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Question about doing cardio & working on legs

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Posted by: Pedro TT

Ok I have been having a serious debate with myself reguarding doing cardio and working on legs. I know you are supposed to work a certain muscle group only once or twice a week ideally when it comes to strength training. I am trying to stay consistent when it comes to working on all areas of my body but I'm having a conflict with one area in particular when it comes to my routine. LEGS. The problem is that I do 45 mins. of cardio 4 days out of the week 9Mon.-Thurs.) and a leg routine only once (Fridays). I'm worried that this routine will make me somewhat umproportionate and would like to do leg workouts more often yet I feel if that I do another workout in the middle of the week, I feel that I will be overtraining. I would like some feedback on what your routines are to help incorporate legs into my workout schedule yet not have an impact on my cardio/weightloss goals.

Thanks,
-Pedro


Posted by: The13ig13adWolf

cut the cardio. are you doing 45 minutes SS each week? scrap it and try two sessions of HIIT instead. more bang for your cardio buck.


Posted by: CowPimp

I'm confused as to why you think you're going to become disproportionate. Is it because you hit you upper body twice per week? Is it because you're under the impression that cardio has similar effects to weight training?

Also, just as important, what are your goals? Mass? Strength? Health?


Posted by: Pedro TT

Quote:
Originally Posted by CowPimp
I'm confused as to why you think you're going to become disproportionate. Is it because you hit you upper body twice per week? Is it because you're under the impression that cardio has similar effects to weight training?

Also, just as important, what are your goals? Mass? Strength? Health?
I do hit upper body twice a week thus I feel that if I do hit my legs twice a week while at the same time keeping my current cardio routine, I will be overtraining my legs and not seeing any strength or size gains. My goal is to both gain mass and drop body fat.


Posted by: Thunder

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro TT
I do hit upper body twice a week thus I feel that if I do hit my legs twice a week while at the same time keeping my current cardio routine, I will be overtraining my legs and not seeing any strength or size gains. My goal is to both gain mass and drop body fat.
Repartioning is very hard to do. If you can pull it off you're going to find yourself progressing slowly if at all, in each direction. Of course, unless you're either

1. Detrained
2. New to lifting properly
3. A gear head

I agree with you however, that if you're going to train legs twice a week, and I think you should - although with completely different loading parameters - that you should be mindful of how much cardio you're doing. Be especially careful with the HIIT work, if you're doing any. Lower intensity, steady state stuff should be far less an issue.


Posted by: CowPimp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunder
Repartioning is very hard to do. If you can pull it off you're going to find yourself progressing slowly if at all, in each direction. Of course, unless you're either

1. Detrained
2. New to lifting properly
3. A gear head

I agree with you however, that if you're going to train legs twice a week, and I think you should - although with completely different loading parameters - that you should be mindful of how much cardio you're doing. Be especially careful with the HIIT work, if you're doing any. Lower intensity, steady state stuff should be far less an issue.
Well said. In fact, steady state cardio performed at a fairly low intensity should do nothing more than serve as a means of active recovery. I would probably limit any type of high intensity cardiovascular activity to 1 session per week, 2 max, if you are training your leg properly twice per week already.

Another option for cardio is to do something like I do: very low intensity resistance training routines for the entire body done in a circuit. Don't fatigue the muscles, but do enough to get your heart rate up. It hasn't seemed to step on the toes of recovery for me yet, and I do full body heavy resistance training routines 3 times per week. I also perform the fully body circuits another 3 days per week. The benefit is that it allows you to jack up your heart rate really high like with interval training, but without imposing undue additional stress on your lower body.


Posted by: Pedro TT

I am a total newbie to all the terminology so please forgive me for asking but what exactly is SS..do you mean Supersets?? Also what does HIIT mean? As far as my cardio routine goes, I actually do workout with interval training (and like it very much) so med-low intensity cardio isnt exactly my cup of tea. Once I begin to get near my target bodyfat percentage I plan to ease off on the cardio and focus on building mass on my legs.


Posted by: CowPimp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedro TT
I am a total newbie to all the terminology so please forgive me for asking but what exactly is SS..do you mean Supersets?? Also what does HIIT mean? As far as my cardio routine goes, I actually do workout with interval training (and like it very much) so med-low intensity cardio isnt exactly my cup of tea. Once I begin to get near my target bodyfat percentage I plan to ease off on the cardio and focus on building mass on my legs.
I'm assuming by SS you mean solid state... I don't see where anyone said SS here. Solid state cardio is just that, you maintain a constant pace throughout the duration of the session. We're talking straight jogging here. Light jogging is nothing but beneficial for recovery if implemented properly.

HIIT cardio is high intensity interval training. That sounds like what you are doing. My suggestion is to make sure you are doing your resistance training, and just stick with light active recovery cardio. You do not need to do any cardio to lose weight if you take enough care of your diet. Like I said, maybe 1 session of HIIT per week if you are working your legs twice. 2 if you really feel you can pull it off. Be reasonable with it.

Resistance training needs to be heavy while you are cutting. You want your body to realize that it must preserve that muscle, because you are going to need it.


Posted by: Thunder

Quote:
Originally Posted by CowPimp
I'm assuming by SS you mean solid state... I don't see where anyone said SS here. Solid state cardio is just that, you maintain a constant pace throughout the duration of the session. We're talking straight jogging here. Light jogging is nothing but beneficial for recovery if implemented properly.
Steady state actually, at least that's what I use SS to refer to.

Another option would be various forms of GPP.


Posted by: CowPimp

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thunder
Steady state actually, at least that's what I use SS to refer to.
I use the two terms interchangeably.







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