Workout of The Week (#71)
Programming Cardio in With Lifting
Doing cardio with your training routine is now labeled as “hybrid” but it was a staple of most routines back in the day. Most people just over think it when it comes to adding aerobic work into their training. Here are some principles tp keep in mind.
1.) Do what’s most important first
You want to have all the resources available for what’s most important. This means if gaining muscle or getting a better physique is most important to you, then lift first and do cardio afterward or on an off day.
I’ve also heard the advice to leave your body with the signal you want most at the end. If you want aerobic adaptations primarily, then work in cardio at the end. This logic makes sense for somebody like a triathlete where they’ll do strength training first because they want general strength, performance, and injury prevention benefits from it but really the most important aspect of their training is endurance.
Doing the most neurologically demanding work (ex: compounds lifts, plyometrics, sprints, or other high velocity movements) first tends to make the most sense. Striking an appropriate balance really depends on your end goal. Don’t smash your legs with high itnensity intervals on a bike and expect to squat a new PR.
2.) Use Heavy Light Concepts to Undulate Intensities
If you go heavy in training then go light on cardio that day or for your next session. Conversely, If you do intense interval training then take the next day off or go light on your training. This could also mean just doing shorter bouts of intense interval work (8-12 minutes instead of 15+ minutes) as a “light” session.
3.) Remember the Intereference Effect
I’m not going to fear monger you with the exercise science sorrounding the interference effect. If you train legs heavy and then do 30-minutes of stairmaster afterward, you likely won’t maximize muscle gain. However, you’ll still gain muscle, it may just be a bit less than if you only lifted. If you only lifted and neglected cardio however, you may run into other issues later so that also doesn’t seem like a great option to me.
Couple things here on that note.
Cardio won’t necessarily “kill your gains”, it just upregulates cellular signalling that emphasizes another pathway because you’re now sending multiple cellular signals instead of just one (“hey, grow muscle” vs. “Hey grow muscle, build endurance, I want it all and i want it yesterday”). You can minimize the effect by using alternate splits. Meaning, do stairmaster after upper body to minimize interference or just do it on off days.
If you’re not training for Mr Olympia or are trying to become a world record holder, taking sightly less muscle gain but being healthier overall and in better shape to tolerate training will have better returns than being afraid of the interference affect and consequently running away from doing any cardio. See what I did there? Alright pls don’t unsubscribe I won’t use any more puns in this article.
The Workout
This sessions a bit more aerobic since every movement will have jump roping between. I’ve also done something similar with a bodybuilding style work out, I called it aerobic bodybuilding. The idea was to alternate between 1 min of jogging or biking with 1 min of pressing or curling, that way you work up a sweat and a good pump. It’s better as a “feel good” type of session or something to do in a hotel. It’s also more fun than just going on a treadmill for 20 minutes.
Other modifications:
Make it more aerobic by jumping for for 60-120 seconds instead of 45 and then perform KB movements for 45 seconds
Make it bodyweight only and sub out KB exercises with pushups, Inverted rows, squats, lunges, animal crawls, or core exercises.
Full send. Don’t stop. Ignore the rest periods and just do a minute of everything.
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