Listen, get off the treadmill and do us both a favor and start picking up some weights. I don't care what your goals are, because endurance training isn't all you need; ESPECIALLY if your a marathon runner or a triathlete.
Why?
Lets break it down for everyone to understand. Firstly, never begin your training for the day with cardiovascular training, unless your separating your sessions into two. Which means, doing cardio in the morning and then doing weight lifting later on in the day. This is the only time i feel like running would be first.
Obviously, you can also do weight lifting in the morning and then run later on in the day, but lets look at a scenario that most of you probably fight every day. Running on the treadmill for 30mins and then hoping off of the machine to attempt to lift some heavy weights! Why doesn't this work?
- Your energy is depleted from running, not enough to use your muscle to its maximal capacity.
- Increases cortisol in the body.
- Increases chances of poor form due to fatigue (lead to injury and inadequate muscle stimulus.)
- Weight lifting first, high intensity, heavy weights (70% - 80% of 1RM if no history of injury present), low volume.
- Cardiovascular Training, either cross training type circuit (crossfit.com), or running, jump roping, row machine, or sprints.
Well since there are soo many options to increase your endurance and burn some calories, your probably wondering what I would use. I dont technically use cardio in my workouts because i am only trying to build muscle and an impressive physique. Cardio would only hinder the amount of recovery I can get before my next workout. I tend to do very low intensity, short duration, cardio sessions for blood flow reasons.
But, if i was in the market to lose fat in the most effective way possible. I would choose to do a crossfit WOD (work out of the day) or sprints with a weighted vest on. I choose these two types of endurance training mainly because...
- Crossfit increases muscle endurance in your upper body and lower body. Also grows your both simultaneously and may hit some spots that are troublesome to become activated during a traditional style weightlifting program.
- Also because of the fast movements, it can help increase power through muscle friction. (basically if you lift something faster and lower weight = the same as a higher weight lifting it slower; i.e. think about squatting your max vs squatting 25 times with half the weight but basically going as fast as your possibly can.)
- Sprinting on the other hand, especially with a weighted vest will translate to power, only issue is that the effect is lower body only. The power movement is highly transferable to sports and in the gym especially Sprints with long strides can also help you in trouble spots to reduce poor posture (obviously you need to sprint with correct form and not slump over or let your arms travel across your body.) A trouble spot in most sedative individuals are in the hip flexors. Sprints are highly effective for strengthening the hips.
So basically, if you want to get in tip top shape. Get on a weight lifting program and follow it up with cardiovascular training. Don't be fooled by all the gym rats that you see clustered on the treadmill. Individuals do this because it's an easy way for them to say they were active for the day. And because it isn't uncomfortable (which probably means its not doing much for their physique, and isn't that why most people go to the gym?)
Also, on the internet, you can probably go to sites that say do cardio first. Their has been recent study that talks about the positive effects of cardio first. Some of the effects are..
- Higher testosterone
- A perceived notion of more work due to the increase difficulty to finish your weight training program
- More sweating... And more calories burnt during your cardio session. (Weight lifting burns calories even when your not doing it because of muscle growth, so unless you want to run every single day for the rest of your life, your going to gain fat and screw up your physique.)
Just to let my readers understand my posts. I obviously do a lot of blanketing towards society, and I do a lot of stipulations. I base my studies off of first hand experience. Their is never a black and white answer or statement. Their are always people who stick out as a deviation from the rest of statistics. But, the majority is what I am writing this stuff for. So generally, you belong in the statistically group. The only time i don't use the same answer for everyone is when writing a program for a client. Exercises should be varied in each one of your programs, and this is due to muscle imbalances, injuries, goals, etc... So don't think their is an actual answer for everyone. Just something thats pretty much 100% true across the world, if you want to build an impressive physique, do cardio second to weightlifting.
