Balance: Cardio AND Weight Training

abarocio wrote: »

Exercise needs to be meaningful to you otherwise why bother.

But that's subjective. People SHOULD exercise regardless if meaningful to them or not just for physical health and wellbeing. It's currently part of the reason why we have such a high overweight population now. Exercise ISN'T meaningful enough to them so they don't do it, but should to help use overconsumed calories and keep their muscles active.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Indialove901 wrote: »

@CTtugboating Thanks for your response. So you never do both in the same day? What I did this week (Sunday and today) was a mile walk - moderate pave according to MFP and some upper body weight training - the heaviest dumbbells I use are 20 lb, so super light. As for my diet, I have drastically increased protein and veggies because at first I wasn’t eating enough. I still need to get a grip on my snacking because while some are healthy I do get carried away and then I don’t want to eat real meals. It’s a journey but I’m not giving up. 😊💪🏾

It's viable to do both cardio and strength on the same day, or to do some form of both every day (with variations on alternating days, say). But that's not usually a great place to *start*, as a relative beginner.

For fitness, recovery is where the magic happens. Recovery (rest) lets the body's self-repair happen between workouts. Everyone, of every fitness level, needs adequate recovery in order to make fitness progress. But the exact specifics of how that looks can be very, very different for a very fit person who's advanced with respect to the particular kinds of training they do, as compared with a relative beginner.

Think of recovery between workouts as the point where you're pulling back on the bow-string, so that an arrow can shoot forwards. It looks like you're not moving toward your goal of moving forward, making progress, but you really are.

You want to avoid a scenario where your body is overstressed all the time, where you feel fatigued, constantly sore, overtired, etc. There are many signs, but they're subtle.

Generally, for a relative beginner, it can be good, as you say, to alternate cardio days with strength training days (depending a little on the specifics of either exercise), because you recover from your cardio on the strength days, and recover from the strength on the cardio days. (If you go super hard at both, or use specific exercises that overstress the same body systems, that might not be true.) A true beginner might even intersperse some days with no formal exercise a couple of times a week or more. A true beginner probably wants to keep the intensity lower at first, same for duration of workout sessions.

Then, as you get fitter/stronger, you can think about increasing the frequency, duration, intensity or exercise type. IMO, the sweet spot is where you have just a little bit of challenge in your exercise sessions, but you don't feel dragged out or fatigued later. (There might be just a few minutes of "whew!" feeling right after the exercise, but in general, you want to feel energized for the rest of the day, not burned out.) With new strength exercise, it's normal to have quite sore muscles at first, but after a few sessions, that should not be major soreness, more like just a nice, taut, "I've worked out" feeling vs. soreness that has you groaning and limping. That latter should not generally happen, after the first few sessions with a particular exercise type.

Also, I'll mention that exercise timing (especially timing of cardio vs. strength) may someday need to vary in specific ways, once you have more specific fitness goals. It's not important to worry hard about that right now, but, for example, a competitive cyclist (high cardio, but strong) would schedule their exercise program differently from a powerlifter (high strength, enough cardio to be healthy). To develop basic fitness, balance is key.

I'm a li'l ol' lady, age 65. I regularly do strength and cardio on the same day, sometimes two sessions of different kinds of cardio, one of strength. Thing is, I've been very active (even while still obese) for nearly 20 years. What someone can/should do after 20 years is way different than what someone would do as a beginner . . . and what I do now is way, way different from what I did when I started getting more active in my 40s. Also, my exercise goals are more on the cardio side, though I need some strength, too. (I'm a rower.)

There really aren't hard and fast rules about scheduling exercise, though there are some rules of thumb. For now, when you're just getting started, I think the best rule of thumb is what I said before: Challenge yourself a little manageable bit every session, but pay attention to how you feel and don't let persistent fatigue from overdoing overtake your energy level. Let yourself recover, so you can make progress.

Best wishes with your fitness!