Combining strength and endurance training

streamgirl
streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am 38 and I‘ve lost about 35 pounds so far this year by improving diet, watching calorie intake, and moderate cardio. I’m a happy-to-be JV triathlete, so I’ve been doing a combo of swim, bike, run, and yoga and I enjoy all of these things. I am seeing muscles emerge under the fat, but I’ve been reading about strength training for weight loss. I’ve looked into SL 5x5, NROL, and some other internet sites. I’m convinced by the idea of lifting heavy to build muscle and that cardio may not be important for definition and weight loss. I also like the idea of doing large, compound movements rather than targeting, say, triceps or whatever. HOWEVER, I enjoy the cardio and I want endurance, too. I’ve read some about interference with combining heavier strength training with cardio and that seems interesting.

SO, my question is: Any suggestions for successfully combining cardio and strength? Should I focus on strength for a while in my off-season or combine them now? How would I rotate rest days with strength or cardio days? I’d love to find an example program/site/book that I could look at that would recommend exercises and routines to give me an idea where to start. What has worked for you?

I mainly work out in the evening after my kids are in bed, or I can squeeze in shorter workouts at lunch and longer ones on the weekend. So something that fits in the 30-45 min per workout and that can work or be adapted to home is the best. Two workouts a day is hard to pull off unless one is quite short or I can do it on the weekends. I do have a basic weight bench and Olympic barbell set and a good elliptical.

My goal is to be all-round healthy, which to me means strength, endurance, balance, and flexibility. I don’t need to run 6-minute miles or be able to deadlift twice my weight (although if one or both of those things happen, cool!) Nine-minute miles and some awesome push-ups is what I’m shooting for at this point.

Replies

  • streamgirl
    streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
    bump for a response
  • BChanFit
    BChanFit Posts: 209 Member
    Sounds like we have some similar goals! I am just starting to train for a marathon over the next year. It's not an "official" plan, but my plan is this... I lift heavy 5x a week on my lunch break at work and run in the evenings or early morning with a long run on the weekends. I'll have 15 miles in this week and shooting for 18 next week and 20 after that. Once I get to 20 miles per week I'll continue that until about mid May when I start the actual marathon training program. Race is next October so I've got some time. I've read that excess cardio can hurt building muscle with the weight lifting as well. But to be honest I don't care. I'm not focused on size (being smaller or larger), instead I'm seeing what my body is capable of doing. :) Curious what other responses you get so I'll try to help bump this post too!
  • 34blast
    34blast Posts: 166 Member
    I going with the assumptions that 1). You are a novice in strength training 2). You are still either maintaining or cutting

    With that in mind, novices can gain some muscle and definitely strength will on a mild calorie reduction diet. I would do Starting Strength or Stronglifts 3 days a week as outlined by those programs (maybe M, W, F). You could try something like a fast run or interval runs on Tuesday and a longer run on Saturday. Each person is different, you might find you can do more cardio with no problem. As you get further in your linear progression, you might have to cut back on cardio and / or up the calories to a surplus. Once you advance to intermediate strength levels it gets more complicated.

    For the strength start light, you will follow linear progression (add weight each workout) until it ends. Once you start to get near the end of linear progression you will have to make a decision about what to focus on. If you want to continue to get stronger, you are going to have to eat at a surplus, but that could be a long ways away.

    Here is a link to some strength standards. The linear progression if you work hard and eat right should take you up to intermediate level.
    http://www.lonkilgore.com/freebies/freebies.html


  • Timshel_
    Timshel_ Posts: 22,834 Member
    As an athlete I train for both. I moved much of my cardio to HIIT and all my lifting is done as low weight/high rep. I keep the heart rate up during the whole session.

    A typical track day would be a hard 100 yard sprint. Rest :30. 25 Tire flips. Rest :30. Bleacher sprint up and stair squats (25) down. Rest :30. Burpies, push up mixed in, etc.

    A day in the gym hills cardio profiles on the bike or rowing machine with lifting mixed in.

    Works well for me.
  • streamgirl
    streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
    34blast wrote: »
    I going with the assumptions that 1). You are a novice in strength training 2). You are still either maintaining or cutting

    With that in mind, novices can gain some muscle and definitely strength will on a mild calorie reduction diet. I would do Starting Strength or Stronglifts 3 days a week as outlined by those programs (maybe M, W, F). You could try something like a fast run or interval runs on Tuesday and a longer run on Saturday. Each person is different, you might find you can do more cardio with no problem. As you get further in your linear progression, you might have to cut back on cardio and / or up the calories to a surplus. Once you advance to intermediate strength levels it gets more complicated.


    Your assumptions are correct. The reason I was hesitant to do what you are suggesting is that, as I understand it, the recovery days are really important. Does a fast run on recovery days cause problems? I don't care if I gain strength at a lower rate or lower overall by including cardio, I just want to understand how it works.
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    I started sorting some of this out when I read the book "Easy Strength"

    http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Strength-Pavel-Tsatsouline-ebook/dp/B005Q6M79A/
  • streamgirl
    streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
    likitisplit wrote: »
    I started sorting some of this out when I read the book "Easy Strength"

    http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Strength-Pavel-Tsatsouline-ebook/dp/B005Q6M79A/

    Thanks for the recommendation--I'll check it out!
  • streamgirl
    streamgirl Posts: 207 Member
    If you are wanting to combine strength and endurance, is HIIT really the best of both worlds?
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    I would keep it basic. In off months do 3x week strength & 3x your endurance training. In peak training cut a strength day for an endurance day. You can easily do a total body strength workout in 30-45 mins.
    You can throw in an Hiit day once a week or every other week, but I wouldn't really rely on it since your focus in the endurance training.
  • MityMax96
    MityMax96 Posts: 5,778 Member
    StrongLifts 5x5 3x/week should work for you. Your other days do your cardio. Just be sure to eat right for your over all goals.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    streamgirl wrote: »
    If you are wanting to combine strength and endurance, is HIIT really the best of both worlds?

    Not if you're endurance training :)

    You do need to be clear on what your objectives are, as that has to be the backbone of your routine and the other activities work round that.

    It's reasonably common to focus on strength training in the off season, and wind it back considerably in the competition season for those training for endurance events.

    The beginner programmes mentioned above are fine, but they do tend towards a fairly simple progression that will end up impacting on the endurance training. At that stage you need to decide what you're really interested in.

    Realistically, to perform well in running, cycling or swimming some resistance training will help.
  • Foamroller
    Foamroller Posts: 1,041 Member
    edited October 2014
    Since you're an aspiring triathlete, I suggest you google up some triathlete sites. Those places will probably give you more specific advice than MFP can give you:)
    Following advice from someone who have very different goals than you, doesn't make sense.

    How to exercise different muscle groups is VERY sport specific.

    Just to put out another perspective. There was recently a study on Olympic gold medalist in PLoS ONE that showed they are training 90% of their time under lactate threshold.
    http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/how-the-gold-medalists-trained

    In general, it is NOT recommended to do HIIT more than 3 times a week, in order to really go max. Otherwise it will be you thinking it's HIIT and it's really endurance close to lactate threshold.

    Now, to the combination of different techniques you're mentioning. I'm a spinning fan. Last months I've added 20-50 mins strength too in order to advance my cycling muscles and toning upper body as well. I love HIIT cause I feel it makes me improve faster than with only endurance training. I incorporate HIIT into my ordinary spin classes, reaching red zone. Just because an instructor has planned a class into different zones, doesn't mean you have to follow those slavishly ;)

    On off days I do restitution walks, light cycling or strength.

    Good luck:)
  • Chaskavitch
    Chaskavitch Posts: 172 Member
    If you started with Stronglifts in the off-season, the first couple of weeks would be short/easy enough that your cardio shouldn't be impacted too much if you alternate weights and cardio days. It would at least give you an idea of what the lifting would be like, and you'd almost certainly see some strength and muscle gains. Then you'd have more info to make a decision.

    I prefer lifting to running, but I do want some endurance, and I'm having trouble balancing them because I'd rather lift, lol. I have been doing Stronglifts 3 days a week (usually Mon, Tues, Thurs), and tae kwon do 2 - 3 days a week (Mon, Wed, Fri), and I have seen more of a negative impact on my TKD than on my lifting, mostly because of soreness and muscle fatigue from squats and deadlifts. That would probably be the case for you, but in the long run, extra muscle will help with your cardio and endurance.

    My only real recommendation is to not do cardio before you lift. It makes it more likely that you will hurt yourself because you're tired. You'd have a less awesome cardio session if you do it after lifting, but you're also less likely to hurt yourself being tired when you run as opposed to dropping a loaded olympic bar on yourself :wink:

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