Cardio During Lifting

crawforgarten

I've recently started hoping on a spinning bike for a minute between sets and have found it's a good way to keep my heart rate up.

Anyone else doing the same, or does anyone have any precautions they'd like to share?

sgt1372

Why do you feel the need to do this?

The purpose of rest between sets is recovery. If you're doing cardio bet sets you are limiting your recovery and your ability to lift. So, if your goal is to lift as heavy as you can, doing cardio bet sets would be counterproductive.

However, if you want maximize your HR for heart/health reasons, you can do circuits instead - a series of lifts and exercises w/o rest between them. A HIIT session for a min or 2 on the bike could be one (or more) of the stations. You will get a much better cardiovascular benefit doing this instead.

ew_david

Depends on how intense your sets are, I suppose. When I'm training upwards of my 1RM, I pretty much turn into a sloth between sets. However, right now I'm just getting back into heavier lifting and it's still pretty light, so I do some of my physical therapy stuff in between. That's about it.

canadianlbs

i basically measure my rest periods by whenever my heart rate goes down again, so not something that i would do. i'm another one who uses them to multi-task on the physiotherapy though.

i lift in a public space too, so i imagine that me hopping on a bike or treadmill for one minute out of every three or four would seriously annoy the people who came in specifically to put in some cardio time.

cwolfman13

I guess it would really depend on what exactly you're trying to accomplish...if I were going to train that way (and I do sometimes) I'd just do circuits. Otherwise lifting time is lifting time...my objective isn't cardio...it's improving upon my lifts...and cardio time is cardio time.

If you're doing any kind of "heavy" program, I would not jump on a bike between sets...you need the rest period to recover and maximize your sets and reps.

sijomial

Why?
Keeping HR up during a weight lifting session doesn't seem like a valid or useful goal to me.

Personally when I lift I want to concentrate on my lifting, when I want to do cardio I want to concentrate on my cardio.

Sorry - it seems to me to be a way to do two things badly!

DancingMoosie

Yeah, no way would pedalling a bike help me recover between squats or deadlifts! Focus on one or the other, or do circuit training. But if your goal is strength and lifting heavy, don't do cardio in between sets, save it for a separate workout.

crawforgarten

First I want to thank everyone who has responded, this is great feedback. I'm a relative noob, only been at weight lifting for about 6 months now after taking 15 years off.

Basically I only get 30 minutes to work out a night. I generally get through three sets of three different exercises doing as heavy weights as I can. So like last night I got incline dumbbell flyes, decline bench and bent arm dumbbell pullovers in. If i can pound out three set's of 15, I move to heavier weights the next time. I alternate weight nights with cardio nights on a spinning bike.

I was hoping that by combing them I might not have to alternate cardio/weight nights, because frankly I hate cardio with a passion.

crawforgarten

Oh and I'm trying to lose weight by exercising more in case that helps.

DancingMoosie

So your lifting involves upper body only? Sounds like a bad plan. Try a full body lifting program and cardio on days in between. Cardio can be fun, just find something you enjoy.

sijomial

If you want an alternative to get in as much lifting into your 30 minutes as possible then (personally) I would do push/pull alternate exercises with minimal rest periods concentrating on the big compound lifts and do no isolation exercises at all.
If effect your "pull muscles" are recovering while you are pushing and vice versa.

Upper/lower alternates are another option.

DancingMoosie

I would hate cardio too, if it was always a spinning bike...

cwolfman13

crawforgarten wrote: »

First I want to thank everyone who has responded, this is great feedback. I'm a relative noob, only been at weight lifting for about 6 months now after taking 15 years off.

Basically I only get 30 minutes to work out a night. I generally get through three sets of three different exercises doing as heavy weights as I can. So like last night I got incline dumbbell flyes, decline bench and bent arm dumbbell pullovers in. If i can pound out three set's of 15, I move to heavier weights the next time. I alternate weight nights with cardio nights on a spinning bike.

I was hoping that by combing them I might not have to alternate cardio/weight nights, because frankly I hate cardio with a passion.

Just a couple of ideas here...you're going to get more benefit from your weight training following a structured program...since you're short on time, a full body program like Stronglifts or Starting Strength would be perfect for you...you do three compound exercise per workout and you do it 3x per week...it is a very effective and efficient way to train. Both of these programs are designed for beginners and give you a big time introduction to compound lifts which should be the foundation of any program you eventually move onto. I do not recommend doing cardio between sets with these programs...focus on the task at hand and as the weight gets heavy you will need your rest intervals to recover.

As cardio goes, what exactly are you doing...I used to think I hated cardio too until I discovered cycling...at any rate, I would still recommend do it and doing it on opposing days to your lifting days.

Conversely, if you want a more cardio oriented resistance session you'd be better off doing circuit training...you will not be lifting "heavy"...it will be lighter weight with higher reps and little rest...it is a very effective and efficient way to get both resistance and cardio in one workout. I tend to do circuit training/boot camp kind of stuff when I'm trying to drop some weight for the simple fact that my energy expenditure will be higher and I'm not necessarily focused on strength gains, etc...just focused on leaning out.

crawforgarten

@ DancingMoosie, I am currently doing separate back, arms, core, shoulder, legs and chest day. And it's a spinning bike because I commute to / from work on a bike. It's really the only cardio I can stand. As my old coach would say he wouldn't be surprised to see me leisurely walk out of a burning building.

canadianlbs

crawforgarten wrote: »

First I want to thank everyone who has responded, this is great feedback. I'm a relative noob, only been at weight lifting for about 6 months now after taking 15 years off.

Basically I only get 30 minutes to work out a night. I generally get through three sets of three different exercises doing as heavy weights as I can. So like last night I got incline dumbbell flyes, decline bench and bent arm dumbbell pullovers in. If i can pound out three set's of 15, I move to heavier weights the next time. I alternate weight nights with cardio nights on a spinning bike.

I was hoping that by combing them I might not have to alternate cardio/weight nights, because frankly I hate cardio with a passion.

heh. that makes sense for where you're at, actually. you're just multi-tasking to maximize a limited resource, i.e. time. it probably does blunt your lifting progress a bit, but eh - me riding a bike all the time blunts my lifting as well. by the sounds of it you're not in it with lifting as your priority anyway.

i'm the same way about the physio/mobility stuff. i resent it so much. recognize it as a need, but i may be the only passionate yoga-hater on the planet. so there is no fecking way. i am not giving up an extra 30 minutes of my daily life exclusively to achieving serenity in the downward dog pose. so i do them while i'm immobilized anyway, stalled in traffic waiting for my own heart to slow down.

DancingMoosie

sijomial wrote: »

If you want an alternative to get in as much lifting into your 30 minutes as possible then (personally) I would do push/pull alternate exercises with minimal rest periods concentrating on the big compound lifts and do no isolation exercises at all.
If effect your "pull muscles" are recovering while you are pushing and vice versa.

Upper/lower alternates are another option.

I agree with this. I run my lifts in two's: bench and squat, then OHP and deadlifts, then rows and glute bridge. I basically do 5x5, but only 5x3 of deads and a few more reps each of glutes and rows. Gives each body part a chance to recover, but you aren't just sitting and resting. I can finish this full body compound workout within 30 min.

I got the impression you were bored with the spin bike, sorry if I misunderstood. Try some new things, you might find something you like. I had heard others mention turbo jam and never tried it. Guess what? It's now one of my favorite exercises. There are so many free workouts on YouTube...

jemhh

crawforgarten wrote: »

Oh and I'm trying to lose weight by exercising more in case that helps.

If that is your goal, biking during rest periods may help since you will be burning more calories.

I try to keep my exercise goals separate from weight loss goals at this point so it wouldn't work for me. But when I was obese, combining cardio and resistance exercise by doing a bodyweight circuit did help me burn more calories, which led to greater weight loss.