Hst And Sport Balance?

G

Griffith

New Member
Hey guys.

I am planning on starting HST as my new routine primarily because it is 3 days a week and offers me time to pursue my sporting needs (football).

Upon further research I saw that they only recommend very little cardio on off days which had me concerned.

Does anyone here balance HST and do sports meaning you burn a good bit of calories? I plan to counteract this with eating 3-4000 calories a day.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks.
 
Cardio is incredibly easy to integrate into a weightlifting routine, and this includes HST. The overwhelming body of research now shows that cardio actually increases your capacity for strength and size gains.

Two points to make regardin it's application;

1. Integrate sensibly; don't do a three hour run and expect to lift as usual the next day. Cardio should be low-impact where possible, and sensibly distributed across the week; i.e. 3x45 minutes is better than 2x60minutes is better than 1x120 minutes (in the majority of contexts).

2. If you are training with the aim to get stronger and/or bigger, just eat more to compensate for the energy expenditure (and this coming is the important part) and the extra recovery associated with cardio + weights.
 
Jester said:
Cardio is incredibly easy to integrate into a weightlifting routine, and this includes HST. The overwhelming body of research now shows that cardio actually increases your capacity for strength and size gains.

Two points to make regardin it's application;

1. Integrate sensibly; don't do a three hour run and expect to lift as usual the next day. Cardio should be low-impact where possible, and sensibly distributed across the week; i.e. 3x45 minutes is better than 2x60minutes is better than 1x120 minutes (in the majority of contexts).

2. If you are training with the aim to get stronger and/or bigger, just eat more to compensate for the energy expenditure (and this coming is the important part) and the extra recovery associated with cardio + weights.
Click to expand...

How about HIIT, as in 2 or 3 x 15 minutes? Hst advices against it, is that view point out dated?
 
Building outer muscles for show and ignoring the heart is as stupid as it gets. Low impact cardio is best. I use a Physio Step.
 
Mojo77 said:
How about HIIT, as in 2 or 3 x 15 minutes? Hst advices against it, is that view point out dated?
Click to expand...

I think the benefits of LISS outweigh HIIT considerably, both in terms of health and performance. HIIT is great for specific weight loss scenarios though.
 
3 times per week at about 70% max heart rate for 20 minutes each time. I do them on off days or free afternoons or when I just plain have excess energy. I do not combine cardio into the same w/o as weights. My goal is not weight lose but cardio health maintenance. In the summer I may switch from the physio step to cardio jogging in the pool at above waist deep.
 
Last edited:
@Old and Grey

Very interesting, I think it is indeed best to keep cardio for off days.
I am curious about your accomplishments after all these years of training. What are your stats? Like, height, weight, arm/bicep size?
 
My "selfie" Obituary:

5'8" (down from 5'10"), chest 47, waist 32, arm 17, thigh 25, weight 190, he did not test max singles...too risky, age 70, training since 13 originally as an oly style lifter (some off time to get his ass shot at), skinniest kid in entire 6th grade, had thyroid cancer but beat it, 2 back surgeries...mostly from being bucked off horses, still rode every day (I think...cause I can't remember shit!) Never did pics or contests because he lifted for himself only, did not look at any muscle mags and never owned any sleeveless shirts. Never did a heavy bulk or cut. Ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a diet coke every breakfast for 50 years. Best gains came after age 55. Married 40 years. Oh yea, had a dirty mind too. :cool:
 
Mojo77 said:
@Old and Grey

Very interesting, I think it is indeed best to keep cardio for off days.
I am curious about your accomplishments after all these years of training. What are your stats? Like, height, weight, arm/bicep size?
Click to expand...

I definitely disagree with needing to keep it on the off days.

Looking at college and professional athletes, Olympic athletes etc. Anyone who does any form of professional or intending-to-be-professional sporting activity is successfully doing weights and cardio on the same day. Not to say you can't do them on off days, but;

a) You don't have to.

b) It's unlikely to improve results.

c) If anything, it's reducing your recovery time.
 
@Jester

I think you will be singing a different tune when you hit 70, graduate from college and retire from professional sports. What you are suggesting is fine for a limited group of people, though.

a) Correct but you can if you want to. The same is true for sex, eating breakfast, taking a poop, etc.

b) Not true if you're are too tired from lifting to perform cardio correctly on the same day. That is akin to suggesting that it would be okay to do all your weekly workouts in one day and spreading them out will not improve results.

c) If your cardio is interfering with your muscle recovery, you are obviously doing the wrong type of cardio if your goal is maintaining heart health as I stated that mine is.

Other than that, I definitely agree that you do not have to perform cardio on off days.
 
Last edited:
Old and Grey said:
@Jester

I think you will be singing a different tune when you hit 70, graduate from college and retire from professional sports. What you are suggesting is fine for a limited group of people, though.

a) Correct but you can if you want to. The same is true for sex, eating breakfast, taking a poop, etc.

b) Not true if you're are too tired from lifting to perform cardio correctly on the same day. That is akin to suggesting that it would be okay to do all your weekly workouts in one day and spreading them out will not improve results.

c) If your cardio is interfering with your muscle recovery, you are obviously doing the wrong type of cardio if your goal is maintaining heart health as I stated that mine is.

Other than that, I definitely agree that you do not have to perform cardio on off days.
Click to expand...

b) If you are lifting at a non-max intensity, and/or at a volume that is not prohibitive to recovery, then doing LISS cardio is not going to impede your further recovery - and the most recent science indicates that it will improve it - and your regular lifting should never be so intense and draining that it prohibits you from doing 30-40min on a bike/moderate swimming/well-paced walk etc. 2-3x a week. If it is, then you're to have a whole different set of issues.

If you gave me the choice of doing weights MWF and cardio Tu-Th-Sa, vs doing weights followed by/done later in the day cardio three times a week, I would almost always choose the latter.

5, maybe even 3 years ago I would have said the opposite, but I'm always willing to pay attention to improved science.
 
Definitely an interesting, albeit somewhat undocumented, site. I read quite a few of his article, but not all, so I wasn't able to find the specific study that states that doing cardio exercise on the same day as strength training is superior to doing doing each on separate days. That may be due to my not having enough time to trace back all his references. The closest I came was one that stated that doing strength and cardio training together was superior to only cardio training when focusing on strength gains only. (Kind of obvious I think.) Of course, it also showed that doing strength training without doing any cardio was superior to doing both if strength is your sole goal. I found the abstract at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22002517. However, it is a site I had not bumped into before and will spend more time perusing it and perhaps I will find new evidence that shows that training and cardio on the same day is at least equal to alternating days. Thanks for the reference to Greg's site.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top