Cardio time vs Weight training time

[KelZ96]

After losing over 20 pounds, I want to tone up. Now right now I mainly do cardio and i know I need to start weight training. My question is, should I do more weight training and less cardio now? Because right now I do about 60-90 minutes of cardio a day. How long should I do weight training?

[Mary]

I think it's more important what you do with your time than how much, in weight training.  But here are some good guidelines.  

http://www.acsm.org/docs/brochures/resistance-training.pdf

[KristenAnne]

Why don't you incorporate both? If you have an iPhone, NIKE has a WONDERFUL and FREE app: Nike Training. I use it a lot since it has weights and cardio move in the different 15, 30, or 45 minute training videos. There are different levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. There's yoga, abs, cardio, even stretching. You can focus on certain body parts: arm, legs, etc or do a whole body routine.

For example you might do skaters while holding a weight... Working your arms and legs plus adding the movement getting your heart rate up.

If you want, friend me and we can help encourage each other.

[Mel_Linn]

My following response is with assumptions made on my part to what you've said. I apologize if any of it is not applicable to your needs or goals.

If your weight number is where you want it for the most part, but you're wanting to tone, you want both. There are many ways to build lean muscle and have it fit your lifestyle. Try different things and see what works for you, just remember to switch up your program routines gradually (not all at once because your muscles will hate you) so you don't plateau. Regarding your weight training, muscle burns fat; try circuit training with more reps/ more sets/ less weight. If you're holding yourself accountable and not getting distracted, you should be able to pound out a good workout with 20 minutes cardio and 45-60 minutes of weights each time, 3-4 days a week. Use the other day(s) for cardio or swimming.

I hope that helps! Also, congratulations on dropping 20 lbs! That's awesome!

[slysam]

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@KelZ96 wrote:
After losing over 20 pounds, I want to tone up. Now right now I mainly do cardio and i know I need to start weight training. My question is, should I do more weight training and less cardio now? Because right now I do about 60-90 minutes of cardio a day. How long should I do weight training?

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If you are short on time, the easiest thing is to alternate cardio and weight days--so that would mean less cardio than you are currently doing. I.E. if you work out 6 days a week do cardio 3 days and weights the other three--something like Monday, Wednesday and Friday: Full body weights and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: Cardio. Or if you like daily cardio, just do less on your weight training day i.e. 20 minutes rather than 90. I like cardio, but I find at a certain point more is not more, and it can start to backfire if I do too much.

[Nicomachea]

Increasing lifting time and decreasing cardio time sounds like a good decision -- certainly something worth trying, if nothing else. The prevailing wisdom from a bunch of current studies I've read is to keep workouts to no more than an hour. You can very easily start doing your body more harm than good by exceeding that amount. Here are the exceptions I see: (1) You're training for an endurance sport, such as marathon running (from what you've said, doesn't seem to apply to you), and (2) you're doing low-intensity work, such as walking, light cycling or the like, that's really not working you very hard. Not to say that low-intensity work is worthless! Far from it. But I tend to think that, if you can read effectively while doing cardio, you're not working hard enough, and the low-intensity work should be what you do throughout the day or in addition to your actual workout. As someone earlier suggested, it's more the intensity of the workout than the length.

You said you wanted to build muscle. Why not try a half-and-half workout, with half weights and half cardio? After a few weeks, you can adjust (whether upping weights and decreasing cardio or upping cardio and decreasing weights or switching the order of things or changing the intensity, etc.) if you're not seeing the results you want. For instance: I do 30 minutes of heavy superset weight training and then 20 of higher-intensity cardio (heart rate sustained at 180-210 beats per minute) five or six days a week, with a four-day weight split (recently upped from three). It's perfect for my purposes, though it took numerous adjustments to my routine before finding the right one.

[Yomster]

If by tone up you mean build muscles I would suggest decreasing your cardio work by a fair amount. This is because cardio workouts actually leads to a decrease in muscle mass. If you do want to continue doing cardio work however I would suggest doing resistance cycling or rowing machines, as they cause less atrophy than running.

[Dominique]

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@Nicomachea wrote:

I do 30 minutes of heavy superset weight training and then 20 of higher-intensity cardio (heart rate sustained at 180-210 beats per minute) five or six days a week.

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Wow, I bet you're young and super-fit, if you can sustain 180-210 bpm for 20 minutes!

[Nicomachea]

Well, at that particular activity, I guess I am! But put me on a treadmill for 45 or 60 minutes of a low-intensity jog and I won't be a happy camper, though -- it's all about what you practice. I focus on high-intensity stuff because I figure it's the most practical in a number of realms -- cardiovascular fitness, burning calories, overall health, not spending inordinate amounts of time in the gym, and for practical applications. The likelihood that I'd need to jog for an hour straight is low; on the other hand, I've already been in a bunch of situations where I need to sprint or lift someone who's passed out or move heavy furniture or what have you. In emergency situations, it's critical, while in things such as furniture-moving, I just don't want my boyfriend totally showing me up.

[SunsetRunner]

Yes, that is great advice for anyone! Great link.