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Low intensity cardio okay?
I would like to lower my blood pressure, so I was thinking of doing some low intensity cardio like light jogging or brisk walking about 30 minutes 3-5 days per week. Provided that I eat at a good calorie surplus and sleep well, would this affect my strength gains?
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Nope, it won't affect your strength gains. I would personally do a brisk walk over jogging. Doing something like a brisk walk 30 min 3- 5 times the week can positively affect barbell training (provided you don't overdo it). Just start with 3 x week and see how that works. If you see your training being affected, then lower the number of days, speed of walk or minutes. If not, then increase those variables till you find a balance.
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I have to do this or I never shit.
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I walk my dog for an hour everyday before I train and its never effected my progression.
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Do it. Just walking daily is shown to have a dramatic positive effect on heart health. I don't think it will effect your barbell training but everyone should be able to walk daily. Most people don't worry about heart health until it becomes a problem. Don't let it become a problem.
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effect=cause to happen. One would never expect walking one's dog for an hour to cause progression to happen.Originally Posted by Regin Smidur
Eric Cressey writes about the effect of cardio on strength gains in his book (16 Weeks to ...). I think he refers to a study which indicated that moderate intensity cardio (more than 70% of max heart rate) can negatively affect strength gains, but low intensity cardio (less than 70% of max heart rate) doesn't. Moderate intensity cardio is for marathon runners. You'll either want to do low intensity cardio OR high intensity cardio.
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I dont really understand what your saying so I'll just clarify what I meant. What I meant to say was that I take a long walk with my dog and then train 30-40 minutes later and it has never left me too fatigued to train or really impacted my recovery from training in any way.
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What he is saying that is that correct word is 'affected', not 'effected'. I understood what you said originally and so did the OP.
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I'm not a sports scientist or fitness expert, but I would think that if moderate walking had a negative impact on ones lifting performance , they would have to be in terrible overall condition, which would eventually lead to health problems and/or an early demise, Even if walking had a slight negative impact on lifting, the overall health benefits would far out weigh it.
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terrazine, the low intensity cardio shouldn't affect your strength gains, and since you have high blood pressure take that seriously so you won't have to do a max single with your coffin lid before your time. I have high blood pressure that I (finally!) managed to get in some semblance of order with a morning and evening round of two different meds. Like you, I tried all manner of cardio regimes to get it better, and finally at 60 just threw in the towel when the doc said it was time to face facts. I tell you this so you don't make it higher still from frustration if it should happen that diet and exercise alone don't do the trick. Just like they say in the commercials.
I probably sound like I'm stuck in a loop on this to some here, but you could also try briefer, higher intensity cardio regimes like a Graded Exercise Protocol (GXP). It didn't help with my BP but then nothing else cardio wise did either. It has however, conferred a VO2 Max around 40 which is damn good for an old coot like me at 5'11" 210 lbs.. It works like this: Do a ramp up of 5 minutes of increasing intensity to get your Heart Rate (HR) to 85% of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). Stay at 85% for 5 minutes and then ramp back down for 5 more minutes to de-escalate and cool down. Done in 15 minutes and as suggested by Carpinelli and some others, twice a week. It's a big time saver for me and it hasn't affected my strength.
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