[mikestraws]

Quite simply, what do you think?

I squat 3 times a week as part of my strength training, the strength gains and fat loss im having are pefectly acceptable to me and I am in no rush to speed them up. However I want to bring back my 6 mile run ability (not run for a long time) just for the cardio fitness and health side of it, not to speed up weight loss.

Do you think 25-30 minutes of running mon/weds/fri evening will have a serious impact on my recovery since I lift mon/wed/fri morning, or not really noticable depending on how I eat?

[*Rouge*]

I have no idea as I was wondering the same thing. After my exams, I plan to strength train properly but also want to train for a half marathon. I'm not sure how this will work!

[chrislpp]

doing cardio?

say byebye to your gains

[tooosh]

Compensate for the calories burnt and it should be fine. It might even help squatting, my heart always pumps like mad and I get a bit dizzy; probably more due to my breathing technique but cardio would help.

[BKS]

Have you looked at Westside for Skinny Bastards? towards the end it has a section on combining with lifting

[mikestraws]

(Original post by BKS)
Have you looked at Westside for Skinny Bastards? towards the end it has a section on combining with lifting

Cheers I'll take a look.

[mikestraws]

(Original post by chrislpp)
doing cardio?

say byebye to your gains

Must be why you see so many skinny rugby players.

[Scoobiedoobiedo]

I doubt 25-30minutes will have much of an effect on recovery(especially as you aren't trying to increase size)
Try it for a week or so and see if you feel any difference? May be a good idea to increase protein a little bit though.

[josht36]

I'm in a similar position to you. I agree that it may slow your progress slightly but as long as you are compensating with extra food and lots of recovery time I don't think you will struggle to improve both.

The one thing I would say is that it may be hard on your legs at first. Try doing shorter runs after your strength training and then maybe add your longer runs on the first day when you gets two days off from the squatting. That way you will give your legs time to recover, as I expect initially it will be hard work with squatting 3 times a week as well.

Definitely possible though, just got to look at rugby players for evidence of reasonable strength and good cardio fitness.

[Pitt1988]

Try doing a couple of runs on a weekend maybe? But make sure that you make up for what you might have burnt by eating a **** load.

[The Blind Monk]

It's very difficult to squat heavy 3x a week and progress in a linear manner if you want to run with anything resembling that frequency. It is of course possible to both squat and run, but probably not to do starting strength as intended and run hard 3x a week.

[chrislpp]

(Original post by mikestraws)
Must be why you see so many skinny rugby players.

*skinnyfat

the alcohol and take aways from the nights out put on the pounds.

[Rinsed]

As long as you don't go nuts, a bit of cardio won't affect your recovery too much. May even help as a bit of active recovery if you get it right, as well as the more obvious benefit to conditioning etc. I think the general consensus is that 20-30 mins so of moderate cardio 2/3 times a week is fine, but yea much more than that and you will start to cut into recovery, especially if the intensity is too high. That's generally what I do with a strength program and it's never done me any harm setting week on week squatting gains, I do run on off days though, but I'm not sure what difference that would make.

[mikestraws]

(Original post by Rinsed)
As long as you don't go nuts, a bit of cardio won't affect your recovery too much. May even help as a bit of active recovery if you get it right, as well as the more obvious benefit to conditioning etc. I think the general consensus is that 20-30 mins so of moderate cardio 2/3 times a week is fine, but yea much more than that and you will start to cut into recovery, especially if the intensity is too high. That's generally what I do with a strength program and it's never done me any harm setting week on week squatting gains, I do run on off days though, but I'm not sure what difference that would make.

Good to know. I'm not looking for marathon running or super fast times so I think I'll be ok!

[SEHughes]

Mike, layer it in slowly. You'll know what you can handle.

[Chumbaniya]

If you recover well from the lifting you're already doing, I don't think a moderate amount of cardio on top of it is going to noticeably affect your recovery (though it may be tough going the first couple of times). As BKS says, Westside for Skinny Bastards is intended to run alongside sports training so some of the ideas in there could be good for you if you want to be lifting and running with your focus split evenly between the two.

chrislpp is, I presume, trolling based on his comment on alcohol and takeaways, but obviously the idea that doing a bit of running now and then will prevent you getting stronger is absurd.