What do you do on days you don't lift?
tobirhae
Posts: 108 Member
I just started NROL4W last week and I'm lifting MWF. I'm trying to figure out what to do on days when I'm not lifting. I generally run 2-3 times a week, but at least one of those will be my warm up for NROL. That's what I did on Friday and it worked fine- a 3 mile run as my warm up and then Stage 1 workout B. I was doing some P90X and/or Insanity workouts before I started NROL4W, but I kind of feel like most of those have too much resistance work to do with NROL. What do you all do? Thanks!
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Replies
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I've been wondering this too.0
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I work three 12-hour days with a 40 minute one-way commute, so on work days all I have time for is 25 minutes of yoga when I wake up.
I do NROL 2 or 3 days a week -- I shoot for 3 but sometimes only get 2, but I've had great results.
On the other 1 or 2 days, I run or take a rest day.0 -
I do cardio of some sort on my non-lifting days. Usually a 2-3 mile run, a long walk with the dog, stair climber, or elliptical. I wouldn't recommend doing anything like p90x or Insanity that uses the same muscles as lifting because you won't allow your muscles to recover.
The workouts will get longer and I'm not sure you'll still want to do your run before. I usually just do a 10 minute warm up on the bike. I find that cross training on opposite days allows me to stretch and warm up my muscles to get rid of the soreness.0 -
I do some sort of JM ab video, killer abs or six week six pack, and/or 20-30 minutes HIIT on my elliptical.0
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I don't have a set routine for non lift days, so it can be classes at the gym, running, spin etc. Its really just something to keep active and not get bored.0
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It's okay, I'll be the "odd woman out". My suggestion is, if you want body-fat loss during NROL4W, make sure that you are:
1. working to FATIGUE during your weight-work-outs;
2. RESTING at least 48 hours in between weight-work-outs (i.e. NO meaningful cardio....walking would be fine).
I continued to do TOO MUCH CARDIO during my NROL4W work-outs (in 2012) and I did NOT lose body fat, which is what I REALLY wanted.
When I dumped the cardio (in Oct/12), the body fat started to melt off me. For my body, lifting is what I NEED to do....well that and "calorie control", of course!0 -
It's okay, I'll be the "odd woman out". My suggestion is, if you want body-fat loss during NROL4W, make sure that you are:
1. working to FATIGUE during your weight-work-outs;
2. RESTING at least 48 hours in between weight-work-outs (i.e. NO meaningful cardio....walking would be fine).
I continued to do TOO MUCH CARDIO during my NROL4W work-outs (in 2012) and I did NOT lose body fat, which is what I REALLY wanted.
When I dumped the cardio (in Oct/12), the body fat started to melt off me. For my body, lifting is what I NEED to do....well that and "calorie control", of course!
Just following along and starting to lift some, but I read this a lot. After I've been using to working out to earn extra calories, it's very hard for me to take a day off! I'm sure it comes with confidence in what you are doing. I'd also greatly miss the running and cardio! I try to keep it light and fun. I've been told to watch HIIT on days off.0 -
I'm doing C25K on the rest days and I am in Stage 1 still. I know it says no cardio but at the moment I still feel I need to be doing something.0
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I'm not sure if this is what you are supposed to do, but I've scaled back the intensity of my cardio considerably. I'll alternate between 45-60 min. brisk walk, 20-25 min HIIT or Hot Vinyasa Yoga. I tried to do one of my Insanity DVDs the other day and it was fine (despite the fact that I was dying), but I ended up having to modify on the pushups and do ab work instead. I felt it was too much shoulder work when I was planning to do a lifting workout the next day. I do usually take one rest day per week. For me it's also about keeping up the early-morning habit. I'm afraid if I leave it to only waking up early 2-3 days a week instead of 6, then I'll slide back into old sleeping routines.0
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just started this week, but I walk for now.0
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I'm doing yoga on my off days. It really gets rid of any soreness I may have, and helps keep me limber. I like it well enough, but I really love lifting!0
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I usually do a 45 minute spin class and a bootcamp class (a mix of HIIT/bodyweight exercises) in addition to my NROLFW workouts. I enjoy them both so I find it hard to give them up. Generally 24 hours+ between any kind of exercise (e.g. I'll do NROLWF Tuesday morning, bootcamp is Wednesday night), unless I was pressed for time and had to do bodyweight matrices or HIIT separately to get them done. My week usually looks like:
M- Rest
T - NROLFW
W - Bootcamp
T - Rest
F - NROLWF
S - Spin class
S- NROLFW
I also get about 12,000 steps a day on my pedometer, purely because I walk everywhere. Not sure if what I'm doing could be detrimental to my lifting- I do wonder sometimes. But I love those spin classes and the bootcamp is great for social exercising (and the PT who runs it is a font of fitness knowledge) so I would find it hard to give them up.0 -
i do cardio 2-3 of the other days (running, interval training, elliptical or play softball). my lifting days, the only cardio i will do is my 10 min warmup run0
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It's okay, I'll be the "odd woman out". My suggestion is, if you want body-fat loss during NROL4W, make sure that you are:
1. working to FATIGUE during your weight-work-outs;
2. RESTING at least 48 hours in between weight-work-outs (i.e. NO meaningful cardio....walking would be fine).
I continued to do TOO MUCH CARDIO during my NROL4W work-outs (in 2012) and I did NOT lose body fat, which is what I REALLY wanted.
When I dumped the cardio (in Oct/12), the body fat started to melt off me. For my body, lifting is what I NEED to do....well that and "calorie control", of course!
I have been reading this too, but I NEED to do something on those off days sometimes or I just feel lazy. Would you suggest just a moderate walk since you've done this before and had different results both times?0 -
It's okay, I'll be the "odd woman out". My suggestion is, if you want body-fat loss during NROL4W, make sure that you are:
1. working to FATIGUE during your weight-work-outs;
2. RESTING at least 48 hours in between weight-work-outs (i.e. NO meaningful cardio....walking would be fine).
I continued to do TOO MUCH CARDIO during my NROL4W work-outs (in 2012) and I did NOT lose body fat, which is what I REALLY wanted.
When I dumped the cardio (in Oct/12), the body fat started to melt off me. For my body, lifting is what I NEED to do....well that and "calorie control", of course!
Well, gosh, losing body fat is what I really want, but I find it hard to give up my cardio. I don't want to stop running, but I would be okay with just doing 1-2 runs a week. It just seems counter intuitive that body fat would come off better from only working out 3 days a week vs working out 5-6 days a week. I don't doubt that it's true, it just seems counter intuitive to me. Hmm, well, maybe I won't workout today like I'd planned and I'll just wait and do my 3rd workout A of stage 1 tomorrow.0 -
I'm in the same boat as a lot of you. I'm going from 6-7 long/intense cardio workouts a week to 3 lifting and I feel like I should be doing more!! BUT, I'm willing to trust the program's advice (at least through the first stage) and see what happens....0
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This is so me- I'm really trying to ditch all the cardio but its hard. I want to see the scale move but even after yrs of dong it, I've never had the body I was doing all that cardio to get. I'm really giving lifting an honest chance. All I'm going to be doing is lifting 3x and HIIT 2x a week. I'm hoping to finally see the results I've been working so hard to get all these years.0
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Great thread. I wish I was brave enough to leave off the cardio - although I have toned it down as I have less time to fit in cardio and New Rules. I am such a pig that I use the cardio to justify my food over indulgence. Of course it would make more sense to eat less and rest more!0
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I'm electing to give the program as written a chance. It's hard because we've all had it beaten into our heads for years that we have to do to hours of cardio to see results. I want to see for myself that isn't true.
That said, I do take my two dogs for a leisurely 1-2 mile walk daily (usually longer on my non-lifting days) but that's more for them than it is for me. Like many of you, I have completely C25K and enjoy running, so it's weird to stop cold turkey, but I know that it wasn't working for me in terms of fat loss and so far I like what NROL4W is doing.
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I'm a runner so I run. While I think they have good evidence for the effectiveness of doing cardio intervals, I think they are jacked up when it comes the myths they provide for how running hurts you, so I decided to ignore that section.0
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Tuesdays - TRX Suspension Training (1hr), Core Training (20 min- I guess I will have to drop this because I will work the core on alternative days on NROLFW), Zumba (1hr)
Thursdays - Hip Hop Abs ( 35 min), Zumba (1 hr)
Fridays - before lifting - Zumba Toning (1 hr)
Saturdays - Zumba (some Saturdays I skip this..guilt free)
Am addicted to the endorphins...and I love to dance...so I will not be giving this up anytime soon :-)0 -
I really struggle with this. I, too, am addicted to the cardio endorphins, and I like not having to really care about counting everything because I've elliptical'd myself into a ridiculously huge deficit. I'm about halfway through Stage 5 right now, and I've cut the cardio way, way down due to time constraints because the workouts are so long.
A normal week during Stages 1-4:
Monday: NROLFW, 20-30 mins cardio (the 15 mins of HIIT are included in this time)
Tuesday: 20-30 minutes of cardio if my husband left before I did, leaving me time to squeeze it in. Sometimes it was an off day.
Wednesday: NROLFW, 20-30 mins cardio
Thursday: 30-45 mins of cardio
Friday: NROLFW, 30-45 mins of cardio
Saturday: 40 mins kickboxing dvd or off day
Sunday: 40 mins kickboxing dvd or off day
A normal week on Stage 5
Monday: NROLFW, doing 40-second cardio intervals between sets (jumping jacks/ jump rope, etc). I only take a fraction of the time they recommend between sets because I would be bored to death. Having something to do makes it go by faster.
Tuesday: 30 mins cardio, IF and ONLY IF my husband is leaving early
Wednesday: NROLFW, with the 40 second intervals
Thursday: 30-40 mins cardio if there's nothing else going on
Friday: NROLFW, with 40 second intervals
Saturday: 30-40 mins cardio ONLY IF I know I'm going to lay around all day or go out to eat
Sunday: see Saturday
So I didn't cut it out completely, but I'm doing better. I don't seem to have ballooned into some kind of beached whale due to cutting back on elliptical time, so I'm gaining confidence. Now if I could only retrain myself to show some restraint with my calories, I'd be good.0 -
I'll sometimes do a HIIT workout after a lifting sessions, or 30 minutes on the eliptical on my 'off' days. I really want to get back to running properly i.e. outdoors again, but the recent change in weather has not been very encouraging!
I've always lost when I include cardio, so I'm reluctant to ditch it entirely. I also really believe in having a strong, healthy heart and there really is no way better to achieve that than doing regular cardio, imo. My resting heart rate is usually under 60 when I'm running regularly and closer to 70 when I'm not, evidence enough for me.
Also, I do like the 'safety net' of the extra calorie defecit!0
