QUESTION:
Dear MS,
My personal trainer always has me do 20-30 minutes of cardio (treadmill or bike) immediately preceding my weight training workout. Last week while my trainer was on vacation, I decided not to do my 20-30 minute cardio warmup; I went right to the weights instead and I noticed I was a lot stronger! When I asked my trainer about this the other day, he got off his cell phone long enough to tell me that I was lucky I didn't get injured! I'm confused. Should I be doing 20-30 minutes of cardio before my weights? What is your opinion?
Thanks in advance,
Mary Ann
ANSWER:
Thanks for writing in, Mary Ann. It would be my pleasure to answer your question(s).
Should you be doing 20-30 minutes of cardio before you lift weights? No, not if you care about making progress. It is a total waste of your time. My opinion on this matter? Fire your trainer, he hasn't got a clue.
To expand on this topic a little bit, let's mention a few FACTS.
Weight training and exercise conditioning is based on science, not what is written in muscle magazines or what you hear in the locker room or at the social club. So, here's a wakeup call for all the personal trainers out there. If the majority of your "expertise" comes from muscle/fitness magazines and gym rat rhetoric and you think that because you took a 6 month certification class in personal training you are "qualified", THINK AGAIN. If you call yourself an "expert", you better damn well be familiar with people like Poliquin, Simmons, Chek, Duchaine, King, Bompa, Francis, Zatsiorsky, and Prilepin for starters. If these names are new to you, it's safe to say you know very little about the REAL science of weight training. Having your clients do 20-30 minutes of cardio for a warmup and then conducting them through a circuit of machines IS NOT CALLED WEIGHT TRAINING - IT'S CALLED RIPPING PEOPLE OFF!
Enough of my rant...
Now, Mary Ann, in any science, we have certain rules that make calculating the effects of certain variables easy to determine and predictable. A REAL SIMPLE rule in weight training and exercise is that the intensity of the activity determines its place in the workout order. To understand this statement, you must understand what intensity means.
Intensity, in weight training, is defined as a quantitative value relative to a maximum performance or output.
An example would be this; if your 1 Repetition Maximum (abbreviated 1RM) in the bench press is 300 lbs, then 240 lbs is 80% of your 1 repetition maximum. If you are performing sets with 240 lbs on the bench press, then the relative intensity level is 80%; you are working at "80% intensity". If you are using 125 lbs and your one rep max is 250lbs, then you are working at an intensity level of 50%.
Relative intensity level is an important element to consider in your weight training program. There are important facts that apply to particular intensity levels. For example, most people do not realize that working at 90% intensity in a given exercise for longer than 4 weeks will actually cause a strength regression.
Most people using free weights would construct better workouts if they starting thinking in terms of relative intensity and training percentages rather than thinking just "how many pounds am I lifting". Think instead, "what percentage am I working at?", "what percent increase in weight is this?". This is especially important to women who are training with free weights. For example, a woman may be confused as to why 25 lb dumbells feel so much heavier than 20 lb dumbbells, but she needs to consider that jumping from 20s to 25s represents a 25% increase in weight. Again, if these ideas are new to you, you should probably take a step back and reexamine your training program. These basic concepts are as fundamental to weight training as simple addition is to mathematics but they are not so common knowledge in the fitness gyms.
Now, how do we know that we shouldn't be performing 20-30 minutes of cardio before lifting weights?
The intensity of the activity determines its place in the workout order.
A simple, but not so well known fact.
What is the intensity of cardio relative to weight training? Is cardio of lower or higher intensity than lifting weights? How do you measure the intensity of cardio?
An easy way to determine if an activity is of lower or higher intensity is to measure the maintainable duration of the output. How long can you maintain the same quantitative value or level of output? As duration of an activity, exercise, or event increases, intensity decreases. As intensity increases, duration of an activity or exercise decreases.
So, that would mean that if I can maintain cardio output at a given level (example:jogging at a 8 minute mile pace) for 20-30 minutes, but I can only continue to perform repetitions with a given weight on a given exercise (example:squat continuously with 185lbs) for 30-60 seconds before muscular failure occurs and I can't continue, then cardio MUST BE less intense. By logical extension we can say that sprinting is more intense than jogging, performing a 3 rep maximum is more intense than performing a 6 rep maximum, and, finally, lifting weights is more intense that performing 20 minutes of cardio.
So, Mary Ann, what happens when you make the MISTAKE of doing cardio work before lifting weights? You are weaker. Now does anyone actually remember what the GOAL of lifting weights is?
"Anyone?"
"Anyone?"
"Bueller?"
The goal of lifting weights is to increase strength. That's it. That's the goal; get stronger. Everything else (losing fat, getting in shape, changing your body, etc.) is an indirect benefit of lifting weights.
So why would you intentionally do anything before you lift weights that would make you weaker?
P.S. You don't have to do cardio to "warm up" for weight training. An exercise specific warmup would be sufficient.
Example: Exercise Specific Warmup
Client: 35 year-old woman
Exercise: Full Squat
Best Performance in the Full Squat: 135 lbs x 4 reps
A) Bodyweight squats (Deep Knee Bends) for 10 reps. Slow.
B) Spend about 60 seconds stretching the hams, lower back, quads, and/or calves
C) Full Squat - 65lbs x 6 reps
D) Stretch again
E) Full Squat - 85lbs x 4 reps
F) Stretch
G) Full Squat - 95lbs x 2 reps
H) Stretch
I) Full Squat - 105lbs x 1 rep
J) Stretch and/or rest for about 3 minutes
K) End Warm up / Begin Worksets:
L) 115 x 4 sets x 6 reps
M) Next exercise doesn't require as much warming up.
For a more thorough discussion on warming up, you could consult a book listed on my BOOK LIST page; The Poliquin Principles.
P.P.S.
Where does cardio belong in a workout?
AT THE END, after lifting weights, or in its own separate session.
Send FEEDBACK Now!
|
