I have a question regarding running after my work outs. After lifting weights for about an hour, I would normally try to run about 20-30 mintues running at speeds from 6.5-7.5mph on the tread mill. This has been my routine for a long time.
One day my friend tells me that when you run for that long and fast, your body loses muscle recovery. Interested in hearing this, I asked about 3-4 trainers at my gym, and they all told me different answers. And now I am very confused.
Now my question to you is…should I keep my routine? Or should I change it?
The following is what some of the trainers told me.
Run twice a week on off days when I dont work out at my current running pace.
You can run after you work out, but try to run only 10-15min on slower speeds.
You dont really have to run after you work out to keep a fit body. Lifting weights for an hour is a good enough exercise.
Please help me what I should do!
I am kind of curious about #3 myself. Does lifting weights only, really a good enough exercise to stay fit. Cause it would be nice to just stay at the gym for one hour.
fuck the tread for running. find a high school track nearby and run some sprints on the weekend when theres no kids.
its hard to recommend running program/volume when we don’t know your goals or current body fat%.
3 is for people who work their ass of when their in the weight room, leaving pools of sweat at each station. or people in low single digit body fat % just maintaining or not too concerned about minimal fat gain.
Its all really a matter of opinion and/or preference. Now I would agree that running for 30 min that fast is a bit much. I saw an Interview with Stan McQuay last year and he said that doing cardio really helped him.
[quote]djsk wrote:
The following is what some of the trainers told me.
Run twice a week on off days when I dont work out at my current running pace.
You can run after you work out, but try to run only 10-15min on slower speeds.
You dont really have to run after you work out to keep a fit body. Lifting weights for an hour is a good enough exercise.
[/quote]
Did any of these three trainers ask what your goals are? Did they ask what type of lifting routine you are on? How many days a week you lift? Etc?
The point being is that it heavily depends on what you are trying to do… If you are trying to figure out whether or not running after your workouts is detrimental to what you are trying to accomplish, than we need to know more about you. Are you trying to gain muscle? Lose fat? Maintain body weight? Training for a lifting comp? Training for a marathon? Just like to be fit? Etc…
Yes, a large part of it depends your goals as the others have stated. You asked if you can lose or keep fat off by just lifting and the answer is yes. Fat levels can be manipulated or lowered by monitoring/restricting your calories and boosting metabolism through hard weight lifting workouts and building muscle which also raises metabolism/calorie burning.
By running after your weight workouts when glycogen stores have already been used can increase fat loss if that is desired. I wouldn’t recommend long 30 to 40 minute bouts but rather fifteen to twenty minutes high intensity sessions for this personally. Also, nothing wrong with a little bit of running throughout the week to keep the heart and lungs worked and the more active one is the leaner they are period.
I’d recommend doing sprints instead of 30-40 mins of straight cardio. I almost always throw up though, so if you can hold your food after doing heavy leg sess, then sprints straight afterward it will be the best for bbing.
If you want to ‘get fit’ do it on your ‘off’ days, and don’t forget to compensate the cardio with more food. If you don’t, give up on bbing.