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Solo Diver
Thanks Sinbad. Something to think about. I have done the steady state cardio routines in the past and it worked well for me but times change and I just can't find the motivation to do an hour of cardio after working a 12+ hour day. I am hoping that the higher intensity HIIT routines, especially workdays, is something that I can commit to and then shoot for a 30 minute traditional cardio excecise for my off days. Days of any significant lifting are long past but again I am hoping to find a happy medium.I have been doing heavy weights and high intensity cardio all my life and for a very long time I was a big believer in HIIT. There are many variations of HIIT so I would like to explain what I mean by the term when I use it. HIIT to me was a 20 minute session in which 1 minute of intense high impact cardio was followed by a 2 minute of recovery phase. It was great in the sense that it would get my out of breath quickly. I would then add 40 - 60 minute weight lifting sessions and in under 90 minutes but after draining myself with HIIT the weight training sessions were sometimes ...compromised.
Lately I have changed into longer cardio sessions. I am trying to go for an hour at a comfortable pace instead of HIIT. This has certain very observable advantages.
HIIT would take much longer to recover from. If I did an HIIT session, I would need a recovery period before the next "all out honest" session would be possible. This meant that the number of sessions I could squeeze in one month were lesser. This reduced the long term effectiveness of HIIT. If we were to compare single workout against a single workout then an HIIT session would be far more draining but when I compare 6 months of HIIT against 6 months of steady paces cardio then steady pace has been more beneficial.
Presently my workout schedule is looking more like this:
Monday - 40 - 60 minutes of steady paced cardio
Tuesday= 40 - 60 minutes of steady paced cardio
Wednesday = 40 - 60 minutes of steady paced cardio
Thursday - 40 - 60 minutes of steady paced cardio
Friday - Off
Saturday : Chest Tricep and shoulders
Sunday: Back Bicep and Legs
While this enables me to go heavy on weights on the weekends the weekday cardio sessions are not taxing so I can squeeze five of these into a week. So this is a variation to try if you wish to maximize recuperation.
Its amazing how fast a person can decline in just a few years. I completed a "modified" version (rotator cuff tear with incomplete healing) of the P90x 5 years ago. Now just the thought of plyometrics makes me cringe.
And I have got to start yoga again. That was probably the one single most rewarding exercise I have done.
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