I was losing weight because my A1C was 6.1, now is back to normal. I dropped 8kg in 2 months doing cardio 6 times per week, most of the time at 130bpm(max heart rate 220-30 = 190), that and very restrictive dieting.
Now that A1C is back to normal, I want to do a sustainable plan, she still want me to keep doing that amount of cardio because of my high cholesterol, 150 minutes per week, but this isnt sustainable for me.
I want to do the cardio from the templates(hypertrophy template, LISS, walk. 80BPM and hiit) and go back to doing my hobbies like jiu jitsu(1x per week) and dancing classes(salsa 2x per week). What do you think about that?(at the moment I am not adding weight)
I think if you are getting at minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week, that’s a good place to start. This might require more conditioning than what is programmed in the templates, however.
Depending on how intense the specifics of the activity are on average, couldn’t it count towards the cardio time?
I would think if you are doing something like learning a specific routine where there is a lot of downtime that the salsa might not be enough but if you are spending most of the time actually dancing (just freestyling steps constantly) that it could probably be intense enough to at least cross the hurdle into moderate for the minutes involved. I would think similar thinking could apply towards the jiu jitsu time. Learning and slowly working on moves wouldn’t count towards cardio but sparring bouts are pretty intensive and demanding so that time would be stuff you could count towards your total minutes. From what I recall, you had mentioned that the most recent guidelines allow the time to be broken up into segments as small as 5 minutes at a time which should account for the duration of a bout. (I know there was specifically a MET minute target you guys mentioned but I can’t recall it off hand right now)
Is this a reasonable understanding of the current evidence? Also, could that mean that the cardio from the template combined with the activities the OP enjoys would add up to the 150 minutes cardio (or the MET minute target)?
I’m sure the activities listed count towards the conditioning time. However, the minimum aerobic conditioning recommendations are 150-300min/wk and I’d like OP (and most folks) to exceed that.
“Vigorous” exercise activity is > 6.0 METs, which is equivalent to jogging at a 10 min mile pace. The high end seems like quite a commitment for folks who are strength training for 1-2 hrs. 3 to 4 times per week.
I suppose it would depend on one’s values, but an additional 75 minutes of vigorous activity does not seem to be that big of an imposition. We recommend all individuals obtain this or some combination of the aerobic training guidelines.
In addition to what? Isn’t the low end recommendation 150 minutes a week. You don’t count the strength training as aerobic, do you (maybe myo-reps)?
In addition to training, clearly. I’m not sure what your resistance to this recommendation is, but the benefits to meeting it (and the consequences for not) persist whether one finds it convenient or not.
The recommendations for moderate intensity aerobic training are 150-300 min/wk minimum.
The recommendations for vigorous intensity aerobic training are 75-150 min/wk minimum.
I guess there was some confusion on my part with the vigorous vs. moderate intensity recommendations. No resistance, just wasn’t clear. Got it now, thanks.
I think the general resistance to the above recommendations stems from how regularly recommendations are changed, and I understand that this is an outcome of an evidence-based approach. But, given the history with other strength-focused organizations, I think you can appreciate that dogma yields greater adherence.
How would you program 150 minutes of moderate aerobic training for someone resistance training 3-4 days per week? Would you simply spread it out evenly throughout the week or do more on non-strength training days?
I’d do more formal aerobic training on non training days if possible, e.g. 30-40 min of steady state cardio 2-3x/wk and then make up the remainder with less formal activity, e.g. brisk walking, recreational cycling, etc.
I’m not sure I understand your position. The original recommendations citing this level of aerobic activity was originally published in 1995. It was expanded upon to include vigorous activity and resistance training in 2007. The latest update, which did not change the recommendations proper, occurred in 2018.
It seems highly unlikely that the resistance to engaging in physical activity has anything to do with antiquity or even knowledge of the guidelines. Rather, the bulk of people don’t engage in them for other reasons surrounding access and other socioeconomic issues.
My position wasn’t meant to take away from the stance you all have taken at Barbell Medicine concerning the guidelines. And, I am sure you are right that socioeconomic issues play a significant role in adherence. Though, I would counter that the vulnerable populations you are referring to are not the demographic targeted by this website, podcasts, templates, etc.
Further, I think the resistance to following the guidelines in aerobic activity, by the your current audience, stems from the fact that evidence-based recommendations are constantly progressing. In short, the strength and conditioning crowd seem to enjoy rigid, dogmatic recommendations.
I don’t ont say say this as a critique, just an observation.
I’m not sure that’s a counter. There is not much we can do remotely from this standpoint outside of influencing policy change to address these issues, which we are (hopefully),
Yea, but they aren’t. They have been roughly the same for nearly 20 years. The resistance to the aerobic guidelines in this crowd are more likely influenced by men in Wichita Falls or elsewhere on the Internet and not that the recommendations are constantly changing, because they aren’t.
I think people in general desire concrete, rigid recommendations.
For me personally, the barrier doing more is often that the cardio that is easily available (and to some extent maybe just the nature of the modality) is less enjoyable to me than the resistance training. I loved swimming on a team in high school and would probably still enjoy lap swimming solo but that has a lot more barriers to engaging in the activity than the stationary bike in my living room. So I do the bike per the stuff in my program but I guess I don’t have the some competitive bug or other drive for it, at least right now.
Some of it may be from the ideas instilled from other places (such as Wichita Falls) that my brain still in some way commits to like the idea that it will interfere with my strength and size gains. As someone who was 5’10" and 130lbs while on said swim team, it is still much a more important motivator and in some ways my maybe even part of my self worth to be bigger and stronger because I loathed being that skinny little nothing than to be able to run/bike/row longer. It’s also much more obviously rewarding because you can see and feel the physical changes much more over time relative to the cardiovascular system.
There is also the economics of time for any given person. I really want to do certain activities that may have a higher aerobic demand like learning to dance or maybe taking up certain sports but with my current other commitments in life I really primarily have the time for my lifting and it is definitely my first priority because of the reasons listed above and a lot of other long term benefits. My grandfather is 94 this year and still somewhat ambulatory but can’t really engage in too many activities because he is pretty weak. My great grandfather had my grandmother both lived into their 90s as well but couldn’t walk without walkers at the end of their lives.
Those personal experiences has driven my desire for strength and LBM acquisition because I want to have the most ability to live as full of a life as possible throughout whatever years I’m blessed with but that probably means I short change my cardiovascular health. So how does one work with all these factors to build more motivation to find the time for cardio? What can I do to get more enjoyment out of the modalities I do have easy access to?
Hi Jordan - is there a reason that the templates you provide don’t reach these minimum levels of moderate and vigorous aerobic training? I’m currently running Powerbuilding 1, and I believe the maximum steady state prescribed on any one week is 60 mins (30 mins 2x per week) and the maximum HIIT seems to be 22 mins 1x per week. Should we be supplementing this?