Wasif H's List: Cardio and Warm up sets

• Cardio exercises such as swimming, dancing and biking require you to continuously move major muscle groups, leading to an elevated heart beat and increased blood flow throughout the body.
• If performed on a regular basis, cardio exercises can improve your cardiovascular system and increase your chances of living a longer life.
• Most healthy adults should aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio five days per week or 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity cardio three days per week, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.
• The exercise likely isn't intense enough if you can still sing lyrics to your favorite song without needing to take a breather. You need not stick to just one intensity level or the other. Alternate between speeds in one session or alternate from one day to the next. If you decide to exercise this way, aim for an average of 25 minutes four days per week.
• For optimum fitness, all adults should supplement cardio with muscle-strengthening exercises at least two days each week. Stronger muscles help keep you stable to reduce your risk of injury during your cardio sessions. Increased lean muscle mass also helps you burn calories at a faster rate. Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include pushups, weightlifting and Pilates.

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• What should you do first, cardiovascular endurance exercise or weight lifting? Or does this even matter? 

   The answer really depends upon what you are trying to accomplish.
• Exercise you perform when your energy supplies are low is less effective and more likely to result in injury.
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• Exercise order may also matter if you are trying to achieve a specific goal, such as building muscle or improving sports skills, or if you have an extremely high level of fitness already.
• If Your Goal is Increasing Cardiovascular Endurance
   In order to build and maintain cardiovascular endurance, you should perform endurance exercise first, when you have plenty of energy for long-distance exercise. Add resistance exercises 2 to 3 times a week, either after or separate from the endurance work in order to develop muscular strength and reduce your risk of injury.
• If Your Goal is Increasing Muscle Size and Strength
   Increasing muscle size can best be accomplished by lifting weights first when the body's main source of energy for muscle contraction (glycogen) is high. If you do a hard cardio workout before lifting, you deplete glycogen, which makes the workout ineffective.
• If Your Goal is Burning Calories for Fat Loss
   If your primary goal is to burn as many calories as you can in a single session, it's probably best to do cardio first and lift weights next. There isn't any magic behind this; it's simply easier for most people to burn more calories per exercise session when they do cardio first.

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• The amount of weightlifting and the amount of cardiovascular exercise you perform depend entirely upon your goals. If you plan on competing in a weightlifting competition or running a marathon, your training will need to be tailored accordingly. If your goal is to build strength and power while improving your overall health, your training demands can be less specific and less intensive.
• • Good source of information, really answers my question on the amount of cardio you should do.
• Weightlifting training is unlike recreational lifting or bodybuilding in that you train to improve on two lifts. You will spend the majority of your training time practicing the two lifts, variations of the lifts, and then some simple assistance work such as barbell squats.
• If you wish to make significant progress, increase both the intensity and the duration of your exercise, whether it is rowing, running, jumping rope, or swimming. And if you wish to improve at a specific activity, you need to train for that activity. While running will help your cardiovascular conditioning, it does not mean that it will make you a strong swimmer.
• While it is technically possible to train for a marathon and weightlifting competition at the same time, it is doubtful you will do well at either one, and run the risk of injury secondary to over-training. If your goal is general strength and conditioning, a few weightlifting training sessions a week and cardiovascular exercise on your off days will improve strength, power and health. If you wish to do well at one activity, you need to specialize. If you go for a limit run the day before a weightlifting meet, you are going to be too tired and sore to lift very much. If you snatch and clean heavy the night before a race, you are going to be stiff, sore and slow, so only you can determine how much of each.

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• Your primary goal will give you a general starting point for  figuring out exactly how to balance your training, as well  as what type of cardio and weight training you should be  doing. 

   In addition to your primary goal, you will also need to  take into account two other major factors: 

   
  • Your Body Type - Are you naturally slim? Do you gain   muscle easily? Do you tend to hold onto fat readily? 

     

  • The Type Of Cardio Training You're Doing - Is it high-  intensity or low-intensity? Does it fatigue you for   weights? Does your weight training fatigue you for your   cardio?

• If you're training to gain muscle, you will need to do less cardio training. Too much cardio can actually hamper your  muscle gain by slowing recovery and burning up calories that your body needs for the process of building muscle.  

   As a general guideline, one or two cardio sessions per week should be enough to maintain your cardiovascular conditioning and keep your bodyfat gains in check while not slowing muscle growth. You should train with weights at least three times  per week, up to even six times if you can recover from it  and still make progress.
• The ectomorph is the naturally-slim person. They have a  smaller bone-structure and can seem to "eat whatever they  want and not gain an ounce."
• The ectomorph has a fairly easy time losing fat so they will will generally not need to do as much cardio for fat loss.  Two or three times per week should be plenty. An ectomorph  trying to gain muscle may need to lay off cardio training  completely in order to have enough recovery energy available for their body to even build muscle. Once or twice a week  should be the maximum cardio frequency. Even weight  training may need to be less frequent (two or three times  per week) in order to see results
• Moderate-intensity cardio training, such as jogging or  swimming, will need to be done a little less frequently.  This type of training requires more energy both to perfom  and for your body to recover from. A person trying to lose  fat can generally perform four to six moderate-intensity  sessions per week at around 20 to 30 minutes each. A person trying to gain muscle should reduce this amount to two to  three sessions per week.
• High-intensity training is extremely effective for fat loss  as it not only causes you to burn a lot of calories during  the activity, it also raises your metabolism for a long time after the activity is done.
• This type of hard training  should be done less frequently than the more moderate forms of cardio as it is much harder for your body to recover from. If you are training for fat loss, you should do at least two but no more than three high-intensity cardio sessions per  week. If you are training for muscle gain, once or, at the  most, twice per week should be the limit.

• This would mean an ectomorphic person looking for muscle  gain and doing low-intensity cardio training could do cardio two days a week at a minimum to maintain cardio capacity  while trying to gain muscle. 

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• Warm-up sets are an important part of your bodybuilding routine regardless of your experience level. Because warm-up sets involve a relatively small amount of weight, they are a safe means for beginners to learn the correct form for an exercise.
• For more advanced bodybuilders, performing either two or three warm-up sets, using progressively heavier weight, prepares the muscle for the work involved with your higher-intensity sets.
• Performing a warm-up set begins the process of sending blood to the muscle you are training. A warm muscle is less susceptible to strains and pulls. During warm-up sets, your brain recognizes that resistance is being placed on your joints, and synovial fluid is released.
• As a bodybuilder, your workouts are designed to promote hypertrophy, or muscle growth. According to Marc McDougal of Bodybuilding.com, to promote hypertrophy you should perform two warm-up sets. Your repetitions should be in the four to six range.
• The amount of weight you should use in your warm-up sets is based on percentages of the weight you plan to use in your working sets.
• For example, if you plan to use 200 pounds for 10 repetitions in your working sets, use 50 percent of that weight for your first warm-up set. Your second warm-up set should be 80 percent of 200 pounds, or 160 pounds.
• If you are gearing your workouts for increasing your strength, you will be working toward improving your one-repetition maximum lift on various exercises. Consequently, you will be lifting relatively heavy weight with fewer repetitions. In this case, perform between three to five warm-up sets. Increase the weight on each warm-up set, and perform between one and six repetitions.
• For example, if you plan to do work sets of three repetitions with 250 pounds, the weight you use for your warm-up sets would be percentages of 250 pounds. Your first warm-up set would be 50 percent of 250 pounds, and you would perform five repetitions.
• Avoid performing your repetitions during your warm-up sets too quickly. If you perform your repetitions too quickly on a cold muscle, you risk injuring yourself. The repetitions should move through a complete range of motion at a slow and controlled tempo.

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