Weights

[[old] Tom]

I'm loosely following the interactive 4 days week plan, with about 2 UT1 session on erg or static bike, 1-2 AT/TR sessions, and UT2 as long weekend cycle rides.<br><br>I normally only have time for one gym session a day, so when do I do the weights for strenght: before or after the cardio and which session, i.e. UT1 or AT?<br><br>Or do I really need to get another session in?

[[old] pduck]

Hi Tom -<br><br>I'm pretty new at rowing (1 week!), but I do have some experience of combining lifting and running. <br><br>When I was a competitive runner I would always lift after I finished running. I didn't want to tire myself before what I considered the more important part of my workout. Tired muscles would lead to sloppy form and maybe injuries. More than likely, I just wouldn't have been able to finish what I had planned to do.<br><br>Recently, I have read where if your goal is to lose fat, it would be better to lift before any cardio workout. The premise of this is to burn off your muscle glycogen during the lifting portion of the workout and then you would burn a greater portion of fat when you got to the cardio portion. I think the ideal way would be to separate lifting and rowing into two workouts. If you only have time for one, then you would need to define your goals and determine what is most important to you.<br><br>I'd be interested in hearing what other people do.<br><br>Pete

[[old] Cran]

To burn fat do cardio. You are probably going to burn more actual fat by just doing cardio for the whole session, and if you want to do weights as well, do the cardio first and you will be able to work harder during the cardio and again burn more fat...<br><br>It sounds a bit like the fat burning zone thing, you might burn a higher proportion of fat, but to burn more actual fat just work harder and or longer...<br><br>Doing some weights will help raise your resting metabolism, so is probably worth doing the weights a few times a week... but I'd do the weights in seperate sessions or at the end of the sessions after the cardio.

[[old] DIESEL]

to most effectively burn fat, you should lift weight, do cardio AND KEEP YOUR DIET IN CHECK (probably the most important component). Ideally, you will do cardio and lifting in separate sessions, and give them at least an 8 hour cushion between sessions to insure that you are at 100% when you do each. <br><br>For purely aesthetic purposes, i.e. those leaning out who want to look good "nekkid" and don't really care about erg performance... for fat loss shorter, high intensity cardio (like 15 minutes at or near AT, for example) is more effective at effective fat loss than longer steady state cardio. <br><br>But since rowing implies a ton of cardio work to train the body to go all out for 2K, you gotta put in the meters on the erg (or the boat) - so in order to avoid excessive muscle catabolism - you should keep your weight work short and sweet -keep the sessions to no more than 45 minutes, use basic compound exercises or olympic lifts and go as heavy as you can with good form where you would be able to hit at least 4 clean reps (no spot) but fail at around the 7th rep. This will insure that you retain as much muscle as possible while bringing your body fat down. <br><br>Don't worry about bulking up - the amount of rowing most rowers do as part of the training keeps them from getting too bulky. A normal 200 lb. oarsman would have to eat at least 6K calories/day to put on appreciable mass if he was trying to bulk up while following a full blown rowing training scheme. What this sort of training does, therefore, is make you strong. Much stronger than someone who is exclusively an erg jockey can boast. While it's debatable if this extra strength is useful in the boat, I don't see how it can hurt if it keeps you lean and gives your body a change of pace in terms of workout. Besides a good set of deadlifts, cleans, or squats make for a nice interval style workout.