One of the most frequent questions I get asked is… Should I be doing cardio or strength workouts?
My answer is always both.
Not only is it important to get both cardio and strength in your workouts but also getting variation is important. There are several approaches to both cardio and strength workouts and each approach has its benefits.
Let’s discuss:
Whatever method of cardio you use treadmill, bike, elliptical, etc. there are several approaches you can take:
- Steady state cardio – the goal for steady state is to get the heart rate and intensity up and keep it up at that level for your entire workout. Use resistance or speed to get the heart rate up to an intensity level you can maintain for your entire cardio session.
- Interval cardio – change your intensity level throughout your cardio session. Add resistance or speed for short bursts at a time – at least 30 seconds – to a level where you feel your heart rate and intensity increasing. Bring the resistance or speed back down for recovery time and repeat short bursts of increased intensity throughout your workout.
- Combo of both – incorporate both steady state cardio and interval cardio into this cardio session. Hold a steady state for several minutes and then add some cardio intervals for several minutes. Allowing both a steady state as well as an increase and decrease in your intensity levels throughout your workout.
Same goes for strength, there are several approaches for different goals and results.
- Lift heavy – Lift heavy to encourage muscle mass and growth. Reps should be under 10 per set at a slow and controlled pace. Choose a weight that fatigues the muscle by the last rep in each set.
- Lift light–moderate – lift light to moderate with more speed while still maintaining control and form throughout the movement. This will add a cardio element to your strength session. Reps should be between 10 and 20 per set. Or, you can use timed intervals instead of reps. Choose a weight that fatigues the muscle by the end of your reps or timed interval.
- Combo of both– incorporate both heavy and light lifting to this workout. Heavy lifting will encourage muscle growth and adjustments while light to moderate lifting will add some cardio to help burn fat surrounding muscles. This approach will help build muscles while keeping the body lean. Alternate sets between heavy lifting and light to moderate lifting. For your heavy sets you are going for under 10 reps at a slower more controlled pace per set with a weight that fatigues the muscle by the last rep. For the lighter set you are going for 10-20 reps with a faster pace per set with a weight that fatigues the muscle by the last rep. Or, you can use timed intervals instead of reps switching between heavy and light sets.
Besides separate strength and cardio workouts be sure to include combo workouts that include both strength and cardio in the same workout for that day. With your combo workouts create drills, intervals or circuits that mix in light-moderate and/or heavy lifting with bursts of cardio. Use designated reps or time per exercise for these workouts.
Why is it important to try and hit all of these approaches?
The biggest reason is for – variation. Having workouts with different approaches offer different benefits to your body both physically and emotionally.
Variation also offers change which prevents boredom. I think that it is important to keep yourself interested and by mixing up your workouts each week with different approaches prevents or minimizes the boredom that comes along with keeping the same routine more then once per week. If you always do the same cardio workout 2-3 times per week and the same strength circuit workout 2-3 time per week how can you be excited about it doing it.
The question now is… How do you put it all together to form your workout regimen?
First thing you need to do is decide how many days per week you can workout. The minimum days should be 3 but, 4-5 are better, especially with this approach. You want to hit as many variations of these workouts as you can per week.
Once you have decided on frequency of days you also need to decide on what your goal is: weight loss, getting lean, building muscle mass or strength. If you are going for weight loss or getting lean, choose more cardio driven workouts with strength such as lifting light and combo of heavy and light. If you are looking for building muscle mass or strength, lift heavy and combo of heavy and light. Same idea for cardio, if you are going for weight loss or lean, you want a cardio workout that burns the most calories and fat such as interval or combo of steady state and interval. For building muscle mass and strength go for steady state and combo of steady state and interval.
With both of these in mind you can then build your workout.
For instance:
Let’s say you have 5 days to workout and you want to get lean. Here is what a plan could look like:
- Day 1 – Strength day – lift light to moderate
- Day 2 – Cardio day – interval cardio
- Day 3 – Strength day – combo strength
- Day 4 – Cardio day – combo cardio
- Day 5 – Combo day – include strength and cardio in one workout
Let’s say you have 5 days to workout and you want to build muscle mass. Here is what a plan could look like:
- Day 1 – Strength day – lift heavy
- Day 2 – Cardio day – steady state cardio
- Day 3 – Strength day – combo strength
- Day 4 – Cardio day – combo cardio
- Day 5 – Combo day – include strength and cardio in one workout
If you have only 3 days a week to workout choose at least 3 different approaches. Mix in one of the strength approaches, one of the cardio approaches and a combo day of including both strength and cardio. You can always change up the approach each week to keep it challenging and interesting.
No matter what approach you take or how you workout the most important thing is that you mix in both cardio and strength each week for all the benefits both have to offer. It is the best way to build and improve muscle, strength, flexibility, range of motion and cardio endurance.
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