Cardio after strength training: how to combine cardio and strength training: alternation, which workouts are best for weight loss

Cardio

Cardio, or aerobic training, is low- and moderate-intensity physical exercise that uses the maximum number of muscles and consumes a large amount of oxygen. The same O2 in this case acts as the predominant energy source. At the same time, the blood is actively saturated with oxygen and intensively delivers it to the cells. Biochemically, movements occur due to the oxidation of glucose with oxygen. At the same time, the processes of catabolism - metabolic breakdown - are launched and accelerated, which is important when there is an excess of adipose tissue.

Proper cardio

The nature of performing correct cardio exercises is rhythmic, dynamic, continuous and long, at least 5 minutes each. The interval between exercises is minimal - no longer than 1 minute. The exercise time sufficient to burn fat is more than 40 minutes.

Normally, cardio training is accompanied by an increase in heart rate, increased breathing, and increased sweating. The pulse rises and stays for a certain time. Working values at which exercises are effective: 70-80%*maximum heart rate MHR. MHR for men is 220-age, for women – 226-age.

The benefits of cardio training performed according to the listed rules:

strengthen the heart muscle;
speed up metabolism, burn calories, help lose weight by reducing fat;
increase lung volume and strength;
increase vitality;
promote the production of anti-stress hormones;
increase overall endurance;
improve sleep quality.

Examples of cardio training are walking, running, swimming, cycling, sports activities, and sports dancing.

It's called endurance and metabolic training (MRT).

The goal is to expend as many calories as possible while increasing your metabolism, Joey Dowdell, a certified exercise therapist, said in an article for Shape Magazine.

In short, this training method aims to burn enough calories and fat to lose weight without losing muscle.

It's the perfect combination of cardio and strength training that feels like neither, and will also save you the hassle of figuring out how much cardio to do after a strength workout. It is ideal for those who are “sick of cardio” and for ladies who are afraid to lift heavy weights.

MRI training is such a concentration of all the advantages of cardio and strength training, but without forcing you to train for hours on end. In fact, MRI workouts are usually less than 30 minutes in duration and are performed 2-3 times a week due to the fat burning after the workout.

Plus, to make things even better, this type of workout is great for weight loss by keeping the intensity high. Here's an MRI workout you can get started with today!

Power

Strength training is a type of high-intensity physical activity in which exercises are performed with weights: dumbbells, kettlebells, barbells, expanders and other sports equipment. Anaerobic exercise differs from aerobic exercise in the source of energy: the body uses substances contained in the muscles – ATP and CP – as “fuel”.

The movements occur due to the oxidation of glucose in the absence of oxygen. The duration of strength exercises is less than 5 minutes. Between approaches, breaks are necessary to allow for recovery. After each set, they are gradually increased so that the efficiency of performing movements does not decrease.

During the strength training itself, not many calories are burned, while the increased energy expenditure continues throughout the day. Subject to a balanced diet, alternating short intense loads and sufficient rest between approaches, strength training stimulates anabolic processes - the synthesis of new muscle cells and tissues.

Benefits of strength training:

high energy consumption in a short period of time;
the ability to not only burn fat, but also build muscle mass;
the ability to increase muscle volume without increasing fat tissue;
increasing explosive strength and muscle endurance.

Examples of anaerobic strength exercises are weight lifting 10-15 repetitions, sprinting, bodybuilding, powerlifting.

Conclusion

Cardio training helps you lose weight and get rid of body fat, while strength training helps you increase muscle mass. If you want to maintain good physical shape, then both training sessions must be combined. They can be combined within one workout or alternate cardio with strength training throughout the week.

Do cardio after or before strength training?

Cardio training, depending on what day or time you choose, can be combined with strength training as follows:

cardio before or immediately after exercise
cardio on the day of strength training, but with a rest interval of several hours
cardio on a separate day from strength training

Cardio and strength training on different days

To get the best results and achieve your goal, ideally all cardio exercises should be performed separately from strength exercises, that is, on different training days. For example, if you work out at the gym three times a week This is especially important for those who want to maintain or increase muscle mass .

If you do cardio before strength training, say an hour before, your glycogen will be depleted (through aerobic glycolysis), which means you won't have the energy to do strength training in the gym.

Glycogen is the main source of energy for muscles, and if you don't have enough of it, you won't be able to perform those final reps that produce the maximum benefit from strength training.

In addition, separating cardio and strength training on different training days protects the athlete from overtraining , which can occur against the background of fatigue and severe muscle fatigue.

Strength training on the same day as cardio

Cardio on the same day as strength training

If you want to do cardio and strength training on the same day, it is better to do cardio exercises after strength training. The main reason for this order is that weight training requires a significant expenditure of glycogen, and if you do cardio before it, the effectiveness of training in the gym will be greatly reduced.

Various experiments in which one group of athletes performed cardio before strength training, and the other did not. As a result, the best results in the bench press exercise were shown by the second group, which chose rest instead of cardio before strength training.

In order for cardio training to bring maximum effect, start doing it a few hours after strength training ( 4-6 hours ), during which time the level of glycogen in the muscles , and catabolism (muscle destruction) slows down.

But in any case, even if you do not plan to take such a break of 4-6 hours, cardio should follow after strength training, and not vice versa.

Thus, summarizing the information presented, we come to the conclusion that if your goal is to maintain or increase muscle mass we perform low-intensity , separately from strength training, that is, on different days, if your goal is to lose weight and become “lean”, gain muscle tone , then you can do cardio immediately after strength training, on the same day, preferably 4-6 hours later, so that glycogen levels return to normal and you can do cardio more effectively.

If are not important , then by and large you don’t care when to do cardio, before or after. In this case, there will be one goal, to spend energy due to the oxidation of fats in aerobic training, and to promote metabolic processes due to anaerobic training, which will ensure a calorie deficit in the body during the day, naturally with proper nutrition for weight loss.

The main fat-burning effect of combining cardio and strength training is the release of fat-burning hormones , the main one of which is growth hormone , as well as an increase in energy expenditure (metabolism) after strength training, and the use of fat as an energy source during cardio. Thus, you will not only get rid of excess weight, but also tone your muscles.

In addition, you need to understand that cardio training is not a light warm-up on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes before training, or 10 minutes of jumping rope in three approaches. This is something more, which implies significant aerobic energy expenditure, for example, 30-40 minutes of running at a heart rate 70-75% of the maximum, various CrossFit complexes, active, long swimming in the pool, and so on.

Cardio on the same day as strength training

The benefits of cardio and strength training will only come if you stick to a set training and nutrition plan a regular basis.

It is also important to remember that each person feels the greatest surge of energy at certain times of the day. Try to find out this time for yourself and take it into account when drawing up your cardio training . The right time for exercise will guarantee the necessary energy supply and maximum benefit from training.

Why do you need cardio after strength training?

It is generally accepted that during anaerobic training you will exhaust all glycogen, so adipose tissue will “burn” during aerobic training. At the same time, a number of experts doubt whether cardio should always be done after strength training.

They believe that if a person has strength left, for example, for a 40-minute run after a “rocking exercise,” then he did not work out and did not exercise effectively. In their opinion, this regime of combining strength and cardio loads in one workout is suitable only for experienced and endurance athletes.

Option 2 – cardio session after strength training

A cardio session after strength training is considered the best way to combine aerobic and anaerobic training for those who have set themselves the goal of losing excess weight. When people ask me questions about whether this or that method is good or that or that method is less good, quite often I answer the question with a question: what is your primary goal? Because Knowing the goal, you can choose the appropriate method that will allow you to achieve your goal in a shorter period of time.

And again - if you run after a strength training, thinking that this way you will lose weight faster, since during the strength training you have already exhausted the entire supply of glycogen, and during the cardio session the fat you hate will “burn”, then this is again not true. If you still have the strength to run after the strength training, it means that the strength training was not intense enough and your muscles were not worked at full capacity. During such a cardio session, there is a high probability that the amount of fat tissue will then decrease along with muscle tissue.

But hardly anyone wants to voluntarily lose muscle tissue. . .

In practice, the following conclusion can be drawn from all this - this option of combining a cardio session and strength training is more suitable for experienced practitioners who, when using a cardio session, place emphasis on cardiovascular training, and currently do strength training with a low or medium level of complexity. And by the way, during the period of gaining muscle mass.

You should NEVER do cardio sessions after a very hard strength training session! Neither a beginner, nor an athlete of an average level of training, nor an experienced athlete.

If a beginner does this, then during strength training the thought always flashes in his mind that he still has a cardio session waiting for him, and this thought will not give him the opportunity to give his best in strength training. But it is also necessary to take into account that a beginner cannot yet give all his best in strength training, since the “brain-muscle” connection is not so strong yet, it is not possible to use them to the fullest. Therefore, quite often you can hear from beginners after strength training: “I’m not particularly tired for some reason.”

In this case, you can perform a cardio session in the required volume. Especially if you study at home. Just like in a fitness club, you are more likely to be fully loaded during strength training.

Power, energy consumption and energy consumption

For both weight loss and muscle growth, it is important to eat right. To reduce body size, it is necessary that the number of calories expended per day be greater than those consumed. At the same time, a competent balance of proteins, fats and carbohydrates (BJU) is important - 1:1:4. It is recommended to exercise no earlier than 2 hours after a meal - lean protein with vegetables - or in the morning on an empty stomach.

When working on muscle mass, there are fewer dietary restrictions. The diet should contain more protein than during the weight loss period. To gain muscle mass per 1 kg of weight, you need to consume at least 2 g of protein, 4-6 g of carbohydrates and 1 g of fat. Additional intake of protein shakes is optimal. They can be replaced with cottage cheese-kefir smoothies with honey and fruit.

Strength and cardio training on a diet[edit | edit code]

Results of a 2014 meta-analysis by a group of scientists: Eric Helms (ER Helms), Peter Fitscher (Fitschen PJ), Alan Aragon (AA Aragon), John Cronin (Cronin J) and Brad Schoenfeld (BJ). One meta-analysis is about nutrition[1], the second is about training[2].

Briefly about dietary recommendations[3] from the first meta-analysis

Protein 2.3-3.1 g/kg LBM [4]
Fats 15-30% of calorie deficit [5][6]
Carbohydrates according to dietary preference/plan or diet type
Weekly fat loss (% of body weight) 0.5-1% [7][8]

To achieve the effect of maximizing the preservation of muscle mass on a diet, it is recommended to follow a number of rules.

Strength training and its anabolic effects can help minimize muscle loss during competition preparation.

It is more correct to build a training cycle according to the principles of block and wave periodization.

It is recommended to train each muscle group at least 2 times a week or more often. If each muscle group is trained more than 2 times a week, then it is recommended to distribute the training volume in such a way as to avoid excessive load within one workout (in general, if we train more often, it is better to reduce the volume and distribute it more evenly across all days of the training week).

Below is the recommended training frequency for each muscle group according to Wernbom at al.[9], but I want to make it clear that Wernbom wasn't looking at the issue in terms of caloric deficits, he was looking at protocols for hypertrophy under normal nutritional conditions (well, at least this is not stated separately, but in essence it is logical and presumed), and yes, this data was collected on athletes of different levels of training (from beginners to professional athletes; more than 60 studies), on the type of training, intensity, level of training. Some of this data, among other things, formed the basis for the conclusions of Helms’ team.

The number of repetitions can vary from low to high (3-15), but should generally be in the range of 6 to 12 repetitions with a weight of 70-80% of 1RM (one repetition maximum).

For one workout, each muscle group should have a total of about 40-70 repetitions, although experienced athletes can use higher volumes.

Rest intervals should be the standard 1-3 minutes, although the rest period can be longer.

The pace of the exercise should be selected in such a way that throughout the entire training movement maximum control is maintained and technique is observed as much as possible: in this case, the concentric phase (lifting weights, muscle contraction) should take about 1-2 seconds, the eccentric (lowering) phase should take about 2 -3 sec.

Recommendations for failure training: You should limit training to failure when performing multi-joint exercises, but you can use this approach for high-repetition, single-joint exercises.

The basis of the training should be multi-joint exercises, and also include isolating single-joint exercises as “auxiliary exercises” to load those muscles to which the athlete pays special attention. Moreover, it is recommended to perform multi-joint exercises before single-joint exercises. And it is advisable to train large muscle groups at the beginning, moving on to small ones. But at the same time, one should be guided by the athlete’s goals, and if there are lagging muscle groups, it may make sense to start training by working the lagging muscles (the logic here is simple, if you start working these muscles after performing a series of exercises, then there may not be enough strength left for the lagging ones and their development will be ineffective, which ultimately can lead to even greater loss on the diet).

The full amplitude of the training movement in ideal technique (or close to it) is recommended.

Cardio training can be used to optimize the fat burning process. But it is necessary to take into account that increasing the frequency and duration of cardio training negatively affects the results of strength training. Thus, it is recommended not to overdo it with cardio training; you should maintain the frequency and duration of cardio training at the minimum required (for fat burning) level. Based on research, it is optimal to perform cardio on stationary bikes or cardio workouts that involve the whole body (not just the upper or lower body; for example, fullbody with light weights/kettlebells).

High-intensity cardio is not bad if present, but here you need to look at individual characteristics in recovery, i.e. It should be taken into account that this type of cardio requires more recovery time. Fasted cardio does not seem to have any advantage over postprandial exercise and may even have a negative effect, but there is no definitive data on this (fasted cardio, although associated with nitrogen losses, equates to about 14 grams of amino acids per day). 60 min cardio, but there is no data on whether this is a loss of MM, and whether this loss will ultimately be compensated by the intake of protein in the post-workout meal).

Conclusion

Strength and cardio exercises are combined in different ways in practice. Moreover, each option has its own theoretical justification, supported by practical results. It all depends on the initial data, lifestyle, training regimen and individual characteristics of the body. Thus, from the proposed options, you can choose the most suitable one for yourself. Achieving sports goals is impossible without proper nutrition.

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