Balancing Weight Training And Cardio

Posted on 20. Feb, 2012 by Sam in Cardio Exercise Advice, Exercise Advice, Free Weight Exercise Advice

As you go about your workout program, one thing that you must make sure you’re doing is balancing out your weight lifting with your cardio training.

Many beginners often make the mistake of overloading their workout week, doing far too much too soon and just end up overtraining themselves to the point where they’re forced to take time off.

While eating properly, sleeping well, and using an energy enhancing product such as Phen375 can help you get in more sessions total, it’s vital to remember that rest is still critical to success.

So how do you balance it all?

Let’s take a look at what you should know.

Always Ensure One Day Off Per Week

The very first thing that you must do to ensure your routine is balanced is make sure that you have one day off per week.

Some people may need two full days of complete rest for recovery, so judge for yourself what your body feels best with.  If you find that you’re going into each workout feeling quite fatigued, that’s a clear sign that you aren’t giving yourself the rest you need to be.

Schedule an extra day in and you’ll see a remarkable difference in your progress level.

Perform Strength Training First

Next, when it comes to looking at the order of exercises, you want to be performing your strength training workout first before cardio training.

Most people make the error of doing the opposite.

While a very light cardio session may serve as a good warm-up, don’t let it go over 10 minutes or so.  Remember that weight training is going to use the most glucose in the body, so you need to be feeling fresh.

If you deplete yourself with cardio training, your performance is going to suffer and you could wind up injuring yourself in the process.

Since weight training is a much more intense form of exercise, doing it first will also ensure that you can get the most results from it.

Separate The Sessions

Another option if you’re hoping to do both cardio and weights on the same day but don’t want to do them in the same session is to divide them up by at least four hours.  If you’re going to go this route it’s your decision as to what form of exercise you want to do first.

Some people prefer cardio first thing in the morning while others will want to get strength training out of the way.

Just remember to make sure that you eat at least three solid meals whichever order you choose so that you can make a good recovery between them.

How you choose to structure your cardio and weight training for balance is really up to you but you should aim for an even mix of both sessions. Most people will do best with three to four weight lifting workouts per week and two to three cardio sessions per week.

Or, if you’re really focused on cardiovascular endurance, reverse those two and do your weight lifting two to three times and cardio four to five times.  If you put in some good thought as to how you’ll plan it out, you can be sure that you’ll see great results.

Tags: cardio, exercise, free weights