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Combining endurance and resistance training
Combining both cardiovascular and resistance training in the same workout is both effective and a member-pleasing time saver. In the latest version of the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand, titled "the Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Cardio-respiratory and Muscular Fitness, and Flexibility in Healthy Adults," the experts suggest that individuals do both cardiovascular (endurance) training to improve the heart and lungs and resistance training to improve muscular strength.1
Concurrent resistance and endurance training is a newer form of exercise programming. Studies addressing the effects of this type of training note promising changes in individuals' physiology. But is performing both forms of exercise in the same exercise session contraindicated? The physiological adaptations to resistance and endurance training are different, and sometimes may even be opposite. Resistance training decreases capillary density and mitochondrial volume density in muscles, while endurance training causes an increase. Endurance training has been associated with a loss in strength and decreased muscle-fiber size, while resistance training causes an increase in both.5 The interactions between these two types of training seems to depend on factors such as the subject's initial state of training; training modes; training intensity, duration and frequency; and the integration of the two training modes. In untrained subjects, concurrent training appears to be more detrimental to strength gains than to cardiovascular gains, although positive changes in body composition have occurred. In endurance-trained subjects, the addition of resistance training does not impair strength development, and may even improve cardiovascular endurance. |
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Endurance and resistance exercises Resistance and endurance training both improve physical capacity and health. One may be preferred over the other, depending on the goals of the person, but current guidelines for exercise prescription suggest that both be done to improve physical capacity. Endurance training improves the functions of the heart and lungs, including cardiac hypertrophy, decreased resting heart rate, increased stroke volume, and increased skeletal muscle capillary density and hypertrophy. Biochemical improvements allow the body to function more efficiently with an increased oxidation of glycogen and fat, and increased enzyme action for metabolism. Endurance training also decreases a person's risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes and mortality.4 Resistance training helps make improvements such as skeletal muscle hypertrophy, increased connective tissue amount and strength, increased bone density and increased muscle attachment size. Biochemical changes include increases in phosphocreatine, adenosine triphosphate, muscle creatine and glycogen, which improve muscle energy capacity.4 Resistance training can also increase fat-free weight and decrease body-fat levels. Having additional muscle mass may increase resting metabolism, which plays an important role in increasing energy expenditure.3 All of these changes are beneficial in decreasing the chance for obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and, in older people, the number of falls. Amount of exercise Exercise prescriptions for endurance training suggest that clients perform a type of exercise that they enjoy. To improve cardiovascular fitness levels, this exercise should be done three to five days per week, for 20 to 60 minutes, at an intensity of 40 to 85 percent of maximal heart rate.1 Beginning exercisers should begin at the lower end of the exercise prescription and, as they improve, progressively increase the time and intensity. On the other hand, the Surgeon General's Report7 recommends the accumulation of any type of physical activity for 30 minutes daily. This recommendation has been shown to improve health, rather than fitness levels. The type of training to perform, then, should depend on goals. |
Exercise prescriptions for resistance training suggest
performing eight to 10 exercises at least twice per week.1 Those
exercises should include both upper- and lower-body exercises,
and should be designed to improve the strength of the muscles
exercised. This type of training is different from athletic
strength training, power lifting or bodybuilding prescriptions,
which are much more inclusive and intensive, and sometimes
require training six to seven days per week.
Cardio-resistance training, as described in a recent article,6 is
a form of cross training performed three times per week for 45
minutes per session. In this type of training, exercisers
perform endurance training for approximately 2.5 minutes, then
immediately transfer to heavy resistance exercises, performing
eight repetition maximum lifts of each resistance exercise
(Table 1). The authors suggest combining upper-body resistance
exercise with lower-body endurance exercise to lessen fatigue in
the lower body. Using this type of training, the
cardio-resistance subjects increased both endurance capacity
(12.2 percent) and muscular strength (20 percent) after 10
weeks.
Another example of a concurrent resistance and endurance
exercise regimen is presented in Table 2. This regimen can be
used for those clients whose goals include increasing muscle
mass and strength.
Training order
When performing concurrent resistance and endurance training,
most research suggests that resistance training be done first,
followed by endurance conditioning.4 Still, the training order
is dependent on the client's goals. If the goal is to maximize
weight loss while maintaining or increasing fat-free mass, then
endurance training should be done first in the exercise session,
followed by resistance conditioning. Conversely, if increases in
muscle mass and strength are the desired goals, then resistance
training should precede endurance conditioning.
Types of gains
Clients may wonder if the gains from one type of training will
interfere with the gains from the other. For the average person,
this should not be a concern. Whereas single-mode training, such
as resistance or endurance training, has been shown to increase
muscular strength and aerobic capacity, respectively, concurrent
training has been shown to increase both of these traits
together, although to a lesser magnitude. In other words,
combining both modes of exercise will enable exercisers to
maximize benefits and enhance their well-being and health, while
minimizing time in the club.
Conclusion
Concurrent resistance and endurance training can be beneficial
for clients. With the proper exercise prescription, order and
dedication, improvements can be made in fitness level and
capacity, and overall health. FM
REFERENCES
1. ACSM position stand. The recommended quantity and quality of
exercise for developing and maintaining cardio-respiratory and
muscular fitness, and flexibility in healthy adults. Medicine
and Science in Sports and Exercise 30(6): 975-991, 1999.
2. Baechle, T.R. Essentials of Strength Training and
Conditioning. Human Kinetics: Champaign, Ill., 1994.
3. Dolezal, B.A., and J.A. Potteiger. Concurrent resistance and
endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in non-dieting
individuals. Journal of Applied Physiology 85(2): 695-700, 1998.
4. Foss, M.L., and S.J. Keteyian. Fox's Physiological Basis for
Exercise and Sport. WCB McGraw-Hill: Boston, Mass., 1998.
5. Sale, D.G., J.D. MacDougall, I. Jacobs and S. Garner.
Interaction between concurrent strength and endurance training.
Journal of Applied Physiology 68(1): 260-270, 1990.
6. Sforzo, G.A., F.G. Micale, N.A. Bonnani, M. Muir and J.
Wigglesworth. A new training technique: Cardio-resistance
training. ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal 2(6): 11-17, 1999.
7. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical
Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion: Atlanta, Ga., 1996.
Donna J. Terbizan, associate professor, and Brett A. Dolezal,
assistant professor, are exercise physiologists in the
Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at North
Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., performing research in the
area of concurrent strength and endurance training.
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Table 1. Cardio-resistance Training Protocols (adapted from Sforzo) |
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|---|---|---|---|
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Endurance Training (sets x min) |
Intensity (& VO2 max) |
Resistance Training (selected exercises) |
|
Week 1 |
5 x 2.5 min |
60 to 70% |
1 set, 6 to 8 RM |
|
Week 2 |
8 x 2.5 min |
60 to 70% |
2 sets, 6 to 8 RM |
|
Weeks 3 to 10 |
15 x 2.5 min |
60 to 85%* |
3 sets, 6 to 8 RM |
|
*as clients adapt to intensity, increase as needed throughout the subsequent weeks |
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Table 2. Concurrent Resistance and Endurance Training for Increased Muscle Mass and Strength |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Day |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
|
Resistance |
Chest |
Back |
Shoulder |
Legs |
|
(Choose one exercise in each group for each body area |
Incline bench press |
Wide grip pull-ups |
Seated front barbell press |
Back squats |
|
|
Chest press machine |
Pull-up bar |
Seated machine press |
|
|
|
Flat bench press |
|
Seated dumbbell press |
Lunges |
|
|
|
Bent-over dumbbell rows |
|
|
|
|
Incline dumbbell press |
|
Dumbbell side laters |
Leg extensions |
|
|
Flat dumbbell press |
Close-grip pull-downs |
Machine side laterals |
|
|
|
Decline dumbbell press |
Hyperextensions |
Front dumbbell raises |
Leg curls |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fly machine |
|
Bent-over cable raises |
Calf raises |
|
|
Decline dumbbell flyes |
|
Bent-over dumbbell raises |
|
|
|
Triceps |
Biceps |
Upper body |
|
|
|
Triceps press-downs |
Standing biceps curl |
Chest press machine |
|
|
|
Dips |
Modified Preacher curl |
Upright rows |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lying triceps extensions |
Reverse EZ biceps curl |
Cleans |
|
|
|
Close-grip bench press |
Lying reverse biceps curl |
Dumbbell shrugs |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Triceps kickbacks |
Dumbbell screw (rotate) |
|
|
|
|
Dumbbell overhead ext. |
Incline dumbbell screw |
|
|
|
|
Reverse press-downs |
Concentration curl |
|
|
|
|
Triceps dip between benches |
Cable curl |
|
|
|
Endurance |
30 min at 75% MHR |
30 min at 75% MHR |
30 min at 75% MHR |
No formal workout |
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With this training regimen, do the resistance training first, then the endurance training. For resistance training, do 3 to 5 sets of selected exercise, declining from 12 to 8 repetitions each subsequent set. |
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