Weights and cardio

[.V.]

I know this topic has been beaten to death. I know for myself that lifting is early in the morning and cardio comes late in the evening. This works best for me.

My wife has recently started working out and is working on starting a good, healthy diet - for a very nice change. She's now eating more protein instead of only carbs. Adding a little fat too - her diet was way too low in fat before. And instead of once or twice a day, she's now eating 3-4 times. A definite improvement. Not enough yet, but moving in the right direction.

In only 3 weeks there is already a visible difference. Her clothes are fitting differently. I can see where there is some fat loss. The scale at the doctor's office says she's only lost 1 pound in the last 2 weeks though. I've told her to ignore the scale - it is pretty much worthless if one is weight training other than as a general tool to track big changes. The tape doesn't lie over time and neither does the way clothes are fitting.

She has high blood pressure (not stroke risk level, but increased cardiovascular risk level).

We are working on general health and fitness. She's doing a short, intense weight workout 3 days on - 1 day off. That way she can do it when I'm home to help her out and help her and be her spotter.

She's been doing cardio every 4th day. I'm thinking because of the need for weight loss and the high blood pressure we need to increase the cardio to 3 days of 4 instead of one. Due to time and scheduling though, there is no way she can get it 8 hours apart from weight training. Bulding big slabs of muscle is not her goal. As a beginner, I think she will actually improve whatever she does.

Now to my question?
Would doing weights and cardio only a couple of hours apart be harmful? Although not the most beneficial, I don't see that it would do any real harm and might actually be more likely to get the fat off faster and control the blood pressure without medications sooner.

Suggestions, answers, help?

[LiftGirl]

I don't think it will be harmful at all. I always do my cardio immediately after weights.

I know you're supposed to do them 8 hours apart, but for me that would mean getting up extra early, and I think it's more important to get plenty of sleep than to space out cardio and weights.

Also, did your wife get a doctor's ok before starting to lift? With stuff like high blood pressure, I think it's best to be sure.

[Lady C]

Unless she is at extremly lean state I think the 8 hour rule is blown out of proportion. I did cardio and weights in the same day in the beginning and did not see any harmful effects.

Do the cardio right after the weights or alternate her days. I personally think women need 3 cardio days per week.

[.V.]

Due to the last 10 years of serious health problems she is no where close to extremely lean. She's only gotten well enough to think about working out in the last month. That's why I've got her on such a low volume plan. Like Max OT, just not as heavy. The heavy can come later when her body is ready for it - if it ever gets ready for it. She's actually made visible progress in only 3 weeks just from weight training and minimal cardio. I think cardio is good for women and men as often as possible. My main concern was the cardio too close to workouts. I know I did really well with cardio before weights once upon a time...but I was 19 and had plenty of body fat to fuel the workouts with. Kind of like two years ago (well, not quite as bad) - I was so bad off, it didn't matter what I did - it was going to help. It's just with her health, I want to get her started out perfectly so we don't shoot these improvements in the foot before we get them really started out.

Thank you ladies for the tips, I'll talk to her in the morning about starting some lower intensity, short cardio sessions each day - then gradually increasing the intensity and length as she acclimates.

Andy, I've been out of the loop the last couple of days due to work demands so I want to add my two cents now.

I think that doing both makes total sense and will benefit your wife tremendously. My preference is to do cardio last. For your wife, brisk walking with some incline is probably the best. She's ripe for amazing weight loss doing both, in my opinion, because of where she is starting.

The most important thing right now is to retrain her enjoyment/reward system so that regular training becomes pleasant. The right and reguar dose of cardio will help in that. Along with your praise of how proud of her you are for her new efforts.

She needs to get her heart rate up for at least 20 minutes for each cardio session. 60% to 70% of her maximum heart rate seems a good range for her currently.

Keep us posted on how she is doing.

Merry Christmas!

[threenorns]

that 8hrs rule is only for HIIT because it's also anabolic. if she's doing regular cardio, there's no reason she can't do it in the same session.

[.V.]

Thank you all for your input. We are going to move from weights fairly quickly into cardio. It will be low intensity for a short time - then a longer time. Then we'll move it up to moderate intensity and so on.