Id like to improve my CV Fitness and general fitness, not for any cosmetic reason but i know my back improves if i do some cardio and also things like my snoring and energy levels.

Im of the mindset though that doing cardio will make me weaker and smaller, and im pretty sure that if i just plonk myself down on a bike and plod along for 2 hours it will.

So what would you guys suggest, bearing in mind im still mid 20's BF% (last caliper was 26% but i have leaned out a little since then to the point of my abs and delts being more visible) would HIIT be the right thing to do.

And how about Barbell complex's? Is that a good method of doing cardio that might actually have some carry over to power and strength?

Mark do you still have your bike? It's a pretty nifty little mountain bike if I recall?

Some off roading on that will burn fat and you won't need to just still on it for 2 hours either. If you are off-roading you its much more a full body resistance workout....not to mention a hell of a lot of fun.

If you do cardio in a fasted state for 2 hours that may be troublesome but if you keep it to 60mins max in a fasted state you wont lose any muscle/strength at all. I would simply start with 3 x 30mins steady-state sessions before breakfast per week. You will see a difference and when your ready, simply but it up to 40mins, then 50mins, then 60. once you reach 60 you can bring the time back down to 30 but do interval cardio. I find/found this works wonders.

I'd link you to some research papers but alas am too busy.

Good luck.

I've recently started working on my CV fitness quite seriously and I've lost no strength or size. If anything, I feel my workout capacity has increased and I recover faster between sets. I also generally feel more fit, which is great.
I'd advise anyone to do 15 minutes of cardio after each weight session, you don't HAVE to push for for example 5kms in 20mins like I do - you can trot along on a treadmill at 10kph.

Hmm how much absolute strength stuff do you do tho Rillabear?

Id notice 10% off my deadlift or squat but as youre king of the pull up and relative strength stuff would you notice a strength loss if a weight drop came with it?

Marks1972 wrote:Hmm how much absolute strength stuff do you do tho Rillabear?

Id notice 10% off my deadlift or squat but as youre king of the pull up and relative strength stuff would you notice a strength loss if a weight drop came with it?

Maybe some hiit bag work if you've got access? Can't wait to get mine up.

Other than that how about setting aside 30-60 mins to do a brisk walk on non lifting days?

Marks1972 wrote:Hmm how much absolute strength stuff do you do tho Rillabear?

Id notice 10% off my deadlift or squat but as youre king of the pull up and relative strength stuff would you notice a strength loss if a weight drop came with it?

Hm I dunno, I seem to go for 1RMs on a weekly basis, so I'd say I do some.

CrossFit stuff works well. If I were in your situation I'd probably pick a few workouts I can do and do one a week, rotating them. List of workouts is here http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/faq.html#WOD0

Taking out the ones with a significant gymnastics/pullups component which probably wouldn't be good cardio for you, we're left with

Griff
* Run 800 meters
* Run 400 meters backwards
* Run 800 meters
* Run 400 meters backwards
for time

Randy
75 lbs power snatch, 75 reps
for time

Grace
* Clean and Jerk 135 lbs *doesn't have to be clean and jerks, most people just do it by getting the bar from the floor over their head anyhow
30 reps for time

Mr Joshua
Five rounds of:

* Run 400 meters
* 30 (Glute-ham) sit-ups
* 250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
For time

You can also do weight training with lower rest intervals to improve your anaerobic capacity.

To could run a mesocycle based on higher rep or shorter rest period work, alternate sessions between ME work and use this as your RE or GPP work in between.

If you have more time on your hands you could do your heavy work in the morning and follow it later on with higher rep work for the same bodypart.

If it was about fat loss you could switch around your dietary approach and keep your training style similar. I was only training with relative strength and lower rep hypertrophy work when going from around 12% to 7% while increasing poundages.

If you wanted to maintain muscle mass and strength I wouldn't recommend fasted or steady state cardio. Of course you hear stories where it has worked well but there are simply more efficient ways.