This is one of those articles I should have written about 10 years ago.
Mainly it would have just saved me about 15,874 email exchanges with people asking this very question.
Every time I get asked this question, I counter with a question of my own: What is your primary reason for doing the cardio??
This makes answering all of the specifics much easier.
In general, there are 3 main reasons why people want to add cardio work to their strength routine. I’m listing them in order of peoples’ primary motivation (from my anecdotal experience of a coach for 15+ years).
I’m excluding neurotic people who just like to run for the sake of running. I do not understand these people and they aren’t reading this blog anyways.
#1: I want to do Cardio for Fat Loss
Despite what people say, yes cardio can be an important tool for fat loss. Even a necessary tool if you are trying to get from fat to fit in a short period of time. While true it’s MOSTLY DIET…….it’s not all diet. Especially for you endomorphs out there (natural fattys) cardio can and does absolutely help to speed the process along. We all know that Fat Loss is primarily about energy balance. You’ve heard it 1,000 times…..Calories in must be less than Calories Out.
In my opinion, HOW you achieve that balance has an effect.
For those of you interested in preserving as much muscle mass as possible while cutting fat……you don’t want to follow a program of Linear Starvation. i.e. you don’t want to diet all of your muscle off while trying to get lean. Not only can eating too few calories waste away muscle mass in and of itself….it’s also a very poor choice for fueling up for workouts. And make no mistake….one of the primary mechanisms by which we preserve muscle mass while dieting is by engineering our nutrition protocol to maximize our performance during training sessions. In other words, massive performance regression on the weights due to insufficient fuel/calories will lead to some loss of tissue. Good bodybuilders know this.
So I adhere to a principle that I first heard of back in the 1990s from natural bodybuilder and body building coach Tom Venuto……”Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle.”
I couldn’t agree more.
There is no getting around the fact that calories must come down some when trying to drop fat. In general, we can’t do enough cardio to “burn off” the excess from a big caloric surplus. But the moral of the story is simple……drop calories yes, but don’t create the entirety of your deficit with diet. Use a blended approach with diet + cardio for better results.
So that begs the follow up questions……..How Much Should I Do? What Type Should I Do?
Exactly how much cardio you do depends on several factors, including but not limited to:
- How much weight do you want to lose?
- How fast do you want to lose the weight?
- What type of cardio are you doing (harder or easier)?
- How much of a deficit did you create with diet?
My general recommendation is to start with 2-4 times per week for 20-40 minutes at a time. So at the bare minimum we have 20 minutes 2 times per week. At the higher end we have 40 minutes 4 times per week. If you aren’t sure where to start and you start to feel the old paralysis by analysis creep in…….start with 30 minutes 3 times per week.
Again…..this is just a starting point. Just like with diet, your cardio output will have to be adjusted over time to keep you on track with your goals. If you aren’t losing or you aren’t losing at the rate you want to….then crank it up some. You have the option to extend the duration of your sessions, add in extra days, and/or increase the intensity of the exercise.
If you want to get very lean, very fast, you may actually have to do quite a bit more than this……up to 30-60 minutes of daily cardio may be in order.
Just like you don’t want to unnecessarily restrict calories, you don’t want to unnecessarily add in excess cardio when you are a strength athlete. So start with a smaller “dose” and see how far it can take you. Start with 2-3 times per week for 20-30 minutes and see how long that will support your fat loss goals. When things stall, move to 3-4 times per week or opt for 40-45 minute sessions. etc, etc. Slowly build it up as needed.
So what type of cardio is best for fat loss?
There are two simple truths about cardio for fat loss (1) consistency matters more than anything (2) all you are doing is burning calories.
So what does this mean? It means that literally any activity that burns calories is generally fine. And it also means you need to pick the activities that you are most likely to do. I can’t stress that last part enough. Seriously read it again. The biggest reason people fail with their cardio is that they just stop doing it. Cardio sucks. It’s boring. It’s easy to talk yourself out of. Pick an activity that has the least amount of obstacles in front of it.
Simplicity & Convenience over everything else.
Don’t rewrite the fucking book. Bodybuilders have been getting down to low single digit bodyfat for decades and they all follow the same formula…….Boring-Ass-Cardio-on-Boring-Ass-Cardio-Machines.
- Stationary Bikes
- Incline Treadmill Walking
- Elliptical Trainers and
- Step Mills.
Pick one of those 4. Pick just one or switch them up. It doesn’t matter. Remember……you are just burning calories. This is clock punching. Do the one you hate the least.
The reason I recommend those machines is that they take almost zero thought, planning, or set up. You literally hop on the damn thing, hit start and go. Remember – simplicity.
So there are a few more questions that I always get that go along with this……
What about HIIT????
It’s fine. But remember what I said. Do what you are most likely gonna do and never skip!!! You gonna gear up mentally to go and push the prowler 4 days per week??? If so, that’s fine. Or if you feel particularly energetic on a given day, then skip the 30 minute elliptical session and opt for 15 hard minutes of Prowler sprints. But again…….cardio for fat loss has to be planned for the long haul. What are you gonna do day in / day out for weeks or months at a time???? The reality is, people wash out of doing the HIIT stuff on the reg. It’s much much easier to condition your body and brain to do more traditional cardio.
What about Strongman Conditioning?
I don’t know why but there seems to be a fascination with lifters regarding “strongman” activities for cardio. They always want to do farmers walks, sandbag carries, etc, etc. And usually the fascination lasts for about 2 weeks maximum and then the novelty has worn off and they quit. It’s not that I’m necessarily against all that stuff, but I’m telling you……the washout rate with this kinda thing is even higher than with HIIT. People just don’t stay with it. Once again – simplicity and convenience. Even if it’s only 5-10 minutes, this shit takes time to set up and organize sometimes. It’s a barrier. You don’t need it. Hop on the treadmill and hit start. No one is gonna think you’re a pussy for walking on an incline treadmill instead of doing your oh-so-epic farmer walk / sandbag medley. I promise.
When should I do my cardio?
Again – since consistency over time wins out over all other considerations, the answer to this is what you might have guessed………whenever is most convenient to you.
My tips for greater consistency and possibly greater results is to either do the cardio first thing in the morning in a fasted state OR immediately following your weight training sessions.
Fasted cardio is one of those debates that has been raging for decades. I’ve done it both ways. Both with myself and with clients. I can tell you, without hesitation, that I believe fasted cardio is much more effective for fat loss. Yes, yes, I know there are people that call bunk on that claim. Okay, fine. Even if you don’t agree on the increased effectiveness of fasted cardio…….believe in the fact that first thing in the morning, while the rest of the world is asleep is a great time to do cardio. Again, no obstacles other than your own desire to stay in your soft warm bed. Wake up, drink a glass of water, climb on the treadmill and hit START. 20-40 minutes later and you are done.
The other good time to do it is right after your weight workout. Why? Well – because you are already in the gym, sweaty, and probably 10 feet from a piece of cardio equipment. Don’t tell yourself that you’ll come back later today and do your 30 minutes. You won’t. So hop on the goddamn thing and knock it out NOW. Convenience.
What about Running or Walking?
Long distance running is the one form of cardio I really like my lifters to avoid. It doesn’t mesh well with heavy lower body lifting. “But I read that…….!!!!!” Okay fine. Start incorporating long distance runs into your weekly routine and see what happens with your squat. Yes, running is effective for getting fat off. But so are other forms of cardio that don’t have the same negative impact on lower body strength and muscle. If you can avoid the negatives then why wouldn’t you.
Walking is great. It’s literally the lowest barrier to entry and most convenient form of cardio. Only issues generally involve weather. The other issue with walking is that after a while it gets kinda easy and hard to progress the intensity. Increasing the intensity of a modality is a great way to increase the calorie burn without adding time or extra days. One of the benefits of the machines is the ability to increase resistance. Or in the case of a treadmill – increase the degree of incline.
#2: I Want to do Cardio for My Health
Can’t argue with this one. Most people are in agreement that some cardiovascular exercise, done regularly is good for your cardio-vascular health. Imagine how many people could get off their blood pressure medications if they engaged in regular cardio-vascular exercise? Probably a lot.
As you get older, keeping your heart in good shape and keeping your blood pressure down starts to become a priority. Now in my 40s, I care a bit more about this than I do the definition in my abs. So for me, and many of you reading this…..this will be your primary reason to do cardio.
Like with Fat Loss……….What you do generally doesn’t matter that much!!! Do anything that elevates the heart rate. And also like fat loss – improvement and maintenance of HEALTH is a long term deal. So we need to pick exercise modalities that can become HABIT. Lower the barriers to entry. Remove obstacles that will prevent the activity from becoming habit.
Prioritize simplicity and convenience. The goal for general health is going to be 2-4 times per week for 20-30 minutes at a time. If you combine something along those lines with 2-4 times per week of weight training you should be in good shape.
The recommendations above are general.
If you wanna go on a 2 hour hike on the weekends – cool. If you wanna run some sprints or push the prowler around once per week – cool. But again, you want to have some repeatable habits that you knock out week in and week out. Remember there is magic in the simplicity of just hopping on the machine and hitting START. No set up, no planning, no weather, no obstacles but you.
#3: I want to do Cardio for Performance
This always begs the follow up question…….performance in what???
Cardio for the sake of Fat Loss / Health are very similar. In general I recommend a very generic approach and I recommend more of a Longer / Slower / Distance model than a HIIT model. Not necessarily because it’s provably “better” but because it’s easier to make into sustainable habit over long periods of time. Both health modification and fat loss require this. But the reality is that both HIIT and “LSD” cardio are both useful for improvements in health and fat loss. It doesn’t really matter what you do, just that you do something. Anything.
But performance is different.
Here – WHAT we do matters. A lot.
The cardio needs to meet the demands of the activity we’re training for. In all domains – Duration, Intensity, and Modality.
In most cases – the best prescription is just to DO THE THING YOU ARE PREPARING FOR.
Continue to lift and then practice the thing you wanna get good at or some very close variation of it. For most amateurs or recreational athletes that is the simple formula.
I want to run a 5K with my wife? Run a 5K 2-3 times per week. If you can’t do the whole thing, break it up into chunks of run/walk divided by either time or distance.
I want to do a Triathalon or Sprint Triathalon? Join a Tri club and let their coaches give you a program of Run/Bike/Swim.
I want to play in a recreational adult basketball league? Join a league and start playing. If your cardio sucks hit the court 2-3 days per week and run gassers/suicides (running up and down the court for a set time or distance at a fast pace with short breaks in between efforts). Again – make the training as specific as possible to the actual event.
What if your “performance goal” is not something that is easily replicated or trainable????
I’ll give a real world example that I’ve run into dozens of times in my gym business.
An older client signs up for a vacation that entails LOTS of walking, long uphill trails, or long flights of stairs. She wants to be able to take the tours, see the sights and not have to sit on the tour bus with her purse in her lap while everyone else does the fun stuff!!!
In those cases we just do the best we can to replicate the demands of the activity. What I’d probably recommend she do is lots of walking on a treadmill raised to moderate incline. Over time we seek to raise the incline up as high as she can tolerate without using her hands. So maybe incline treadmill walking is 1-2 times per week. And then on top of that we do something like light prowler pushing where we prioritize distance instead of load. Do that 1x per week along with her squats and deadlifts and we’ve got a SIMPLE performance based conditioning program that will have her ready for her vacation.
Lastly……what about Training for Performance for the Unknown??
This is actually not an uncommon inquiry from clients. A VERY common theme occurs among men who want to be “ready to go” when the drunk at the bar throws down on them. As my buddy Josh Bryant says……you want to be #GasStationReady. As a young Marine I was involved in more than a few bar room scraps. It happens. Less so now that I’m a father of 3, but still……..you never know. The world is full of idiots and violent people.
Look……if you want to get good at fighting….learn how to fight. Or how to use a Glock. Knowing how to actually box, wrestle, or put a guy in chokehold will go further than simply being in shape. But all things being equal if neither of you knows how to fight it’s better to be strong and conditioned than weak and fat.
So what’s the formula for this kind of thing. One – stay strong. Second – fights are extremely high intensity and the cardio gas tank empties very quickly. Stress/anxiety accelerate this process and empty the gas tank quicker. The best way to condition for something like this is with very high intensity cardio. Honestly – don’t overthink it just sprint with the prowler a couple days per week. You aren’t gonna find anything better for street fight conditioning than prowler pushing……other than actual sparring. But if you aren’t interested in joining an MMA gym and you just wanna do all you can from a strength and conditioning stand point then just lift and push the prowler.
Once per week load the prowler heavy and do a high volume of shorter sprints with short rest times.
Once per week load the prowler lighter and do a high volume of longer sprints with slightly longer rest times.
That’s it. Over time you can increase intensity via Load, Number of Trips, Distance Per Trip, or Decreased Rest Times.
Okay, that’s enough for now – go do your cardio.
