3 Little Known Tips for Cardio

3 Little Known Tips for Cardio
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I've got a confession to make...

In the year 2006, I've seen so many articles on cardio that
it even made me confused! Everything from don't with it
"good night to cardio" to cardio is worthless to HIIT
training and all kinds of crazy ideas. There's anti-cardio
gurus and cardio masters.

At times, cardio seems like a diet plan.

Let me explain that...

With a diet, you have so many foods to choose from that you
can literally make any combination up and call it a "diet."

Cardio seems to be that way lately. There's a lot you can
do with your cardio workouts. Keep them short, make them
intense, do all kinds of machines, do it every day, do it
once a week, don't use machines at all but go outside and
run hills... etc. List goes on and on.

Let's try and answer the question of the best time to do
cardio and how much recovery after your weight sessions you
need in order to get workout but without burning up any
precious muscle.

3 Simple Steps to Effective Cardio Workouts

1- Use cardio as a tool.

Cardiovascular exercise is good for the heart. However, so
is weight training. And lifting weights and building
muscle will do more to get you leaner than 6 spin classes 6
times a week.

If your goal is to build muscle and gain weight or burn off
the fat, then use cardio sparingly as a way to your goal.

Did you know that 1 lb of muscle burns more calories than 1
lb of fat? By focusing on building more muscle, you'll get
leaner quicker than if you plug away at a treadmill all day
long.

Let's put it this way...

If you cut bread with a saw (weight training) it gets the
job done nicely. But if you cut the bread with a saw and
then use a finely sharpened knife to make the slides
perfect (cardio) you'll get the best of both worlds.

You'll get slides of bread quickly (saw) and you'll get
them neatly carved out (knife).

If you can think of cardio as a tool to stripping off
unwanted fat AFTER your weight training and nutrition is in
order, you'll use the tool as it's meant to be used.

2- Do your cardio at the right times.

There's a loaded question if I ever saw one!

a) the right time is anytime it works for you. If you read
several articles about morning cardio and you simply cannot
do it, then do it when you can. There's plenty of studies
that debate the optimal time to do cardio but they all
point to the single fact that it doesn't make a massive
difference in your overall gains. When it comes to
eliminating body fat. Whether it's early morning, late
evening, the most important thing is that you just do it.

b) do your cardio AFTER your weight workouts. Why after?
Because your weight training workouts require something
called glycogen. That's short term fuel. If you burn off
and use up your short term fuel first, you'll have little
to give when it comes to your muscles.

The fuel your muscles need for a weight training workout is
different from the potential fuel sources you can use when
doing cardiovascular activities.

When you do your cardio AFTER your weight training
sessions, you are warmed up and have a better chance at
using fat as a fuel source over glycogen.

3- Separate your cardio from your weight training sessions

If at all possible, try and give yourself plenty of time
between a cardio workout and a weight session. Some
programs recommend 8 hours. This means you'll do cardio in
the AM and weights in the PM. You'll have plenty of time
for post-workout nutrition and a few meals in there as well
to help with recovery.

But what if you can't?

2 Tips to Cardio Workouts

Tip #1 - Do your cardio AFTER your weight session as in the
step above. While this won't be ideal, it allows your body
to use glycogen for short term fuel for the weights and
potentially fat as a fuel source.

Tip #2 - Engage in post-workout nutrition (protein and
carbs) after your weight training session. While you
probably won't burn as much fat, you won't risk burning off
as much muscle either.

The reason your body burns muscle is that it costs a lot to
maintain it (metabolically speaking). In that case, make
sure you can support the muscle by not overtraining and
engaging in proper nutrition.

Those two simple concepts will go a long way in helping you
to preserve muscle when you have a short rest period
between a weight training session and a cardiovascular
workout.

The bottom line is that cardiovascular exercise is part of
a health and fitness routine. It should be used as a tool.
Sometimes more (getting ready for a competition) and
sometimes less (lean bulking). Lately it's been over-rated
but it certainly isn't worthless.

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Marc David is a bodybuilder and author of the, Beginner's
Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding. You can get info on
Marc's e-book at: http://www.Beginning-Bodybuilding.com .
To get Marc's free e-zine, visit http://www.JustAskMarc.com