Adding cardio to big workout...

[Elk888]

Yeah, I'm starting to add long duration LISS to my routine because i'm needing to cut down a lot further/quicker. HiIT just doesn't do it for me.
My lifting routine has always been high volume/high intensity (squeezing out last 2 reps).. it's overtraining territory only that's the only way I see results, and it hasn't been a problem so far (6months). 5 exersizes for big muscles, 4 for small. 4 sets per exersize, and 10 reps per set. (granted, not all of you would call it overtraining) Results have been great but now I need to super charge the fat burning (natural).
What is the principle behind lower reps and increasing weights? Do I keep the same amount of sets? Exersizes? I'm needing to decrease the time spent lifting.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who's done this so any advice is appreciated.
Elk

[caa5000]

Yea, so the best fat loss I had in my life is when I mixed in high rep lifts to my resume. There's still a need for lots of cardio, however. The whole basis with high rep is that you want to tire your muscles and not give them as much oxygen (Vo2). I personally do crossfit (www.crossfit.com) which is a high-intensity, high-rep, cross disciplined 2x/week (should do more). There is a list of workouts on there that you can adopt. They are EXTREMELY difficult, but once you learn the techniques you can use them in your everyday life. For example, you can create your own cross-disciplined workouts. Mine is 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 situps, 20 bodyweight squats for 12 rounds, as fast as possible (I usually get around 18 minutes). You'll be hurting after this, and this is on the weak side. At the gym, I just "superset" everything and allow little rest, and I'm usually out in 30-40 minutes. The other day I did 3 supersets 3x each. 1-195# dead lift, 10 pullups, 25 weighted inverted crunches, 2-245# squat, 185# bench, skullcrushers, 3-85# power cleans (as many as I can in 2 minutes)

I wouldn't waste my time with single muscle lifts, go for full-body exercises like the ones listed above. Also, I usually workout 2x/day to keep the metabolism going. Good luck!

[caa5000]

forgot to mention that during those exercises I aimed for 10-12 reps, depending on how you feel that day.

[Elk888]

Thanks for that. That sounds like a killer session and exactly the type of thing that works for me. Right now though what I need is to decrease reps and possibly sets and still maintain what I've got.
Thinking about increasing the weight to an 8 rep max and keeping it to 3 exersizes per bodypart, 4 sets per exersize.
Anyone ever done that?

[DR3AM]

Try this:

Lift heavy, all the time. Aim for 4-5 sets of 4-6 reps with HEAVY weight.
At least 150 gm of protein per day
Eat a calorie deficit diet.

The excess fat should burn off while maintaining most of your muscle.

[Memorial93]

I'm confused about this:

Pros do cardio at a slow pace for about 30-60 minutes. What if I did a fast paced cardio (speed of 4.5 at an incline of 7.0) for 25 minutes?

will this be effective in fat loss?

[Elk888]

My understanding is that it's the rise in BPM that makes it catabolic. Keeping my heart rate at a modest 124 will help avoid using muscle to fuel the workout. If I were to start jogging or running or walking very fast my heart rate increases to that 145-160 rate which gets me closer to losing muscle.
If you raise the BPM to a higher intensity in short intervals run walk run walk wun walk, then you can in theory accomplish the same as a long cardio session at low intensity . That is the principle of Hiit. But if your talking about keeping a constant high intensity pace for 25 minutes, I think your in the territory of muscle catabolism there. You'd want to interval that with low intensity cardio.
For me, long and slow is the way forward. Interval just kills me and doesn't work.

That being said...don't worry too much about it unless your muscle gains need to be professionaly maintained. 25 minutes of cardio isn't going to do any harm. I'm only talking about the theory here.

[Elk888]

...sorry...to answer your question more effectively. YES. Absolutely! It will definitely be effective with regards to fat loss. All cardio is. It's a matter of trial and error. What is better at preserving muscle is generaly accepted as either long duration low intensity. or short duration interval cardio.