terms of determining how different types of exercise affect energy balance. This is going to be a lead in to next week’s series of articles where I make some slightly more concrete statements about the role of either intervals or steady state exercise for fat loss. Which of course leads into comments on how to practically implement either one.

[Dreamliner]

That's true. LOTS of confusion out there. HIIT makes sense if you need that kind of conditioning for a specific sport. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a standpoint of body compositioning.

And here's what a lot of people don't understand. In terms of systemic stress adding a HIIT session is like adding another strength session. Why not lift, rest and recover ?

[LeafUF]

It really depends on your goals. I am not opposed to cardio, but I do not enjoy it and if I can avoid it I will. If I feel like I need to burn some extra calories during the week I will go do a steady state session for 45 minutes or so while reading something for work or watching tv.

Ideally, my weightlifting and diet are enough though that cardio is unnecessary for me. Now, if I ever wanted to get into a sport where endurance or speed were important then I may change my stance on that.

[ThomasGoldkamp]

Interesting stuff, Leaf. I guess part of me is old school thinking HIIT is far better for you than steady state. Can't seem to wrap my mind around something that doesn't physically make me feel exertion could be better for me in terms of what I'm trying to do.

I've always been the kind of guy that felt I wasn't gaining if it wasn't hurting, so to speak.

So if I'm not pushing myself until I'm out of breath, tired and ready to stop, I always feel like I'm not really getting in a good workout. That goes for both strength training and conditioning type work.

Probably explains my inclination to lean toward HIIT rather than steady state. I've always thought walking - and to a lesser extent distance running - was entirely pointless. Your study suggests otherwise.

[LeafUF]

Well that is looking at it from a calorie burning perspective so its not that are not other factors to consider like performance. I mean walking for 30 minutes may only burn slightly fewer calories than interval training for 30 minutes but its definitely not going to help you get faster. The benefit to steady state based on this research is that you can do it longer and therefore burn more calories. So if calorie burn is your goal it may be worth rethinking.

[Dreamliner]

There has been a pronounced shift, a marked over-correction, in my opinion, from aerobic to anaerobic exercise. When people strength train and do HITT they're adding anaerobic to anaerobic. How much do you really need ?

Thomas hits at something pretty important. We've somehow been led to believe that if exercise doesn't 'feel' hard that it is of little value. But why should aerobic feel hard ? If it felt hard would it be aerobic ?

At the same time, it bears mentioning that aerobics is too associated with jogging and running. Walking is a fine aerobic exercise.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by LeafUF

Well that is looking at it from a calorie burning perspective so its not that are not other factors to consider like performance. I mean walking for 30 minutes may only burn slightly fewer calories than interval training for 30 minutes but its definitely not going to help you get faster. The benefit to steady state based on this research is that you can do it longer and therefore burn more calories. So if calorie burn is your goal it may be worth rethinking.

Also you are far less likely to injure yourself walking.

[Dreamliner]

Also, since most men don't actually give rat's ass about the health benefits of cardio, they primarily want to be leaner, again the question begs.

[15gator05]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Also, since most men don't actually give rat's ass about the health benefits of cardio, they primarily want to be leaner, again the question begs.

What if you do sprint disance running? Lol

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by 15gator05

What if you do sprint disance running? Lol

Hehe, I'd actually like to see the average joe actually sprint more than twenty seconds or so.