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QUESTION:
Dear Charles,
I’m trying to get my metabolism
up. My husband sold me on the idea of quitting my daily 45
minute cardio workout, and replacing it with weight training
so I could put some muscle on. Now, it’s a month later
and I haven't lost any fat and think I even lost a little
muscle in my legs. Should I keep waiting for the results to
kick in or should I go back to my old routine?
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ANSWER:
Yes and no. How’s that for a
direct answer?
Even if you lost a little muscle following
the schedule you’re describing, your
husband’s suggestion might have spared you from potentiating
a pattern overuse injury.
Any ‘routine’ exercise or
training schedule performed over an extended period, especially
daily, tends to traumatize the joints and their associated connective
tissues. Breaking from a habitual activity, or at least altering
the movement pattern in some way can either reduce or redirect traumatizing
tension to a better-prepared location on your body.
Now that you have had the good fortune
of this break, should you go back to more cardio? I think so. Chances
are that like many women, you have a high relative proportion of
Type I muscle fiber, or as it’s more commonly called ‘slow
twitch muscle fiber.’
All people have varying proportions
of Type 1 (or slow) and Type II (or fast) fibers in their muscles.
Women as a general rule of thumb, tend
to have greater proportions of slow twitch fibers as compared to
men. This may very well be why they gravitate toward
aerobics and other endurance type activities when selecting exercise
options.
Here’s a brief description of
both types of muscle fibers:
Type I muscle fibers are relatively
slow and weak (this is where the term slow twitch comes from)
but they also have great endurance capacity. Because of this, slow
twitch fibers are much more resistant to fatigue. To challenge these
fibers enough to force a training effect, exhausting and frequent
exercise is required.
Type II (or fast twitch) fibers
are white when viewed under the scope, produce lots of tension,
but fatigue very quickly. They also take longer than red fibers
to recover, and tend to have greater growth potential. Type II’s
have a higher threshold than red fibers (which means they need greater
loads to innervate them).
Now, based on what you’ve told
me, my guess is that you have more red
fiber then the average person and have managed to develop
some quality muscle from your cardio training. We see this frequently
in sports like rowing and cycling where athletes develop impressive
amounts of muscle by participating in mainly endurance activities.
You could refine and maximize your
‘red fiber’ training by doing some weight training exercises
that take a minimum of 90 seconds per set (or greater) to perform.
As well, I think you should perform
some exercises with greater loads for sets that take 20-40 seconds
to perform. This will increase the size and more importantly the
strength of your fast twitch fibers. Training these fibers will
strengthen your ability to handle greater loads when you return
to higher rep training.
So yes, go back to your cardio training
for a month or so. Then, redirect our training to some higher intensity
weight training, and then once again adjust the program to frequent,
high rep exercises. As a rule, when constructing the macro-cycle
(the long term plan, including all phases of training) place the
greatest emphasis on the phase that offers the greatest personal
return.
Spend less time on the elements that
appear less productive— you can recognize
them as the ones that are less fun.
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