Cardio on rest days?

[VtaperXO]

Hey everyone, I started to cut one week ago and I notice that is a bit uncomfortable doing cardio after or before my workouts, I'm doing a five days split and my rest days are on Thursday, Should I do cardio on rest days or it's better if I split my cardio session in the morning and then workout as usually at night? I'm just doing low intensity so far so that my sessions are about 30-40 minutes twice a week

 

[VtaperXO]

Up

 

[Smont]

It doesn't really matter when you do it, as long as it gets done. If I'm only doing steady state low intensity cardio I just go for s walk a couple times a week, then I start adding 10-15min before my weight training. It's just a means to burn calories. Your not getting any kind of special cardio boosting benefits from low intensity stuff so all that matters is that you burn the amount of calories you need to.

 

[LeanEngineer]

Personally I prefer to split my cardio and weight training up with a minimum of 6 hours in between the two. I like to do more HIIT cardio though versus low intensity steady state.

 

[aaronuconn]

Personally I prefer to split my cardio and weight training up with a minimum of 6 hours in between the two. I like to do more HIIT cardio though versus low intensity steady state.

Yeah, the 6hr split is what I’ve read most recently regarding concurrent training. Ideally they’re on separate days, but not always feasible for everyone

 

[aaronuconn]

It doesn't really matter when you do it, as long as it gets done. If I'm only doing steady state low intensity cardio I just go for s walk a couple times a week, then I start adding 10-15min before my weight training. It's just a means to burn calories. Your not getting any kind of special cardio boosting benefits from low intensity stuff so all that matters is that you burn the amount of calories you need to.

Agreed. I doubt any non-sedentary, non-elderly individual is getting much cardiovascular benefits from the added walks or very low intensity cardio.

But a couple of those 10-15 mins walks certainly adds to your daily energy expenditure without causing much fatigue. Unless you’re in a massive deficit or end of a cut… then you’ll probably just always feel fatigued lol

 

[Smont]

Agreed. I doubt any non-sedentary, non-elderly individual is getting much cardiovascular benefits from the added walks or very low intensity cardio.

But a couple of those 10-15 mins walks certainly adds to your daily energy expenditure without causing much fatigue. Unless you’re in a massive deficit or end of a cut… then you’ll probably just always feel fatigued lol

Yeah, a big problem in the body building type of world is that people completely confuse burning calories and cardio, cardio is cardiovascular activity it is a way to strengthen your heart. Walking for 15 minutes or 20 minutes at a normal pace it's not cardio karma if that's cardio then every time I get up off my couch to walk to the fridge I just did 30 seconds of cardio or every time I take a trip to the bathroom it's 8 seconds of cardio. Gotta go grocery shopping today I walked around the store for 10 minutes I guess that's 10 minutes a cardio. None of it is cardio. If it's not challenging it's not cardio in my opinion. Walking is just normal day-to-day activity

 

[Smont]

One thing I've always thought was absurd is the people who get all dressed for the gym walk through the door and just walk at a normal pace on a treadmill for 30 minutes or so and go home. If I was just gonna walk at a normal pace I would just go for a walk, Do some chores around my house be productive instead of wasting 30 minutes plus all the time it took to get ready plus the driving time back-and-forth through the gym I could clean my whole house and burn the same amount of calories or more lol.

Now if your a 330lb off season big ramy, walking is probably cardio lol

 

[LeanEngineer]

If it's not challenging it's not cardio in my opinion. Walking is just normal day-to-day activity

I agree completely. Your average heart rate needs to be above a certain threshold for a period of time for it to be cardio. Walking/low intensity will just burn calories and not necessarily target the heart health with cardio.

 

[WeakerNU]

what’s your guys opinions on fast walk with full incline? For me it does elevate heart rate fairly well especially after a workout

 

[aaronuconn]

what’s your guys opinions on fast walk with full incline? For me it does elevate heart rate fairly well especially after a workout

Once you add in variables like that, then I’d consider that cardio. I recently saw one of the “mainstream” things to do nowadays on a treadmill is a 3 MPH walk on full incline for 30 mins. I’m sure even at 3 MPH, which is fairly casual/not-intense, the full incline aspect makes people work up a sweat bring heart rate up.

My personal preference is just steady state running for ~30 mins. For me personally, that tends to have the biggest positive impact on my resting heart rate and blood pressure (I use those as a couple easy parameter to help gauge cardiovascular fitness as that’s simple to measure at home).

 

[LeanEngineer]

I've always followed the guidelines of hitting your target heart rate for at least 20 minutes. If you can do that on 3 mph on full incline then that should work. Target heart rate is 50 to 85 % of max heart rate which varies by age.

 

[IusedToBeFit]

I'm lazy, so I prefer to do my cardio right after a weight lifting session as my heart rate is already rev'd up and in a good zone for burning fat.

....efficiency.

 

[johnny412]

I'm lazy, so I prefer to do my cardio right after a weight lifting session as my heart rate is already rev'd up and in a good zone for burning fat.

....efficiency.

me too