Newbie exercise question
After a lapse of about 12 years, I am now a dedicated exerciser again and I love it. I do an hour of elliptical and or other cardio training 6 x per week followed by about 20- 30 minutes of work with weights, mainly on upper body. I do this at home.
What is more effective- doing the hour of elliptical and then the weight work, or breaking up the elliptical into 30 min, then weights, then 30 more minutes? I am looking for max. aerobic benefit as well as firming and toning.
Thanks for the help-
What is more effective- doing the hour of elliptical and then the weight work, or breaking up the elliptical into 30 min, then weights, then 30 more minutes? I am looking for max. aerobic benefit as well as firming and toning.
Thanks for the help-
It may sound strange, but HOW you do your cardio is really more important than HOW LONG you do it.
It's important to keep your heart rate around 75% of your max (which is about 140 or so for me) for a minimum of 30 minutes. It may take you a few minutes to get there. It's also important to realize that as you get more fit, it takes more effort/speed/resistance to keep your heart rate in that cardio zone. It's also good to add spurts of speed in with your workout for 30-60 sec at a time.
Just as an example of what I mean: I run 3-4 days a week (school sometimes gets in the way of the 4th). One run is a distance run, one is a speed run (bursts of speed added into the workout or faster run for shorter time), and the other one or two are normal pace 40-50 minutes. I also do spin classes twice a week, and they change around the program all the time so you're not doing the same thing every time, but the heart rate stays up.
I don't think it matters much when you do the weights, but if you care about endurance, you may not want to interrupt your cardio workouts with weights. It's really personal preference. You won't get any extra benefit doing it in either order.
That's my nickle's worth.
Linn
It's important to keep your heart rate around 75% of your max (which is about 140 or so for me) for a minimum of 30 minutes. It may take you a few minutes to get there. It's also important to realize that as you get more fit, it takes more effort/speed/resistance to keep your heart rate in that cardio zone. It's also good to add spurts of speed in with your workout for 30-60 sec at a time.
Just as an example of what I mean: I run 3-4 days a week (school sometimes gets in the way of the 4th). One run is a distance run, one is a speed run (bursts of speed added into the workout or faster run for shorter time), and the other one or two are normal pace 40-50 minutes. I also do spin classes twice a week, and they change around the program all the time so you're not doing the same thing every time, but the heart rate stays up.
I don't think it matters much when you do the weights, but if you care about endurance, you may not want to interrupt your cardio workouts with weights. It's really personal preference. You won't get any extra benefit doing it in either order.
That's my nickle's worth.
Linn
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