im planning on doing some fasted state cardio in the morning before breakfast, and then again planning on doing some more cardio in the PM. i also weight train 4 times a week. just wondering on some options for what to do in the morning when it comes to cardio and in the pm also…plus i plan on starting up some MMA(Brazilian jiu-jitzu)…if that happens i plan on dropping the pm cardio…that is just some background info…looking for some help on this one…in aspect of how long i should do the cardio for,how many days a week…ect…thanks…
Keep it short and intense ala Tabata intervals or CTs Running man. The short burts/intervals of high speed cardio is the best approach.
15-20 minutes at a time is enough. Im not sure how everyday would affect the size of your legs as it is of a higher intensity to regular cardio so you might end up overtrianing if you do it everyday. I would say that twice a week is a good starting point and then add extra sessions depending on how your legs handle it.
dizzle, you asked a question i’ve been
thinking about. and spiderman you aswered, would you lose weight faster doing fasted workout? no highjack here just adding to the question!!
thanks
Barton
Dizzle,
I’ve trained like that before. It ain’t pretty. MMA burns a deceptively large amount of calories. You spend an hour in the gym, an hour rolling after class, you lift weights, you do intervals. You’re a hoss–you going to have to eat like one.
As to the fasted state cardio–it’s debateable. Some people think that it offers a benefit because–I think this is the rationale–glucose stores are mostly depleted, and thus fat stores will be tapped more easily. I tend to think that this will just make your body randy for glucose and it will chew into the handiest supply–your muscle tissue–for its sugar fix. I would at least toss down something before I went for my morning jog/sprint session. Check the reader-mail this week, there’s a similar question. On the other hand, Tampa-Terry thinks that Fasted State cardio is a good idea, and I’m loath to disagree with her about anything because everything she suggests is very well thought out. So there are arguments on both sides of the issue.
What type of cardio should you be doing? My vote would be for intervals, since that’s going to be most specific to MMA, gives you the most bang for the buck, and leaves the most gas in your tank for later training that day. Specifically, I’d be thinking about Mike Mahler’s High Octane Cardio–especially the bag work and the dumbell/kettlebell snatches and clean and jerks, though Tabata is excellent too.
Make sure to eat enough.
Dan “Hoss” McVicker
Fasted state does work but you must be cautious. I would suggest not going over 70% of your MHR maximum. (Low intensity)
Get a HR monitor and give it a try.
Hey, there, Dizzle! Dan’s right. I’ve done a lot of fasted-state cardio. There are those who believ it has great value and those who believe it is dangerously catabolic.
Actually, you’ll probably get a bigger bang for the buck (burn more calories, burn more fat, do it in less time) with HIIT. But you need to be cardiovascularly fit before doing HIIT. I also wouldn’t recommend HIIT for someone who was carrying a lot of extra weight/BF.
An additional consideration when chosing between which type of cardio you want to do is your carb intake. If you’re doing Fat Fast, don’t even TRY HIIT. HIIT requires sufficient carb intake. So if you’re going the low-carb route with your diet, steady-state, fasted state would be my choice of cardio.
The best of all worlds, of course, would be to do a combination of the two! (grin)
If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask!