Cardio and Toning
by Puddin
(Philadelphia, PA)
I just joined a gym. I go 3-4 times per week. I do straight cardio for an hour 2 days (elliptical machine, treadmill and bike) and toning on free weights 1 or 2 times a week (depending on if I go to the gym 3 or 4 times that week). Do you think this would get me results in 2 months.
My Answer
It would.
However, it would be better if you could schedule it in such a way that you do both cardio and toning on the same day i.e. after the cardio, do the toning as well.
The reason?
It's this - after you've sweated through your cardio, you really warmed-up your body; your blood's now circulating to all your major working muscles and your cells breathing-in oxygen.
This would be the best time to take advantage of if you jump straight into toning your muscles. The muscles would be more pliable to the toning workouts. You get better results out of the workouts.
I know you could be pressing for time (that's why you separate out the cardio and toning workouts - 2 days just purely on cardio and 1 or 2 days just purely on toning).
One way you could get to workout both cardio and toning on the same day is this - cut short your cardio workout from 1 hour to 40 minutes per session and use the 20 minutes saved for toning.
Now, since in 1 hour you've to workout both, the way to maximize it would be to do higher intensity cardio and toning, which not only helps to offset the shorter time but also get you to burn off calories, to lose weight and build lean muscle mass, at the same time.
Follow like this, you could then schedule to exercise 3-4 times per week, for 1 hour per session, doing both cardio and toning. And you get to workout more as well.
Try it.
