Cardio and strength schedule

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valmorphanize
valmorphanize Posts: 9 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm new to having an exercise plan, and am trying to figure out the best way to plan it. I've noticed that challenges/schedules have a day of strength training and a day of cardio, but not too many where people do both. Is there a particular reason? My strength training and cardio are both at the beginner level, and is like to do about 20 min of each on workout days, but want to make sure I'm not going to be shooting myself in the foot. My goal is to lose fat and build muscle.

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  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    edited May 2015
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    Most people break them up so that they can give 100% to whatever they are doing that day. If you try to do both on the same day, generally one will suffer. Others split them up because they don't have time to do both in 1 session.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    edited May 2015
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    I alternate days because lifting (full body) is 45-75 mins for me and after that I'm exhausted. On cardio days, I spend 40-60 mins on the track doing walk/run drills and again once I'm done, I'm exhausted. I don't think I could get both done on the same day and there is no way my lifting routine could be shortened to 20 mins.
  • RRB2000
    RRB2000 Posts: 77 Member
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    I'm no expert and am new to this myself, but what I have been doing, since I joined the gym in March, is I warm up with 30 minutes of cardio..I love running on the treadmill, well, I don't love it, I hate it actually, but it gets my HR up and I really feel like I've accomplished something. Then one day is my upper body/arm day, and the next is my lower body/leg day. I spend about an hour at the gym, but do cardio every day too. Again, that may not be right, but its what's working for me so far.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
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    some people do spend maybe 10 minutes on the elliptical or treadmill before lifting to warm up, but I wouldn't really count that as a cardio workout.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    vmoore1985 wrote: »
    I'm new to having an exercise plan, and am trying to figure out the best way to plan it. I've noticed that challenges/schedules have a day of strength training and a day of cardio, but not too many where people do both. Is there a particular reason? My strength training and cardio are both at the beginner level, and is like to do about 20 min of each on workout days, but want to make sure I'm not going to be shooting myself in the foot. My goal is to lose fat and build muscle.

    Most people break them out due to the fact that they want to be able to put out max effort and also for time management.

    A good resistance/weight training program is going to take you more than 20 minutes...a good program is going to take you about 60 minutes...45 on a good day if you don't have to wait for equipment.

    For me, 30 minutes is pretty bare minimum for a cardio workout...I like to ride and I generally do an hour or more at a time to make it worth my while.

    I generally ride 3x weekly and lift 3x weekly on opposing days and take one rest day. When I'm training for a cycling event I will put in a couple two-a-days where I get in a good ride in the AM and lift in the PM...but outside of actually training, that is not necessary day to day.
  • thesupremeforce
    thesupremeforce Posts: 1,207 Member
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    Find a good plan and to what it tells you. Doing cardio on the same days as lifting shouldn't be a big deal (I'd lift first, as opposed to lifting after doing serious cardio). I imagine the reason that most people would split it is due to personal schedules. If you're lifting three days a week, you can slip the cardio into the same time slots on the off days. If you're lifting five days a week, this becomes harder to do.
  • valmorphanize
    valmorphanize Posts: 9 Member
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    Thank you all for your responses. I'm doing a beginner plan, and realize that 20 min of cardio and/or strength is not very much...trying to increase that every week, mainly just trying to make a habit of exercising first.
  • valmorphanize
    valmorphanize Posts: 9 Member
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    One additional question: the one thing I found online about scheduling both types the same day was saying that strength training should be done first and then cardio. Any thoughts about that?
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    vmoore1985 wrote: »
    One additional question: the one thing I found online about scheduling both types the same day was saying that strength training should be done first and then cardio. Any thoughts about that?

    It depends on how you're training and what your training goals are. Most people who lift want to maximize either strength or muscle gains which means they will be lifting "heavy" relative to the rep range...you don't exactly want to get under a heavy squat bar after you've just run 5 miles.

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