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Training
your body is all about balance. A complete exercise
program should address not only resistance training
but cardiovascular training as well. Proper balance
between these two basic forms of exercise is essential
to your training success.
Training
balance basically boils down to the amount of
cardio training you do compared to the amount
of weight training you do. You are going to learn
exactly what factors affect this training balance
and how you can use them to ensure you reach your
goals as quickly as possible!
The
major issue you will need to take into consideration
when balancing your cardio with your weight training
is your primary training goal; if you're training
to lose fat, your balance is going to be very
different than if you're trying to gain muscle
or if you're training for a specific sport.
Your
primary goal will give you a general starting
point for figuring out exactly how to balance
your training, as well as what type of cardio
and weight training you should be doing.
In
addition to your primary goal, you will also need
to take into account two other major factors:
1.
Your body type - Are you naturally slim? Do
you gain muscle easily? Do you tend to hold onto
fat readily?
2.
The type of cardio training you're doing -
Is it high-intensity or low-intensity? Does it
fatigue you for weights? Does your weight training
fatigue you for your cardio?
As
you read through this article, I want you to write
down the points that apply to you. After explaining
these factors, I will tell you how to integrate
everything you've learned in your personal training
program.
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In
order to successfully balance your training, you
need to first identify what your primary goal
is. Are you trying to lose fat? Are you focused
on gaining muscle? Are trying to improve sports
performance?
It's
very important to note, you will be far more successful
in achieving your goal if you focus on one specific
goal only. The training processes involved in
losing fat or gaining muscle are very different
and do not mix well with each other. If you try
to do both at the same time, your results won't
be as good as if you focused on one at a time.
If
you're training to lose fat, you're going to need
to do more cardio than someone who is training
to gain muscle. A good starting point is three
times per week, 20 to 30 minutes per session.
Depending on the other factors we're going to
discuss, you may need more or less than this.
Weight training three times per week should be
sufficient to maintain and even build muscle mass.
With
fat loss, your primary goal should be burning
calories while sparing as much muscle as possible.
Since you're most likely eating fewer calories,
your body is not going to be eager to add muscle,
therefore it's best to focus on keeping what you've
got. Any muscle you may add is just ice cream
on the cake (bad analogy for this topic!).
If
you're training to gain muscle, you will need
to do less cardio training. Too much cardio can
actually hamper your muscle gain by slowing recovery
and burning up calories that your body needs for
the process of building muscle.
As
a general guideline, one or two cardio sessions
per week should be enough to maintain your cardiovascular
conditioning and keep your bodyfat gains in check
while not slowing muscle growth. You should train
with weights at least three times per week, up
to even six times if you can recover from it and
still make progress.
If
you are training for a specific sport, how many
cardio sessions you need will depend greatly on
the cardiovascular and muscle mass and strength
requirements of your sport. Naturally, a long-distnace
runner is going to have far different requirements
than a hockey or football player. The type of
cardio training you do will also come into play
here (which we will look at below).
As
a guideline, the more cardio-oriented your sport
is, the more cardio sessions you will need and
the greater your focus should be on cardio training.
If your sport is more strength-oriented, your
focus should be primarily on developing that strength,
with fewer cardio sessions. Of course, there are
many sports that require both strength and cardiovascular
capacity. Training in this case should be more
equally balanced.
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Now
that you've identified your training focus and
the general guidelines for it, we need to take
a look at your general body type.
There
are three main bodytypes: ectomorph, endomorph
and mesomorph. The catogories operate on a sliding
scale - a person may be an ectomorph but have
mesomorphic tendencies, for example (we will go
more into each type below).
The
ectomorph is the naturally-slim person.
They
have a smaller bone-structure and can seem to
"eat whatever they want and not gain an ounce."
The
ectomorph has a fairly easy time losing fat so
they will will generally not need to do as much
cardio for fat loss. Two or three times per week
should be plenty. An ectomorph trying to gain
muscle may need to lay off cardio training completely
in order to have enough recovery energy available
for their body to even build muscle. Once or twice
a week should be the maximum cardio frequency.
Even weight training may need to be less frequent
(two or three times per week) in order to see
results.
The
endomorph type is the heavyset end of the scale.
The
endomorph typically gains and holds onto fat easily
and has a harder time losing it. The endomorph
does tend to carry more muscle mass than the ectomorph,
however.
Endomorphs
will need to do more cardio to see significant
fat loss. The minimum would be three times per
week but some may require up to five or six sessions
per week for best results.
An
endomorphic person trying to gain muscle mass
should continue to do cardio two or three times
per week. Their tendency to accumulate bodyfat
when eating excess calories (which is a requirement
for muscle gain) can be reduced by keeping a reasonable
amount of cardio in their training program. The
endomorphic body has plenty of energy in reserve
for muscle gain.
The
mesomorph has all the luck. This is the naturally-muscular
person.
They
are characterized by having broader shoulders
and a narrower waist (known as a "V"
taper). They gain muscle easily and lose fat easily.
A mesomorphic
person training to lose fat can get away with
doing only one or two cardio sessions a week while
still seeing fairly good results. They will have
an easier time holding onto muscle while losing
fat, which gives them a calorie-burning advantage
(the more muscle you have, the more calories you
burn in a day even while doing nothing). Mesomorphs
who do more cardio sessions will see greater fat
loss results than either of the other two bodytypes
- their greater muscle mass helps them burn more
calories.
The
mesomorph has a relatively easy time gaining muscle.
Their bodies seem to naturally want to add muscle
and keep it. The mesomorph training for muscle
gain should keep doing enough cardio training
to maintain cardiovascular capacity (about once
or twice a week). They can, however, still get
away with doing more without compromising results.
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The
type of cardio training you do will have a tremendous
impact on the frequency at which you can do it
and still get the results you want.
Low-intensity
cardio training, such as walking or slow cycling,
can be done practically every single day (even
several times a day) for longer periods of time.
This type of training is very easy for your body
to recover from, regardless of your body type
and your goals. It will have very little negative
impact on muscle gain and can help you burn calories
for fat loss.
Moderate-intensity
cardio training, such as jogging or swimming,
will need to be done a little less frequently.
This type of training requires more energy both
to perfom and for your body to recover from. A
person trying to lose fat can generally perform
four to six moderate-intensity sessions per week
at around 20 to 30 minutes each. A person trying
to gain muscle should reduce this amount to two
to three sessions per week.
High-intensity
training is the toughest of the bunch but can
actually net you the greatest and fastest results.
High-intensity training is exemplified in activities
such as sprinting and interval training. If you've
ever had a coach make you run up and down hills,
you've done high-intensity cardio. Basically,
anything that you do as hard as you can for a
short period of time could be considered high-intensity
training. In fact, intense weight training with
short rest periods is very good for cardio capacity.
High-intensity
training is extremely effective for fat loss as
it not only causes you to burn a lot of calories
during the activity, it also raises your metabolism
for a long time after the activity is done. This
type of hard training should be done less frequently
than the more moderate forms of cardio as it is
much harder for your body to recover from. If
you are training for fat loss, you should do at
least two but no more than three high-intensity
cardio sessions per week. If you are training
for muscle gain, once or, at the most, twice per
week should be the limit.
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The
three major factors that determine how much cardio
you should do in your program (your primary training
goal, your bodytype and the type of cardio training
you do) must now all be taken into account when
determining how much cardio you should be doing
compared to weight training.
Every
body is different and every person reacts to training
in different ways. To determine how much cardio
you should do, you will need to look at each factor
on it's own then look at all three factors at
once. When you write them all down, you will probably
see a pattern develop. Here's an example.
Fat
Loss - 3 to 6 times per week
Endomorph - 3 to 6 times per week
High-intensity Training - 2 to 3 times per week
Weight Training - 3 times per week
This
would mean an endomorphic person training for
fat loss with high-intensity training could do
cardio three times per week and weights 3 times
per week.
Here's
another example:
Muscle
Gain - 1 to 2 times per week
Ectomorph - 1 to 2 times per week
Low-intensity Training - 2 to 3 times per week
minimum but can be done almost every day
Weight Training - 3 to 4 times per week
This
would mean an ectomorphic person looking for muscle
gain and doing low-intensity cardio training could
do cardio two days a week at a minimum to maintain
cardio capacity while trying to gain muscle.
Conclusion:
Every
person's situation is wide open to interpretation
and, when it all comes right down to it, much
of your training schedule is determined by the
time you have available to you. These guidelines
should help give you an idea of what frequency
of training is most appropriate for your specific
goals and situation. Take these recommendations
simply as advice, not as rules written in stone
and feel free to experiment. You may find out
that what actually works for you is exactly the
opposite of what is written here!
Cardiovascular Training Resource
Links:
What
Do You Mean Low-Intensity Training Isn't The Best
For Fat Burning?
Cardiovascular
Training Basics
Cardiovascular
Activities
Cardiovascular
Equipment
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