Knowing how to balance cardio with weight training can be
one of the most challenging aspects of putting together
your training program. Learn how to do it here.
Training your body is all about balance. A complete
exercise program should address not only resistance training
but cardiovascular training as well. Proper balance between
these two basic forms of exercise is essential to your
training success.
Training balance basically boils down to the amount of cardio
training you do compared to the amount of weight training
you do. You are going to learn exactly what factors affect
this training balance and how you can use them to ensure you
reach your goals as quickly as possible!
The major issue you will need to take into consideration
when balancing your cardio with your weight training is
your primary training goal; if you're training to lose fat,
your balance is going to be very different than if you're
trying to gain muscle or if you're training for a specific
sport.
What Are Your Goals?
Your primary goal will give you a general starting point for
figuring out exactly how to balance your training, as well
as what type of cardio and weight training you should be
doing.
In addition to your primary goal, you will also need to
take into account two other major factors:
- Your Body Type - Are you naturally slim? Do you gain
muscle easily? Do you tend to hold onto fat readily?
- The Type Of Cardio Training You're Doing - Is it high-
intensity or low-intensity? Does it fatigue you for
weights? Does your weight training fatigue you for your
cardio?
As you read through this article, I want you to write down
the points that apply to you. After explaining these
factors, I will tell you how to integrate everything you've
learned in your personal training program.
In order to successfully balance your training, you need to
first identify what your primary goal is. Are you trying to
lose fat? Are you focused on gaining muscle? Are trying to
improve sports performance?
It's very important to note, you will be far more successful
in achieving your goal if you focus on one specific goal
only. The training processes involved in losing fat or
gaining muscle are very different and do not mix well with
each other. If you try to do both at the same time, your
results won't be as good as if you focused on one at a time.
Training To Gain Muscle:
If you're training to lose fat, you're going to need to do
more cardio than someone who is training to gain muscle. A
good starting point is three times per week, 20 to 30
minutes per session. Depending on the other factors we're
going to discuss, you may need more or less than this.
Weight training three times per week should be sufficient to
maintain and even build muscle mass.
Training To Lost Fat:
With fat loss, your primary goal should be burning calories
while sparing as much muscle as possible. Since you're most
likely eating fewer calories, your body is not going to be
eager to add muscle, therefore it's best to focus on keeping
what you've got. Any muscle you may add is just ice cream
on the cake (bad analogy for this topic!).
If you're training to gain muscle, you will need to do less
cardio training. Too much cardio can actually hamper your
muscle gain by slowing recovery and burning up calories that
your body needs for the process of building muscle.
As a general guideline, one or two cardio sessions per week
should be enough to maintain your cardiovascular conditioning
and keep your bodyfat gains in check while not slowing muscle
growth. You should train with weights at least three times
per week, up to even six times if you can recover from it
and still make progress.
If you are training for a specific sport, how many cardio
sessions you need will depend greatly on the cardiovascular
and muscle mass and strength requirements of your sport.
Naturally, a long-distance runner is going to have far
different requirements than a hockey or football player.
The type of cardio training you do will also come into play
here (which we will look at below).
As a guideline, the more cardio-oriented your sport is, the
more cardio sessions you will need and the greater your
focus should be on cardio training. If your sport is more
strength-oriented, your focus should be primarily on
developing that strength, with fewer cardio sessions. Of
course, there are many sports that require both strength
and cardiovascular capacity. Training in this case should
be more equally balanced.
What Body Type Are You?
Now that you've identified your training focus and the
general guidelines for it, we need to take a look at your
general body type.
There are three main bodytypes:
- Ectomorph
- Endomorph
- Mesomorph
The catogories operate
on a sliding scale - a person may be an ectomorph but have
mesomorphic tendencies, for example (we will go more into
each type below).
Ectomorph:
The ectomorph is the naturally-slim person. They have a
smaller bone-structure and can seem to "eat whatever they
want and not gain an ounce."
The ectomorph has a fairly easy time losing fat so they will
will generally not need to do as much cardio for fat loss.
Two or three times per week should be plenty. An ectomorph
trying to gain muscle may need to lay off cardio training
completely in order to have enough recovery energy available
for their body to even build muscle. Once or twice a week
should be the maximum cardio frequency. Even weight
training may need to be less frequent (two or three times
per week) in order to see results.
Endomorph:
The endomorph type is the heavyset end of the scale. The
endomorph typically gains and holds onto fat easily and has
a harder time losing it. The endomorph does tend to carry
more muscle mass than the ectomorph, however.
Endomorphs will need to do more cardio to see significant
fat loss. The minimum would be three times per week but
some may require up to five or six sessions per week for
best results.
An endomorphic person trying to gain muscle mass should
continue to do cardio two or three times per week. Their
tendency to accumulate bodyfat when eating excess calories
(which is a requirement for muscle gain) can be reduced by
keeping a reasonable amount of cardio in their training
program. The endomorphic body has plenty of energy in
reserve for muscle gain.
Mesomorph:
The mesomorph has all the luck. This is the naturally-
muscular person. They are characterized by having broader
shoulders and a narrower waist (known as a "V" taper). They
gain muscle easily and lose fat easily.
A mesomorphic person training to lose fat can get away with
doing only one or two cardio sessions a week while still
seeing fairly good results. They will have an easier time
holding onto muscle while losing fat, which gives them a
calorie-burning advantage (the more muscle you have, the
more calories you burn in a day even while doing nothing).
Mesomorphs who do more cardio sessions will see greater fat
loss results than either of the other two bodytypes - their
greater muscle mass helps them burn more calories.
The mesomorph has a relatively easy time gaining muscle.
Their bodies seem to naturally want to add muscle and keep
it. The mesomorph training for muscle gain should keep
doing enough cardio training to maintain cardiovascular
capacity (about once or twice a week). They can, however,
still get away with doing more without compromising results.
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Every person's situation is wide open to interpretation and,
when it all comes right down to it, much of your training
schedule is determined by the time you have available to you.
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