#31: Scheduling your weight training and cardio & how to warm up for lifting weights

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Learn to Lift with Lynn online group program >>
• My walkpad >>
• Mobility warm-up for upper body >>
• Mobility warm-up for lower body >>
• For more information about the benefits of lifting weights, listen to episodes 2 & 29 

About this episode:

One of the big questions I see from women who lift weights and want to optimize how they're doing things is how to fit in cardio, and whether they should warm up with 20 minutes of cardio before their weight training session. 

In this episode, I dive into:

🔅 How to schedule cardio with your weight training

🔅 Whether to warm up for your weight training session with 20 minutes of cardio

🔅 How to best warm up for weight training.

Enjoy the show!

Transcript

#31: Scheduling your weight training and cardio & how to warm up for lifting weights

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host. And today we're going to talk a little bit about cardio and how to fit that in with your weight training and also how to warm up for your weight training session. But before we get into it today is last call to join the group program. We are kicking off on Thursday, September 14th.

So the program's called learn to lift with Lynn. It's in a nutshell, 10 weeks working with me. To get up and running with your weight training. So I will provide you with the program. You can work out at home or at the gym. You can do it two, three, or four days a week. So I want this to be something that you can fit into your life and I want to make it easier for you to get started.

If you want to find out more, check the show notes for the link, or you can go check on my website, which is www. befitafter40. [00:01:00] That's four zero. Dot com slash group. Okay, so let's get into it. So this kind of started this question from a question that I have gotten actually quite a few times, which is, should I be doing my cardio before or after my weight training session?

Now, I think this stems from a long held. What habit or it is taught actually in some of the certifications, many of the certifications still that you should do like 20 minutes of cardio before you start your weight training and that that would be a good warmup for your weight training now. I think there's a better way to warm up for your weight training, which is why that is one thing I do want to discuss today.

And, uh, but I will say that, okay, if you're feeling like your body is really just asleep or you're cold or something like that, and you feel like you need to get a little [00:02:00] bit heat going. Then go ahead and do that before your weight training session doesn't have to be 20 minutes. There's nothing magical about 20 minutes.

I sometimes go and just walk around the track one time just to kind of, you know, if I've been sitting a lot to get going, but the thing that I recommend actually for getting warmed up for your lifting session is to do some gentle mobility. moving basically your joints. So you're kind of oiling your joints to get ready for the weight training.

And, and I'm not talking about stretching. This is not stretching. It's actually been shown that stretching is not a good idea before weight training, unless you have some injury or something like that. And your physical therapist may recommend some kind of a stretch, but I wouldn't go and do like.

Stretching class, and then, then go into weight training. Yeah. Uh, so doing some gentle mobility also helps to kind [00:03:00] of center you on your body and, and then start your, your weight session. And take your first exercise, which if you're training with me, it will be a compound exercise. So we're multi joint movement.

So start by doing that one at about half weight and then slowly progress your weights until you are at your working weight. So for example, if I am doing 30 kilos. Uh, shoulder press, then I will start with 15 kilos for my first set and I'll do actually a fairly long set of 15 kilos, like 10 or 12 reps.

That's when I'm reminding myself of, okay, what does my posture need to be? Yeah. How do I need to be sitting? And also how are my shoulders feeling today? Because sometimes you might get this like kind of crackle crackle, or at least I do on my shoulders. Yeah. And then the second [00:04:00] set I will do. So, so if my working weight is 30, my first set has been at 15, my second set will maybe be at 25.

So it's quite, you know, it's closer to my working set than to my warmup set. And I'll maybe do four or five reps. And that, and that is where it actually feels heavy already, like, you know, cause the next peg up is actually the 30, which is my working weight. So that actually already feels heavy, but I don't want to do a long set where I'm getting, you know, close to failure or start to really tire myself out.

So it's just to kind of get my body like, Oh yeah, this is what I need to do when it starts to get heavy. And then my third set will already be my working set. Now, if I'm doing legs, it might be that I have three or four work, you know, working up to the final weight, uh, sets like warmup sets. And I won't do those warmup sets for every single exercise [00:05:00] that I have.

So for example, because I do arms like biceps and triceps towards the end of my workout. And it's on an upper body day. They have already gotten warmed up as I've been doing my rows or, or my pulls or pushes, you know, my other exercises. So then I don't need to kind of warm them up separately. So that's how I would recommend to do the warmup.

And now if you want to do cardio, I would suggest you do it after your weight training session. And the reason for that is that you kind of want to go into the weight training session as fresh as you can be so that you can bring as much energy and intensity to that as you can. You don't want to come in already a little bit tired if you can avoid it, right?

So rather shift that cardio to afterwards. Now, I wouldn't go and do a sprint workout afterwards, necessarily, if you can, if you [00:06:00] can help it. Okay. So, uh, it's also, you have to think about like, okay, so what does your other rest of your week look like? What is your life like? And, and all this kind of thing, but I would.

Say that if you're going to do cardio after your weight training session, I would do like a steady state cardio. So it's a jog or, or, you know, pedal pedaling on a bike or, or something like that. It can be fast walking, something like that after the weight training session. Now, cardio is really important for your health.

So if you have the time to be doing like high intensity interval training, so HIT or SIT, which is sprint interval training, then that is good to get in like, let's say once a week, especially for women in midlife, the SIT training is the one that is recommended and Stacey Is the kind of one of the leading experts in this area, and she is a very much an advocate of sit for for women in [00:07:00] perimenopause menopause.

And sit is actually quite a short training session, but it's really, really intense. So after your warm up, um. Of doing something, then you do the sprints, which is like short bursts of going all out, you know, till you feel like you're going to throw up kind of thing. And then you take a break, let your body recover, and then go all out till you feel like you're going to throw up.

Sounds a little bit like doing a weight training session, right? Because you're doing a set where you go close to failure or to failure and then you take a break and then you do their next set where you're going to failure or close to failure and then you take a break. So familiar. Anyway, so the, but these sit or hit sessions and hit might be coming in a class, right?

Uh, where you don't go. Quite as hard. And they, usually the sessions are a little bit longer though. I think a lot of the sessions that they have at gyms, which are an hour long or 45 minutes, you know, you don't even need to do it that [00:08:00] long for it to make a difference cardiovascularly. But in any case, those kinds of training sessions, I would maybe even keep on a different day than your weight training.

So for me, my hit happens to be my. Favorite body jam dance class. So I do that on a different day. And I've noticed since body jam does take my legs and it's a lot of times quick movements and this kind of thing and jumps and twirls and whatever that. Um, if I do it back to back with a leg day, it does affect my leg day.

So if I have a leg day before my dance class, my dance class, my legs feel tired still because they aren't recovered from my leg day. And if I. Do a leg day after my dance class, then my legs are tired from the dance class the previous day. And so they won't do as well on my leg day. So I try to space those out.[00:09:00] 

So for example, since my dance classes on a Sunday, then I would do a leg day on a Friday. And then so that then Saturday, I don't kind of stress my legs, quote unquote, stress my legs out too much. I'll go for a walk and that kind of thing. And then on Tuesday, I'll have another, uh, leg day. So that Monday my legs are recovering from the hit class on, on Sunday.

So that's what I would do. You know, the thing is that we are all individuals and to a large degree, like the research on this kind of thing, like does cardio hinder, uh, muscle growth and muscle growth hinder cardio. Okay. There have been some studies that show yes. Other ones where they show not so much.

In all studies, there are generally like quite a range of results. And a lot of the studies are done on younger people and often they're male people, you know? So it's like, how applicable are they to us in [00:10:00] general? But I would say there are no, no like super hard and fast rules. But if you think just logically in weight training, you are Stimulating your muscles.

And then you want to give them the recovery period. And if you start to work them very hard during that recovery period, well, it may prolong the recovery, right? So then it make in a way, hinder your progress in that sense. Um, but I wouldn't like super duper stress out about it, but if you have 20 minute jog before your weight training workout or doing it after do it after choose the after.

And, hey, important thing to point out is that do not do it during, absolutely not. So if you are trying to build muscle, which if you're listening to this, I hope you are, I hope you've figured out by now that that is an important thing to be doing. If you are trying to build muscle, then your rest periods between sets, they are rest [00:11:00] periods.

You are supposed to be letting your body recover from the previous set so that you can do the next set with good. intensity. So do not do not do any burpees between your weight training sets. Don't start smashing, you know, those medicine balls into a wall or the floor. No stand. Sit, slowly pace, allow your body to recover.

That's how you're going to get the most benefit out of your weight training session and do have that recovery period. So a minute and a half to five minutes, depending on how tough that lift was, whether you're doing upper body or lower body, whether it's an isolation exercise or compound exercise is going to a little bit, uh, you know, affect how quickly you recover.

And the other thing I would say is that age does matter in this thing. I mean, if I think about myself, I was a varsity athlete in high school, and then I went on to play [00:12:00] division one lacrosse at Dartmouth college. And when I was in high school and college and even beyond college, all the way up until I had my first child at age 33, I was working out like crazy.

I mean, In college it started because of course my goal was to be the best darn lacrosse player I could be. And that required me to be an amazing cardiovascular shape, plus be able to sprint and stop and change directions and whatever. So the strength and the power and the cardio fitness were all important parts of that.

So I was training like running and weight training on the same day and, you know, doing it several times a week and all this kind of thing. But I, I was also younger and I had a different goal and I can't say that my body was feeling amazing back then. I mean, I didn't get super injured, but like, you know, body would get tired.

But now, you know, my body is different, right? I'm in [00:13:00] post menopause. My hormone levels are not supporting me. Plus my overall stress in life. Like most likely yours is a lot higher. I mean, back then, all I had to worry about was showing up at lecture, you know, learning all this stuff, of course, that involves some degree of stress and getting to practice and playing.

Right. And nowadays. You know, I'm a sole breadwinner now that I'm divorced, which, you know, they don't have alimony here in Finland. And I have three kids, two of whom are in a year where they need to think about, uh, where do they go next year to school and the applications ahead. I had. a partner. Well, now we've broken up, but that's, that's provided its own stress.

My parents are getting older and I'm sure that you have a lot of these same kinds of things, you know, to, I mean, mortgage to pay, you need to be at your job every day. You have a lot of stuff going on. So. Also, [00:14:00] be kind to yourself. Don't think that you need to do absolutely everything. I mean, if I had all the time in the world, I didn't have to work, you know, I didn't have to cook if I could just like focus on me and my body.

Yeah, I would probably go for a long walk out in nature every day and, you know, do yoga a couple of times a week and meditate, you know, to get the mindfulness part and to be centered and to reduce my stress levels even further. I would weight train four days a week, probably, you know, do my HIIT exercises one or two times a week if that was all I needed to do.

Yeah. I, I could probably be in better shape, but the thing is that if I try to demand all those things of me in my life as it is now, I would be so stressed out that it would be counterproductive. And so please consider that for yourself as well. I think [00:15:00] one really good example was that I really had the goal of walking 10, 000 steps a day.

And even though I tried to fit that in by taking breaks every hour from work and, and going on, you know, walks and all that kind of thing. I found that at the end of the day, I'd look at my steps and be like, Oh, my God, I still have like 4000 to go. Which takes a while to walk 4, 000 steps. And it was nine o'clock at night, bedtime's 10 and still had to, you know, unwind and all that.

I'd be going for a walk and feeling stressed about the fact that, Oh my God, now I have to go for a walk for my health, you know? So I bought a walk pad and that was the best investment I ever made because now I can work and get my steps in at the same time. But like, That was an example of me putting too much on myself at that point.

So please just be kind to yourself as well. Anyhow. Yeah. Just want to remind you because I bet that [00:16:00] there are some perfectionists out there just like me who want to do everything exactly by the book. And it is really important to remember that, uh, perfection is the enemy of progress. So if you're able to get your weight training in.

Fabulous. And the reason I would definitely prioritize that is that your muscles and weight training, there's so many benefits. And if you're not aware of the benefits of weight training, then please go back and look at. Episode number 29, where I talk about the anti aging benefits of weight training.

Okay. Woo woo. Anti aging is kind of clickbait title. Yes, I know. But the fact of the matter is that that lists off some of the benefits of weight training, which are helping you to keep your body healthy. Functioning properly for the next 40 years. And that's why I talk mostly about [00:17:00] weight training because that's the thing most women are missing in their lives and which would give them the most bang for their buck.

Their hour of training each week would be to be doing the weights, your aerobic capacity. You can build up much faster. Muscles are diminishing when you're not weight training. They're a use it or lose it kind of resource in your body. So the sooner you get started, the better. And the longer you wait, the deeper hole you're going to be in and the more work it's going to take.

And it, it does take work. It's not going to happen overnight. You're going to get back in aerobic shape much faster than getting your muscles, your strength back and let alone, you know, bone density and all the other benefits that you get from weight training. Okay. So I think I always kind of go off on a tirade about the benefits of weight training, but sometimes people need to hear things like seven or eight or 17 times before it [00:18:00] starts to sink in.

So I figure I can repeat anyway. So hopefully that helped you to understand a little bit about how to do the cardio versus the weight training. so much for watching. And. As you notice, because this was a quite a short episode. I mean, this is not in a way like something you need to be stressing out about a whole lot.

Um, it would be best if you can keep your cardio a little bit away from your weight training, or if you're doing steady state cardio, in other words, it's kind of mid level jogging or biking, that kind of thing, then do it after your weight training session rather than before so that you can go into weight room fresh.

 And with that, I will wish you a very happy week and happy training.