I have to console my training days to 3 days a week so can’t do GPP work on an extra day. My sessions are dragging out to approx 2hrs (3 barbell movements + arms + back or ab work) with strict 3min rests.
i can barely justify spending 2hrs in the gym let alone 2.5 to add in cardio.
how important is it?
currently running bridge 1.0 but plan on running 3 day Hypertrophy next.
It depends on your current level of cardio and goals. One of the goals of the bridge is to increase your cardio. The cardio sessions are much shorter than the lifting sessions around 30mins.
I rearranged the bridge a little and put the back and arm work on the cardio days, and tried to get each lifting session down to 1.5hours and cardio +back +arms to 40-59mins. I did 5 sessions a week on the bridge. I’m not as strong as a lot of other people here so my warm up sets don’t take me as long to complete.
I would personally do cardi over arm work if I had to choose, but it’s up to you.
My issue is that I’ll need to prioritise back & ab & arm work or cardio. It’s either extra volume or extra cardio as I’m limited to just 3 days gym and 2hrs max sessions.
The immediate importance of cardio is going to depend on your current health and medical history. If you’re overweight, have high blood pressure, pre-diabetic, family history of heart disease, etc etc, cardio is going to become a larger priority for you, and I’d probably be dropping arm/abs/back to do it. If this doesn’t describe you, you’re probably gonna be fine skipping it. Obviously cardio has it’s benefits for reducing mortality and morbidity, as well as increasing work capacity to tolerate more volume with resistance training, and I’d recommend finding some way to do it (do some jumping jacks in your bedroom? you can get creative), but it’s importance is contextual to your current health status and fitness goals.
Is 2x 15min sessions equivalent to one 30min session?
If that’s the only way you can get it in, “what’re you gonna do, not train?”
I agree with everything here cardio before arms/abs but also just gunna add that cardio or abs don’t have to be done in the gym . Going for brisk walk or run counts as cardio and I found ab wheel at winners for $8 you can do abs with while you watch tv at night for 6mins
Yeah I love my ab wheel. One of the best $10 I ever spent. I generally loathe ab work, an ab wheel is about the only way you’ll get me doing abs, lol.
I remember @LeahBBM saying recently how important cardio is when she had to make a mad dash at the airport!
Others have mentioned getting your cardio outside the gym. I’ll second this and expand it to “in your lifestyle.” Every Saturday I take my kids to the local diner and then the park and we WALK, the 2yo on my shoulders for most of it. Several weekends a month we go to the local botanical gardens and walk several miles too.
Find opportunities to ditch the steering wheel and use the conveyance God gave ya to get places. I find it to also be a great opportunity to spend time with my family, something that’s hard to do on the treadmill.