Exercise Breaks for weight lifting and for cardio?
Since I'm out of college, I'm trying to get my self back into shape.
I joined a gym awhile back and now I can use a lot more equipment to work out with.
I was always told that when I'm lifting weights, that I should take a day off from weight lifting to let me my muscles relax.
During those days off, I'm wanting to do some running.
Is this okay, or should I do cardio exercises when I lift weights?
Public Comments
1. Cardio is pretty flexible. You can do cardio with weightlifting or the next day after weightlifting but always take a day off from weightlifting so you don't cause injury to your muscles.2. My trainer had me doing different body parts and alternating 4 days a week. For the smaller muscle groups (arms), I did more cardio than on the large muscle days. For example:
Monday: warm-up cardio until I broke a sweat; squats; abs; back of the thighs; abs; front of the thigs; abs; cardio; stretch/cool down.
Tuesday: warm-up cardio until I broke a sweat; chest (bench) press; abs; lat pull-down; abs; roman chair (lower back); abs; cardio; stretch/cool down.
Wednesday: all cardio but 10-15 minutes on different machines; stretch/cool down
Thursday: repeat Monday's work-out
Friday: warm-up cardio until I broke a weat; biceps; abs; triceps; abs; biceps; abs; triceps; abs; cardio; stretch/cool down.
Saturday and Sunday: walk or swim (I didn't go to the gym those days).
I can't recall all of the names of the moves or body parts, just that he had me work areas, not all of the muscle groups each time. I did start out that way, mostly to learn good form and proper technique and then once I had a pretty good feel for what I was doing, he had me spend more time on each muscle group.
Obviously, if you can't do weights every day, that's fine, just combine areas like legs and arms on one day, then do chest and back another day. It's really important to listen to your body - if it hurts or feels wrong, don't do it. If you can, get a trainer to start you off. Make friends with the others at the gym so they can help you out.
