Cardio Question?

[life_is_good]

I usually do 20-30 min interval training in the am 3 days a week. Should I do cardio on my off days, I lift 4 days a week, or continue to do it on my regular mon, wed, fri routine? Also I dont eat before i do cardio but i drink a shake no more then 30 minutes after. Should i change this at all or does this sound good? I eat pretty good and and want to drop bf% from 12 to 8.

 

[grebcot]

I would. I'm pretty big on cardio. I typically do an hour on the elliptical at high resistance on my off days. I'm trying to burn my BF down too. For a long time I didn't work out much (if at all), so I really screwed up. I wasn't fat but I was out of shape. My stamina and strength was shit. I've made a big improvement in the past couple months though, and blasting cardio I think really helped a lot.

I suppose if you're going to keep it at 20-30 min in the morning you can probably keep it as is, but if you really want to go at it, it's probably good to switch it up.

My gym has a cardio theater. It makes the time pass quickly.

 

[justchilling]

it depends what you r goals are. if you want to bulk up more and put some extra weight on cut down on cardio. if you want to drop some weight or put on some lean mass on step up your cardio.

 

[life_is_good]

no means do i want to sound like a dick but i know that. i mentioned wanting to reduce body fat to 8 from 12%. is what im doing sufficient?

 

[justchilling]

so now you want people to predict your body weight , age, ect. nobody can predict what you should do based on the little info you gave us. if you are noticing that you are not dropping the fat you want adjust your cardio and diet. i personaly would do 40-45 min vs the 30, and also i would do cardio 4 times a week.

 

[life_is_good]

i agree with you thats why my statement was not meant to be rude. im going to up it to 40-45 min 3x/week and see how that helps. thanks

 

[StuWard]

It depends on your time available.

Following Alwyn Cosgrove's hierarchy, http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1526539 you are now working on Priority 4. Steady State High Intensity Aerobic Training.

From this and your other posts you are already participating in muscle building/preserving and metabolic training.

As long as you have the energy and time, go for it. If you should see evidence of overtraining or you run out of time, this should be what you cut first. Don't jeopordize the intensity you put into the HIIT or weight training.

There is also no need to fast before training. You'll have more energy if you eat first.

Stu

 

[2manly]

i have a question... will doing a lot of cardio help me to lose my muscle weight??

 

[StuWard]

It can. Runners generally lose muscle as they train. You will need to do long distance, say in the 10K+ range. Work your way up. Your body should go catabolic (consuming muscle) after about 1 hour.

Please take the advise given to you earlier about seeing a doctor. A poor body image may be the sign of a medical condition. Trying to loose muscle mass may be a sign of anorexia. In my opinion you should embrace your gift and seek to enhance it by weight training.

 

[2manly]

why would i embrace my body if i look like a man? what's a 10k??

 

[Sculelos]

why would i embrace my body if i look like a man? what's a 10k??

10k=10 kilo meters, and I definitely think you need to post a pic or two up before I can decide if you look like a man or not...

 

[StuWard]

10K is 10 km or about 6 miles. You need to be working in that range several times a week with oce a week runs of about twice that. You will lose fat first and that will make you look smaller. You will gradually get trimmer as time goes on. Make sure you do some strength training to maintain balance in your body. In your case I recommend high rep bodyweight exercises like pushups, chinups or inverted rows, situps, hyperextentions and bodyweight squats. Work your way up until you are in the range of about 100/day of each. That would be agressive for the chinups but the rest is doable in a reasonable time.

Start reading all you can about running. This site is not the place to get information. Most people here want to gain muscle. That's why you're getting weird comments.

"why would i embrace my body if i look like a man?"

Every person is unique and has their own beauty if you look for it. Chances are that your body is out of proportion because you don't train it properly. Proper training brings everything into balance and the beauty shows up. Take a look at some of the girls at Crossfit. http://www.crossfit.com/ They're muscular and lean but not grotesque and they are all beautiful.

Understand nutrition and let it help you. Healthy eating will help your body reach it's natural state.