Strong Lifts 5x5 and cardio

I did a couple of years ago .... In the beginning its fine, the weights and the cardio marry nicely, you can lose weight, keep the CV up, all is good.

As the weights become challenging, the cardio starts to suffer a bit .. not from a CV point of view, just you times to run/cycle drop as your legs are shot from squatting HEAVY and glycogen is just gone

As you near the point when you start to fail on the squats or deadlifts 3 times in a row and start to download cardio then goes out the window if you want to do it with any gusto .... your legs are shot so its hard to run/cycle/row on the same day ... BUT you dont want to do it on your rest day as you start wanting to save your legs for the next days squats !

so its doable, and I did it at the same time for a while, but eventually the 5x5 just took too much out of me when it came to squatting and deadlifting ...... the bench, rows and OHP I could fail multiple times though and it made no difference to the cardio .... JUST THE LEGS

tons of my friends lift first then get on the basketball court... seems effective

StephWieler wrote: »

I am only able to get to the gym 3 times a week. I've done strong lifts before and like the simplicity.. But I'd like to also incorporate cardio (i am working on building stamina and endurance as this is something I've struggled with forever) has anyone done strong lifts with cardio afterwards? What were your results

It's going to take a little figuring out. Depending on how intensely your cardio is, it could be a bit to recover from. But, if you are just looking for general endurance, keeping a moderate to low intensity cardio level should allow you to recover. You may even have to pick only 2 of the days for some cardio, instead of all 3

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

AllanMisner wrote: »

Yes, you can do both, but the cardio might suffer. You do know you can do cardio without a gym, don't you? Have you looked into Tabatas?

fwiw if the originator is looking at building CV endurance/ stamina a tabata protocol really isn't an appropriate technique

Not necessarily true. There have been numerous studies showing HIIT improving endurance and stamina. Tabata is probably overkill though.

This just came out today: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/concurrent-training-part-2/

It links to part 1. Short answer: you'll probably want to do your cardio on your days off - otherwise, wait 3+ hours and do light to moderate cardio.

DevilsFan1 wrote: »

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

AllanMisner wrote: »

Yes, you can do both, but the cardio might suffer. You do know you can do cardio without a gym, don't you? Have you looked into Tabatas?

fwiw if the originator is looking at building CV endurance/ stamina a tabata protocol really isn't an appropriate technique

Not necessarily true. There have been numerous studies showing HIIT improving endurance and stamina. Tabata is probably overkill though.

HIIT is largely aimed at improving VO2 Max, so from a competitive perspective more appropriate in preparation for an A race, than general fitness. The effects are short term enough that it's not an enduring approach, particularly in the absence of an aerobic base.

Again, reflecting back to the original post, the originator has struggled with endurance and stamina. Realistically the insignificant gains from any HIIT protocol just aren't worth the increased injury risk. It's easier, quicker and more persistent to develop an aerobic base first.

One of the challenges with somewhere like this is, very few posters really read the question the originator is generally asking. Even people who are well qualified come out with fairly canned responses, infrequently asking the originator amplifying questions to get them to elaborate what they're after. IT can also be a bit seasonal as to what the answer of the week is, although HIIT or variants thereof come up with monotonous regularity. Most frequently completely inappropriately.