When to do Cardio
Summary:
Unless otherwise specified, we have given you a cardio requirement to complete for the week – it’s up to you how you split this up throughout the week.
Cardio should ideally not be performed directly before a resistance training session. It’s much easier to muddle through cardio after you’ve hit the weights but much harder to do it the other way around, at least not without significantly affecting training performance.
For most people, completing cardio immediately after resistance training allows for the greatest efficiency as you simply need to extend your workouts as opposed to having separate cardio sessions. However, if you find it more manageable to split up cardio and resistance training sessions then by all means.
We typically recommend keeping cardio sessions between 100-500 calories if possible. Less than 100 calories and you’re hardly breaking a sweat, more than 500 calories and you have the potential of causing a lot of stress to your body which may affect subsequent resistance training sessions.
Some people will prefer to do cardio little and often, others will prefer to burn more calories per session and do less sessions. Whichever you choose is entirely up to you – you may want to experiment with both and see which you prefer. As long as you are burning the required calories by the end of the week.
Obviously there are going to be certain sports or events that will require you to burn more calories than this such as football or training for a specific run or event. If this is the case then just be aware that you will need to manage recovery a little better and make sure to modify your training around when you feel fresh.
