Cardio Between Lift Sets?

taso42

It's clear that your heart is in the right place. You are looking to maximize the efficiency of your workout sessions. This is an excellent mentally to have. If you truly want the most bang for your buck, start on one of the compound lifting routines like Starting Strength, or StrongLifts 5x5. Five heavy reps, where you will need to sit the f down in between sets until you can remember your name and address again. On the off days do intervals or conditioning training. You'll be working out 4-6 times a week, and every minute will count (including the 1-3 minutes between sets while your'e resting)

Start today and thank me 3 months down the road.

jtslim42

I do something similar with my personal trainer. If it works for you then do it. Everybody will have their own opinion.

whouwannab

good post

Unknown

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josiereside

I guess it really depends on your goal - increase muscle mass or burn fat (since your body can't really do both at the same time). As a previous poster mentioned, I have some DVDs that do this, but the 'strength training' is pretty light.

Have to disagree on the DVDs strength training being "light", but I guess it depends which ones you are talking about, not the ones I have. Granted, I am not going to become a body building doing this but I am building some serious muscle.

twinmom01

So my treadmill is right there in the same room as my bench and weights. My normal strength training is done with rest of 60s between sets usually.

So, I had to idea to make use of that 60s and hop on the treadmill for little mini-sprints during my "rest".


Has anyone else done this? Is it a good idea, bad idea?

It depends on what your goals are and what you are lifting

if you are lifting to maintain form and work particular muscles - It could cause you to tire out more quickly - leading to less oomph for lifting, which could interfere with your form - i.e. struggling to lift those last few in your round.

if I am strictly lifting I focus on lifting and then follow it up with a bit of cardio at the end...

If you want to do some interval type training then I wouldn't do max reps/weights - I have done some Crossfit WODS where it was combos of lifts and cardio but the lifts were at about 70% of my max

so for example

3 rounds of...
5 deadlifts (I might do 110 as my max is about 165)
400 meter run or 500 meter row
20 kettlebell swings

twinmom01

Not sure what you mean by maximal lifting. I am doing medium range reps (10) and by the time I get to my last rep on my last set, I am nearing failure on most exercises.


Also, I should never have said "sprinting" - as someone pointed out, that is anaerobic, which I am definitely not doing. I'd say I have been going around 5k race pace, which is definitely aerobic.

Max - trying to push as much weight as you can without compromise to form...agree with the above poster - I would give yourself a good 2 minutes rest between rounds if you are at near failure at the end - your muscles need a chance to rest...

krocksa

I do heavy strength training in circuits, often CrossFit style ( I don't have a CrossFit gym). If you lift to failure and follow a similar formula you are begging for your life on your (much shorter than 60 sec) rest periods. Your heart rate is through the roof. With all the cardio I've ever done, it has NEVER reached the level of cardio I get in my strength training sessions. this style is NOT for beginners however. I do SS or interval cardio on my "off" lifting days. I consider it a rest day!

There's nothing inherently wrong with doing cardio in between your lifting sets if you want just to get more burn and keep HR up, but I agree with PPs - if your goal is to get strong, focus on getting strong. If you do it right it's cardio anyway. Good luck on your journey!