Does Cardio Training Interfere with Strength?
 

I feel compelled to post this in light of the concerns expressed about strength gains:

Most people interested in fitness do cardiovascuar and strength training and want to get the most out of both kinds of workouts. Dr. Len Kravitz discussed the effects of concurrent training (doing cardiovascular exercise followed by strength training) on strength gains. Many studies, but not all, show that endurance training interferes with strength gains. New research shows that the intensity of endurance exercise did not affect strength performance, unless the muscles used to do aerobics were trained again with weights. Leg press was dramatically affected for at least eight hours after riding a bike. If you want to concentrate on strength gains, train with weights first and then do your aerobics. If you want to concentrate on cardiovascular endurance for physically-active sports, hobbies or recreational activities; train aerobically first, then hit the weights.

(from IDEA Personal Trainer, March, 2004)

J.

Why would lifting first compromise building cardiovascular endurance?

Yanno, I was thinking on that.

I'm thinking that perhaps it has something to do with it not burning as much fat as the other way around.

The whole deal with endurance exercise is that you are trying to make the body as efficient as possible - in other words, an economy car that can run forever on very little gas.

The exact opposite, of course, is what drives those of us who lift to continue to do so: it makes our bodies INEFFICIENT - in other words, huge, gas-guzzling v-12 engines that sit around burning fat even when we're, well, sitting around.

By doing the lifting first, you allow the anaerobic portion of your workout to use up glycogen for the lifting portion. Having run out of fuel, by the time you do your cardio, you'll tap into fat stores.

If you do your cardio first, you'll be using up blood sugar and glycogen, and be able to do a LOT more cardio, more comfortably, because you are switching fuel systems about a half an hour in, at which point, the fat-burning portion kicks in (the not as fun part). Now, if you lift, you won't be able to do much muscle-building work, because you're tired. I imagine that this also stresses the muscle in a way that will somehow teach the body how to continue to work even under conditions of exhaustion (I don't know how. Beyond this point, there be dragons). I DO know that this kind of training is used for many sports where the ability to perform well even while exhausted is required (overtime for hockey games, for example).
Furthermore, because you're doing your resistance training while tired, you won't be able to destroy enough muscle tissue to stimulate much of an anabolic response. So you won't raise your metabolic rate by much, and you won't build much extra muscle that would need to be carried around - you allow your body to remain an efficient economy car, which will get better and better mileage the more you do this.

I have, of course, just described why I would NEVER do this, but my motivations are, as my sig says, gluttony and vanity - I want to be able to look good while eating MORE food.

If I was interested in performing well in endurance situations, I'm sure I would adjust my training accordingly.

:)

How'd I do LCJ?

Great Job, Built!,

And well put!, I am so glad that we can be on the same page!

Also, in endurance events, there may also an element of speed involved.

So, using your vehicular analogy, I might phrase it this way: "Are you training for the Indianapolis 500 or for a Monster Truck Rally?"

J.

Indy well describes the endurance side, but Monster Truck Rally might not be an apt analogy for anaerobic conditioning - there's a surprising amount of endurance involved with such heavy work over a long time.

But sprinting, which involves trying to get the fastest speed possible for a very short burst, requires a great deal of anaerobic training. Look at the bodies of endurance athletes vs sprinters - the sprinter has MASSIVE quads and hams, and substantial upper body strength and size as well. Drag racing might be a more apt analogy.

I want to do well in endurance (trail running) but there is no way I would do a cardio workout before the weight workout. In fact, I don't even do much cardio at all on weight day because cardio after weight training is just junk miles of questionable benefit. My long runs are catabolic enough so why hurt those muscles so soon after the weights? I suppose if you're super competitive endurance, then maybe the right decision is to drop weight training altogether to get quality training miles 6 times a week, but for mere mortals like me, I like getting muscles that help me burn fat while sitting at my desk job and I still get to do those important long runs every week.

I do long-ish recreational bike rides on the weekend when the weather permits. I'm with you TrailRunR - these are plenty catabolic. I hardly do any other cardio at all, and I can't even remember when I did any cardio on a lifting day.

I kinda like thinking of myself as a Monster Truck, of course I'm a South Carolina boy so that may tell you something. Michael Jordan used to lift weights before basketball games, didn't seem to hurt him any.

Economy Car, Dragster, Indy Racer and Monster Truck :)

Oh, and one more. Could I call the last one an SUV? :D

J.

P.S. I had to remove the previous monster truck photo, I can't endorse a juicer! This guy is from naturalbodybuilder.com; I hope that he's clean!

Yup. That's about right. Monster truck is, of course, on juice though. Nobody gets like that naturally. The round shoulder caps are a dead giveaway.

Just don't want anybody to get the wrong idea here about what can and cannot happen through diet and lifting alone.

:)

Darn!

Built, you mean "The Rock" is a juicer, too? Maybe you could help me find a pic of a good, natural Monster Truck.

J.

Sure - me!



Your friendly, neighbourhood Monster Truck.

:lol:

Yes, Built, You look very good....

But I think I'll need to get a bigger monitor to see the whole picture. :)

J.

You'd need to be a monster truck yourself to see the WHOLE picture.

Hee hee!

;)

I wanna be a monster truck just like Built when I grow up :D