Cardio Tips?

Stephanos

Hi All

I have reviewed most of the posts in this forum but wonder if I could get more individual tips.

I am not new to fitness but have just returned to the gym after fourth year of college, sporadic jogging and weights sessions. My weight was 87Kgs and is now 105Kgs. I am still reasonably fit and toned but want to seriously attack the extra flab. I 'review' my eating to make sure I am not excessive on anything but would like to concentrate on my workouts.

Ideally I aim to attend the gym for roughly 60-70 minutes 3 / 4 times a week. My work out is fairly basic and has been the same for the last few years. It comprises of:

Bike 20 mins burning 200 cals
Rower under 10 mins burning 120 cals
Jog 25-30 mins burning 400 cals

*Abdominal exercises and some basic Pilates*

Cross trainer for 10 mins burning 120 cals

I usually try and do free weights at home once a week.

This program was given to me when I first started attending the gym. The reason I spend so long on the treadmill is that I enjoy it. I finish with the cross trainer so as to warm up because I hate sore abs the next day.

In a nutshell my query asks if there is a better way to increase the effectiveness of the time I spend in the gym? Should I scratch off anything I am currently doing or just aim to workout at a higher intensity over a shorter period?

Recon

At the beginning of last June I weighed a little over 14 stone (I'm a little under 5'9") so by most measured I was overweight. My bodyfat was over 21% and I checked my BMI and according to that I would need to lose 19lb before being in the "normal" (I can't remember what they called it) category.

I basically got pissed off with being overweight and said **** this I'm going training again. I cut way down on eating crap, although still went to the chipper or whatever every once in a while and by the end of August I lost three stone. And I managed to keep it off.

Just going to the gym 3 or 4 times a week to get myself started. Don't bother with the bikes, I think they're just a waste of time. The crosstrainers I found were really good and a small bit of weights.

Between the end of August and a few weeks ago I didn't go to the gym. I just go for a run of 4ish miles 5 or 6 times a week. I only went back to the gym because I dilocated my knee so I couldn't run on it for a while. Which really messed up my training for the Ballycotton 10!

Recon

I think it might be a good idea to cut back everything except the cross trainer, just do that for half an hour an you should be able to burn 600 calories handy enough if you want to count calories. I used to do a 32 minute program doing 4 minutes forwards, 4 backwards and so on, then at 24 minutes do 3 forwards then 4 backwards and for the last minute go like **** forward. Gym session less than an hour

zAbbo

I do a 45min session at the gym with roughly 25-30mins weights and 15mins cardio, and if we're counting calories, roughly 900-1000 per session.

With the weights you are also building lean muscle and its much more exciting than cardio.

Stephanos

zabbo wrote:

I do a 45min session at the gym with roughly 25-30mins weights and 15mins cardio, and if we're counting calories, roughly 900-1000 per session.

With the weights you are also building lean muscle and its much more exciting than cardio.

Zabbo that sounds really interesting. Would you be able to provide me details of what you do? I do free weights once a week and to be honest could probably do with far more. I suppose it is time I started doing something a bit different.

Jak

Calories burnt is a function of a couple of things, and the read outs from machines are not really so useful except as a benchmark from session to session. However the reason they take your bodyweight etc. is to give you an estimate.

The key things will be the intensity and duration of your workout and metabolic rate - bear in mind that training boosts the metabolic rate for some time after a session also. Also I'm not sure how you calculate calories burnt during a weights session unless you just use literature estimates...

Anyhow the point is - knowing calories burnt in a session is fairly irrelevant if you are putting the effort in. Push yourself, you'll know your own limits irrespective of calorie read outs.

However, the advice is mostly sound. Try to focus on one piece of cardio in a given sesssion. If you do cardio 3-4 times a week and weights once, I would suggest a shift to 3 cardio 2 weights as below. If what you do at home is not very good, I'd suggest training in the gym.

1 - Run 45mins
2 - Weights - Back and Arms
3 - Cycle 60 mins
4 - Free
5 - Run 45mins
6 - Weights - Chest and Core
7 - Free

JAK.