Death by Treadmill, Part Deux?

[bocajoes]

I am using HIIT as a basis for my workouts. My first post about this was met with a lot of great advice, so here is a report on my progress, followed by a question.

Early in the week, the routine was: walk two minutes, jog 30 seconds on 0 incline at 4.5 mph. My last two workouts, I was able to crank it up a notch: four 30 second jogs on 0 incline at 4.8 mph two nights ago, and five 30 second jogs at 0 incline at 5.5 mph. I am making progress, and I no longer feel like I am going to fall over after a workout.

Here's the question: the treadmill portion of my workout is only 10 to 15 minutes, yet I am totally beat afterwards. The problem is that I like to lift weights after my treadmill time, and I am finding it difficult to muster the energy to get an effective weight workout. AND, I haven't lost any weight!!

Should I feel good about my progress, or should I feel guilty about not being to work the weights as effectively as I want to?

[Maggiemuggs]

Re: Death by Treadmill, Part Deux?

Weights are even more important than cardio. Cardio provides an immediate after burn, but doesn't last all day. With strength training, you are building muscles, that are burning calories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Start out with a light 5 minute cardio workout to warm up, followed by strength training. After the strength training, see what you can do for cardio. You want to be careful that you don't create burnout by pushing yourself too hard. Are you keeping track of your pulse to see if it is in the healthy range during your cardio portion? It may be harder to do the cardio on the days you do leg strength training, but just adjust it to something you can do those days. Another thing to consider is that when you are doing the treadmill at such a steep incline, you are in fact doing strength training in your legs.

[firstlady]

Re: Death by Treadmill, Part Deux?

First of all, congrats on your progress! Your strength training should always be done FIRST before cardio. The main reason is safety. People tend to lose proper form which results in injury. Also, if you exhaust yourself prior to strength training, you will not put as much into the workout nor will you get much out of it.
Like Maggiemugs suggested, start out with a cardio warmup, hit the weights, then go back to cardio if possible.
Also, you are right on with the 15 minute HIIT, you are actually burning more that way than you would with lower intensity and longer sessions.
I am going to try your routine! You are motivating!

[liv]

Re: Death by Treadmill, Part Deux?

How about alternate days? If you want to do them both. It is always good to have a rest day for weights and on those you could do HIIT. Remember to not increase too fast.
If you have to do them both on the same day you have to do weights first but if you powerlift you may need to take in some protein right after so the HIIT have to be quick. And you may not have enough energy left too really push it in HIIT. Depends a lot of what kind of effect you are going for here.

Good job on exercising.