Cardio at the gym

[vestanesta]

Late 40s/peri and overweight.

Joined the gym a month ago and really enjoying it. Doing a 15 min warm up and then a resistance machine routine. I'm starting with a pt this week and will be focusing on strength training.

My job is very sedentary but I am trying to get 8 - 10k steps in on non gym days.

Should I be doing more cardio? I find the gym cardio machines dull although I have done a couple of YouTube treadmill walking interval routines to break it up and they aren't so bad . I would quite like to go to a hiit class in due course but I am definitely not fit enough to go at the moment. DH thinks I need to do more but he's a runner/cyclist and has always loved steady state cardio.

The Personal Trainer will be able to advise better. What is your ultimate aim? To lose weight, be fitter, be stronger, be able to run a certain distance etc.

Your PT will be able to advise best. If you want to get in more cardio that isn’t too repetitive try circuits - they’re intense and as you are doing short bursts of lots of different activities you don’t get bored. They are hard work but lots of fun!

I would quite like to go to a hiit class in due course but I am definitely not fit enough to go at the moment.
Go to the HIIT class anyway - the joy of HIIT classes is that you go at your own pace. I do a HIIT class each week which has an age range up to mid-80s - a wonderful couple who do everything but in an adapted way, and much slower than everyone else. But they still do their 60 seconds at each station. I adjust my pace/weight used according to how my body's feeling, and I"m super-fit. Yesterday I took it very easy because I'd done a tough workout the day before.

That's the joy of HIIT.

DH thinks I need to do more but he's a runner/cyclist and has always loved steady state cardio.

Steady state cardio is okay-ish, but your body adapts and gets efficient so you don't get the increase in fitness that generally comes from stressing your muscles (including your heart) - it means losing weight doing steady state cardio gets harder!. That's why HIIT is so good - you're doing short bursts in which you're really pushing your body. Then you rest. Then you do a different movement then rest, and so on. So you also get the cross-training effect.

In my experience, you get fit a lot more quickly doing interval training than steady state cardio.

What are your goals? Do you want to do cardio?

The best workout will be the one you enjoy doing so are motivated to go and do.

I strength train, I get excited before every session and still very happily get up early to go. If I was told I had to do cardio instead I wouldn't go, so it wouldn't be the right without for me.

Strength training gets my heart rate up anyway.

I have a PT and my programme does have a bit of cardio at the end each time. It always uses weights too (eg sled pushes with a weight on the sled) to motivate me. I do it to help me have more endurance for my lifts.

If hiit looks fun to you, go and do it. Then you'll be motivated. Forcing yourself into a cardio machine doesn't sound fun.

If you want to lose weight, steps (and calorie deficit) will help more than cardio.

Does your husband do any strength training? Perhaps he needs to do more of that.

It always uses weights too (eg sled pushes with a weight on the sled) to motivate me.

Oh yess. A fast sled push of 100 kilos will get your heart rate up no end! Or 10 consecutive pushes/pulls with lighter weights.

Thanks all. My primary goal is better health tbh. Weight loss is good but not the only or even main goal but of course it does have a health impact. I want to have an active late middle age and beyond.

• I did used to run a few years ago and swim quite a bit. I miss the swimming especially and enjoy being outside even though I was the definition of plodding running wise.

I'll speak to the pt and get her advice.

I'm focusing on strength training, as we get older we naturally lose muscle and its important to have good muscle tone into old age. I find cardio in gym boring, I can go cycle 3hrs on my road bike outside but I struggle to even do 10 mins in the gym.

Only way I can enjoy cardio in gym is doing hiit, pushing myself.

I think HIT and heavy lifting is very fashionable at the moment. I am very unfashionable and do steady cardio and body pump classes which is a combination of strength and cardio. I might get better results doing HIT, but I don’t enjoy it so do what I enjoy instead.

What does "better health" mean to you , OP? How would how would you know if you had it or not?

I do strength training and also Spin classes (and Pilates for my bad back/weak core). The spin classes I do are fairly intense and certainly get the HR up. I’m not disciplined enough to just do cardio on a machine by myself.

Ask the PT about ways to measure heart rate recovery and whether any of the machines at the gym can measure it. HR rates on the machines are usually quite far out, but you will still gain an idea of recovery rates. A fast recovery is what you are looking for and that is easy enough to measure and work on in lots of ways.

I have moderate lung disease and do HIIT, it is totally doable. However a base line of strength will help. I started with crunches, and swam a lot as I love that, great for toning. Now do spin, swim, a mixed cardio/strength class and the gym. Honestly my main advice is....consistency. Do something every other day.

A spin class sees me at about 15-20 mins peak HR zone, but I recover quick.

So first pt season and she already had already decided I need a cardio session too :)

She's going to do me one to start me off and when I feel fitter/more confident I'll swap it to the hiit class.

Session was really fun! She got me on way heavier weights than I was expecting first time out and I feel all buzzy now!

Sounds great! Heavy weights get me buzzy too!

Yeah, I love heavy weights, although today I failed a 90 k deadlift and only just managed sets of benchpress at 35 k . I really love it when the bar just flies up, but those days are interspersed with days like today <sad face>

Hey, @EveryWitchWaybutLoose, if you’re aiming for progressive overload, failure is a WINNNNN 🏆 Seriously, though, you’ve got this - next week you’ll be epic.

OP - so happy that you got the buzz! Weight-training is just bloody brilliant - I could wax lyrical about how it has been a total game-changer for me. I quit (most of) my old cardio-based regime a few months ago and switched for a full resistance programme (with c10 mins of incline walking at the end of each session) plus the odd “fun” class. I’m now in the best physical and mental shape of my life, and only wish I’d started this routine sooner!

Enjoyyyyy!

Oh, also, @EveryWitchWaybutLoose, the fact that you’re even attempting a 90kg deadlift is 🤩 🤩 🤩

Yes I know all about training to failure. I’ve been doing it for more than a few months and have lifted more than 90kg (100 k 1RM) which is why finding 90 kg difficult was annoying.

Fab 👏