cardio for powerlifters ?

[kling]

How do you guys train cardio, if at all. My endurance sucks, also I want to lose some weight. And i dont have any sled. You have any tips. Walking, biking, or ... And for how long, how often etc. One problem with walking is that the inside of my thighs rubs against each other (cause im fat) , so to much walking makes me wounded Or should i just ignore my overweight, and only focus on pure power. ?

/fat and miserable.

 

[brianmincher]

If you are severely overweight and are needing to get your weight down for health reasons, then by all means do as much cardio as you can until you get your weight down to something healthy. If you want to be the strongest powerlifter you can be, then cardio (running, biking, etc.) is not a great idea, but if you are 100 lbs overweight then you need to get rid of that weight so you can be in good enough condition to train properly and have some level of health.

That being said, if you are only 20 or 30 lbs overweight, just hit the weights hard, clean up your eating, and everything will probably take care of itself.

And before everyone jumps on this one, I am fully aware that I am 50 or 60 lbs overweight according to the government charts. That is not what I am talking about. If you are around 15 percent bodyfat, then you are probably not overweight (IMHO) whether you weigh 150 or 350, or anything in between. But if you are 30 percent bodyfat, you are overweight regardless of what the scale says. I have seen fat 140 lb men. They are the worst of the worst, I have heard them referred to as "skinny-fat" meaning no muscle, no mass, but what little is there is all fat.

And if you have trouble walking or running, and for some reason cannot either buy, find or make a sled, then swim. Swimming is great, no impact, burns lots of calories, pretty fun to do, and the higher bodyfat you have, the easier it is to float.

B.

 

[Screwball]

Great post, Brian. Solid advice. Low impact aerobic activity is the way to go. Swimmming, biking, walking, etc...

 

[kling]

Hmm i belive i weigh 248? (113kg) . ok swimming sounds great, how otften can/should i do that, every work day maybe, or is that to much. And do you have som advice about diet. Thats probably the hardest thing. Im a hungry kind of guy

 

[brianmincher]

yeah, 113 kg is about 248-250, but how tall are you. If you are over 2 meters (trying to talk your language) then that is not terribly heavy. If you are short, like me, in the five foot six to five foot nine range, then you could probably stand to lose some weight. I don't know the conversion in meters and centimeters to feet and inches the way I do kilos to pounds, sorry.

As for diet help, you probably need to completely change the way you look at food. Food can no longer be a source of comfort, or something to do when bored, or whatever has led you to the shape you are in today. Food is fuel to feed the machine (your body) nothing more or less. You have to be unemotional about food. That is not easy to do for some people, but if you want a goal bad enough, you can do whatever it takes.

Nuts and bolts, eat more protein, eat no refined carbs. Get your foods in their simplest forms, and cut way down on simple carbs like sugars and syrups, things like that.

I would be happy to discuss this with you at length, and you may contact me by e-mail if you would like. [email protected]

B.

 

[powerlifterjay]

I think modeerate cardio is ok. If anythig it will make you feel not so sluggish. Especially ifyour on a bulking phase. I just walked in the door after my 3.2 mile walk around the Lake. I love it.

 

[Deciever]

i got hurt doing cardio today

 

[kling]

I was so pepped by brianmincher's reply on my post so I went on a walk this morning.(1hour). I'l try to stick to it. Im also trying to eat about 100g of carbs a day, and before 3 o'clock, but always seem to f**k it up. Its kind of hard to eat descent when people around are eating sweets and ice screams and stuff, when I myself got cravings.

I am 5.7? feet (176 cm) tall. But i am a little worried about loosing my hard earned strength. I've tried a ckd diet before. But I got sick after 3 weeks and lost my will to diet. It was also kind of expensive.But beside being very very tired the 2 first days of every week, i think it worked pretty fine.

I know pasta and bread is refined food, but is rise also ? Should i cut out al carbs, except some vegetables ?

 

[Grantsdu]

The only thing about diets is different kinds work for different people. I have never been overweight so I may not be the best source of info on this topic but I thought I would try to help anyway. I have a younger brother who was slightly overweight. He ended up wrestling in high school and lost almost all of it. Of course they were doing high impact training but they also did alot of running( 2 miles before they practiced). If I were you I would stick with the walking for a while. If that starts to get eaiser, try running small distances while your out walking. Gradually build up the distances you run as you advance. Also, try to cut out as much of the junk food as you can. I'm not saying all of it but cut out as much as you can. Try to eat more salads and stuff like that. Don't quit lifting either. Lift even harder. Its not going to be an over night change but if you really stick with it, you will notice a big difference!!

 

[brianmincher]

I personally would not recommend going completely without carbs. I don' t think it is terribly healthy, but a lot of overweight people seem to have a lot of trouble with carbs, so that is why I suggested cutting them way down.

I don't know what rise is, but if you meant rice, then rice is a fine way to get some carbs in. But try and eat long grain brown or wild rice if you can. It is better for you than the white stuff.

Eat as much vegetables and salads as you can choke down, and eat a lot of eggs, they are a cheap source of protein. Tuna fish is also a cheap and low fat form of protein. Walking and swimming are great, just work up to it slowly. Lift hard, walk every day or at least on your non-weight training days, and it will do wonders.

Here is another tip from my weight cutting days. When you sit down to a meal. Don't eat until you are full. Stop just short of being full, and drink a ton of water with your meal. Within 10 or 20 minutes after the meal, you will feel full and pretty good. Since you will be running light, you may find that you feel more energetic. Your stomach gets full before your brain really gets the signal that you have had enough to eat, and by stopping before you realize you are full, you take in less food, and after a little bit of time, you realize you are in fact more full than you thought.

Drink tons of water. Drink a full glass before you eat your first bite at a meal. Water takes up stomach space, and it will require less food to make you feel full after drinking the water.

B.