HIIT overly beating me up

adpowah

adpowah

Active Member
I've had good to moderate success in my weightlifting but anytime I do more cardio centric training I go to crap. Back before HST I tried Insanity and then later a lighter weight but fast circuit weight training because I just wanted to lose some fat and look a little toned. The workouts destroyed me and I gained (and lost) little to nothing. In the past I had tried longer distance running and got my 5k down to about 30 minutes (nothing spectacular but it was an improvement). So I have a bit of a history of cardio putting me into that achy/no motivation physical condition and naturally I decided to add a bit of HIIT to the end of my workouts and I am right back to feeling like junk. Obviously I can stop, or do less and recover but what I don't understand is why? Anyone have any suggestions of why I am seeing good progress in lifting but moving to anything resembling cardio puts my body into cry baby mode?
 
If you want to get toned, cut.

I can relate to what you´re saying regarding the hiit etc after your workout. I am starting to do a little cardio at the end of my workout. Just 5 minutes of jumping rope. When it gets a bit warmer Ill start running again, probably around 5k but Ill do it on my off-days instead. I think in my case I was just burning the candle at both ends: too little energy and too much work.
 
Thanks for the feedback. It might be a burning the candle type situation, it just seems inordinate to lifting. I can push hard, throw in extra sets, sometimes even do the same lift in back to back days. I do something cardio and my body wants a week off.
 
Just do what you can handle and listen to your body. Also, intense weight lifting actually provides a good cardio workout. You might not need as much extra cardio as you think.

At my job I'm on my feet all day and walk a ton (I keep forgetting to wear a pedometer just to see how far I walk). By the end of the work day, ~1 hour of lifting is all I can manage and afterwards cardio is NOT happening. On my rest days I usually can only muster 30 min of cardio after work.
 
How old are you? It sounds like a recovery or nutritional issue to me. How much good, deep, sleep are you getting each night? What is your diet like? Are you on any prescription medications? Those can sometimes cause issues like this as well.
 
I'm 33 and about 18-22% body fat. My diet is OK at best, I typically hit my protein macros on a daily basis but I have a hard time getting enough veggies down. Also I have some poor binging habits that I am working on. I used to have a beer or two each night with dinner but I recently cut that out as I get ready to start a long cut in February. I don't take any medications I recently did full blood work and a physical and everything came in normal other than creatinine which came in at 1.15 (I hear it's normal for those working out to be slightly higher). As far as sleep I usually do well and average 7-8 hours however I'm not a morning person and I have apnea. It's not really bad especially when I don't drink but it goes through its phases. As far as recovery goes, when it is just lifting I recover really well but it seems like when I really press the cardio it takes a week(s) to recover.
 
Cut out or cut back the cardio to a max of 20 minutes of low impact on non-lifting days and concentrate on losing some body fat via proper diet. It is more difficult with sleep apnea but still very possible. Why put off the cutting? Sounds like you could benefit from it now.

If you have access to one, I recommend a Physio Step for cardio as well as full body endurance muscle training. If you use one, you can very effectively cut 15's from your routines.

Save up all the beers for a weekend cheat day. :)
 
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If/when you do cut, you will need to make sure you get enough protein. At least 1.5g per lbwt
This should help with recovery too.

Otherwise, as people have said above, save your cardio to 15-20 mins on your off days.

With cutting, its all about the diet anyway!

Brix
 
Again thanks for the feedback. I lifted last night (no cardio)and although I kept my volume low and I gassed out pretty quick I didn't have any strength issues. I feel pretty good today. So as recommended I am just going to keep the cardio to a minimum. I think my next step is figuring out how to add conditioning into my programming in a way that my body can handle/adapt to.

O & G regarding the cut, I was waiting because I tried an overly ambitious cut that ended in January. I lost 7 lbs but gained them all back just from eating at maintenance, so this time I am going to do a much more controlled cut decreasing from maintenance 2-400 calories a day and try and keep that up for a longer period of time. I gave myself a month at maintenance for the metabolism to normal out and wean myself off of beer.
 
Bulk slow, cut slow. The best way insure you can maintain your gains and stay within an acceptable body fat ratio. One pound or so per week is good for reasonably fit recreational lifters.

Given everything else being equal, you did not gain any weight back from eating at your maintenance. Your maintenance decreased with the loss of weight but you did not adjust for it. Review Totz's E-book section on diet again. He does not waste a lot of words so you have to really read it intensely.
 
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