For the strongmen here who do cardio

[Uriel_da_man]

How do you manage to have your cardio and your lifting days get along?

[tjoe]

I don't consider myself a "strongman" but I don't see any other replies, so I'll give you my 2 cents worth. I do have a 400 bench, 550 squat and 655 dead (if any of that matters).

They don't seem to get along all that well for me. Whenever I try to increase cardio to drop a little chub, I always lose "some" strength. If you are chemically enhanced that may not happen.

I would stay away from low int long duration though. It doesn't suit your sport. You would be much better off doing High intensity intervals. The high int part lasting no more than 90 seconds or so followed by 3-4 minutes of cool down. Do that a few times to total about 20 minutes of cardio. During your 60-90 seconds of high intensity, try to push harder than your last interval. Most strongman events are limited to this amount of time. Therefore if you get your body accustomed to all out efforts of that length, you will perform better and recover quicker during your events.

If you train say, Mon, Wed and Fri, I would do the interval training on Tue, Thurs and Sat morning and take advantage of the increased metabolism on your "off" days. Plus that gives you more recovery untill your next weight training day.

Nutrition is another topic to consider.

[Malodrax]

actually hi intesntiy cardio would be far more detrimental to str gains since it would compete with cns reserves.

[Uriel_da_man]

I'm actualy more concerned with the recovery on my legs. If I go doing cardio three times a week, when do I work them? 'Cause they'll probably still be a little beat.

[RipStone]

Not a strongman competitor by any means, but I do train for strength.

I do cardio post-lifting actually. Now a lot of people will say this is bad cus it will cause catobolism, etc, but in reality if your pre and post workout nutrition is in check there is no way you are gonna go into a catbolic state from some post-lifting cardio. Do the cardio at a low intensity for 20-40mins, keeping your heart-rate between 120-140 bpm. Also, it is wise to have some BCAAs during the latter half of your workout with this approach, but it is not mandatory of you have a post-wo meal with plenty of carbs ASAP after training. Additonally, this approach is great for recovery in my expiernce.

Also, while I think tjoe brings up some good points(as he always does), I have to dis-agree with him about doing intervals on non-lifting days. Intervals are high stress on the CNS and of course so is ME type lifting. If you do intervals on your "recovery" days, well you really are gonna be negating a lot of that recovery. If you wanna do intervals, which IMO are another great form of cardio, I would do them on the same day as lifting, but leave plenty of time between lifting and cardio. This way, your recovery days are actual days for recovery.

[kcbigben]

I don't consider myself a "strongman" but I don't see any other replies, so I'll give you my 2 cents worth. I do have a 400 bench, 550 squat and 655 dead (if any of that matters).

They don't seem to get along all that well for me. Whenever I try to increase cardio to drop a little chub, I always lose "some" strength. If you are chemically enhanced that may not happen.

I would stay away from low int long duration though. It doesn't suit your sport. You would be much better off doing High intensity intervals. The high int part lasting no more than 90 seconds or so followed by 3-4 minutes of cool down. Do that a few times to total about 20 minutes of cardio. During your 60-90 seconds of high intensity, try to push harder than your last interval. Most strongman events are limited to this amount of time. Therefore if you get your body accustomed to all out efforts of that length, you will perform better and recover quicker during your events.

If you train say, Mon, Wed and Fri, I would do the interval training on Tue, Thurs and Sat morning and take advantage of the increased metabolism on your "off" days. Plus that gives you more recovery untill your next weight training day.

Nutrition is another topic to consider.

This is good advice. I usually either do some type of HIT type cardio, kettlebell circuits or sled dragging to help with losing fat.

During the summer I will even add in 1 mile jogs to change things up a bit.

[OLP]

Off days, especially day after leg day. Running is great for recovery.

[BigDerek]

Training events can be great cardio. Get a middle weight tire and flip it for reps, do some truck pulling and finish it off with some farmers or yke carry. Even a couple hundred pound sandbag thrown over the shoulder would be good. Carry it for around 100 m in intervals.