Monday, June 13, 2011

Lose The Weight, Not The Muscle - Cardio Vs. Strength Traininig


 Losing the extra weight without losing the muscle can be a bit of a challenge. This is especially true if you’re squeeze in strength and cardio training into the same fitness program. The latter one has a notorious reputation for burning muscle mass, however, here is a training tip that can help you lose the weight and spare the muscle.

Separate Cardio and Strength Training Into 2 Sessions

If you don’t want
to get rid of your cardio session then you ought to do the strength and cardio training on separate days and keep switching between them. Hence, making sure that your body has properly recovered and is able to take on the challenge without increasing the chances of burnout or muscle mass loss.

Nonetheless, if you tend to be more like me and simply one workout a day isn’t enough, then you ought to opt for the more advanced option and do both trainings on the same day. Yet, you should at the very least split the two workout routines by more than 8 hours and make sure that your energy tanks are full and ready to sustain the intense exercise. Increasing your carbohydrates intake during such training days can prevent the protein breakdown—which is the main cause of muscle mass loss.

And when it comes to what training comes first, for me personally, I am inclined to doing the strength in the morning, then aerobic exercise afterwards in the evening. Usually after cardio training, the body is drained and can no longer perform at a peak level. However, I have met other people who may preach otherwise. However, it’s your decision to make. No suit fits all.

2 comments:

  1. What about adding a short cardio workout to a long weight lifting session? Say a 15-20 min cardio session followed by a full weight training session to increase the heart rate and get blood pumping before exercise. Is this bad? should i be waiting until later to do my cardio bouts? I'm not interested in losing a bunch of weight, just toning my muscles and keeping my heart healthy. My primary goal is to build large lean muscles naturally. Any suggestions?

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  2. Absolutely recommend a separation between cardio and strength training from my own experience. I've tried to combine both - cardio immediately before and after strength training and found one impacts the other too much to get the best out of either. My own personal preference to get lean (although I don't do much) is cardio first thing in the morning after only taking on fluids. This encourages your body to utilise your glycogen stores and revs your metabolism for the rest of the day.

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