For people whose primary fitness activity is lifting or sports: how much cardio do you do? Specifically, what do you do, for how long, and how often?
My primary fitness activity is a sport (recreational, 3x a week), with lifting 2-3x a week. I’m trying to do more LISS cardio outside of these for general cardiovascular health and possibly improved stamina.
Edit: Thanks for all the replies, y’all!
I’m a competitive powerlifter and have been doing CrossFit once a week or so for cardio.
Cool! I’m not familiar with crossfit, is the cardio like a weight training circuit?
Kind of! They usually throw together a mixture of activities for time. So the workout might be something like “20 wall balls, 10 dumbbell snatches, then a run around the building” with 1 minute rest in between rounds. They change up the workouts every time, and it’s in a big room where everyone else is doing the workout with loud music. It makes it motivating.
I see!
I try and hit the gym twice a week (where I exercise every muscle group on both occasions), and I try to run twice a week (a 5k and an 8k-10k). I don’t really have any goals, just trying to get and then stay healthy.
Thanks for sharing!
I walk. 45-60min per day.
Every single day? That’s awesome!
Yes, mostly every day. I have 9500 daily steps goal in my galaxy watch.
I have a dog, so I walk 1.5-2hrs a day to keep him happy. I was shocked at how well it improved my stamina in my sport.
Getting a dog is a real life-hack for how much it improves your life! Give your pup some pets from me.
Mountain biking twice a week, lifting 3x a week.
Sounds like a fun way to get your cardio :)
I try to lift every other day. Every time I lift I do 15 minutes of exercise bike.
I also try to walk about 1 hour every day. I don’t aim for a step number just be outside and moving for an hour is good for me.
Thanks for sharing!
I run 3x/week, weight lift 2x/week, and if I have extra time and energy for it I’ll also do something just for fun like hiking or step aerobics. I enjoy cardio a lot more than weight lifting, but have accepted that I need to be doing some form of strength training to maintain my health as I age.
Primary activity is lifting, mostly to keep healthy not for some specific size/strength/etc target.
I always include cardio as my warmup before each workout. Nothing ridiculous here, its a warmup. I work out 3 days a week like that, then the other 3 are more cardio with some bodyweight stuff in there, so depending on what I feel like hitting…
- Butts, guts, and grabbers (glutes, core, and grip strength)
- Yoga / Pilates
- Some exercise my wife wants to do
I get a minimum of 20 minutes of cardio at about 130-140bpm daily, which is the target I want to hit. Usually more like 40-60 though. On rest days (not cardio/workout days) its pure rest though.
This sounds similar to what I do – a short warmup before lifting and then 20-30 minutes afterward. Thanks for sharing.
Trail/mountain run once a week (2.5-4mi) just as maintenance, rest one day, which is always after that run because mountain runs kill your legs. Then I just lift everyday.
Mostly walk anywhere between 20 and 60min per gym session, depending on whether I want to.
That sounds easy and sustainable!
Oh yeah. I focus on strength anyway, the cardio is just there to help keep the belly sticking out less than my chest.
I managed to start running with a C25K program and finally attained a regular 5k run 3 days a week for a couple of weeks before I injured myself a year ago (bad case of plantar fasciitis and muscle strain). The PF is mostly recovered but I fear re-injury, though I want to start again. My main take away has been: “Go slower than you think you should. Slower!”.
While I couldn’t run, I started a structured calisthenics program (r/bodyweightfitness) and experienced great results (even though y consistency has been average at best). I took 4 weeks off after a solid 9 months or regular practice and have just begun again.
I’d like to being incorporating running again.
Primary exercise is lifting (before it was to be jacked and strong, but now it’s for health and fun) every other day. No cardio at the moment aside from walking my dog. I plan on adding in LISS via an indoor cardio machine of some type.
Thanks for sharing! Walking your dog is still plenty, though, and certainly better than nothing
I primarily care about strength. I lift 2-3 times per week, but also do 2 conditioning sessions a week (that involve burpees, KB swings, sandbag work, carries, etc) and 1 LSS session a week (usually just an hour of incline walking on the treadmill)
Your conditioning sessions sound interesting! Would love to learn more about your particular routine if you’re comfortable with sharing. I’m comfortable with bodyweight stuff like burpees but I’m a bit intimidated by KB swings.
If you’re interested in conditioning from a lifting POV, I’d recommend the book Tactical Barbell II which covers conditioning in the Tactical Barbell system. Also good is Ross Enamait’s Infinite Intensity.
I don’t really do anything abnormal during my conditioning days. Just 15-20mins of moderate to high heart rate work
Thanks, I’ll check out those books!
I currently do a ppl split. I’ll lift five days a week, do cardio/core for one day, and then rest for one day.
I should probably just do six days of ppl ferda gains, but I really like the change of pace that comes from the core/cardio day.
That day is usually twenty minutes of dedicated core exercise followed by 45 - 60 minutes (depending on how much time I have that day) doing moderate effort work on a spin bike
Do you like the spin bike? Right now I alternate between the row erg and treadmill.
It’s good to do core and cardio at least once a week :)
Agreed on core and cardio. It’s just always felt like a missed opportunity to not get two full rotations of the ppl in each week, but this is working for me so far.
I like the spin bike. I bought a Sunny off Amazon and used two external wahoo sensors to get cadence and rpm measurements. I don’t use that data much though, tbh.
I chose the spin bike because I also just cycle normally for recreation. I have a knee injury from several years ago that keeps me away from running. I do like erg machines a lot, but my gym is a home gym in my garage and I don’t really have the floorspace for it.
Sounds good! I asked because my gym has a ton of cardio machines that I haven’t tried, so I will try the spin bike next :)
Also lol I do core 4-5x a week.
I walk at least 3-4 miles every day, often more. That’s usually a 30-45 minute walk, on top of the usual walking around in the apartment and such. Combined with lifting weights 4 days/week, it does the job.
Thanks for sharing!
