Too Much Cardio Can Impede Results

As a woman, I have always focused on cardio as a way to loss or maintain weight. Not until the last 5 years did I start using strength training as a vehicle for weight loss/maintenance. It's not that I didn't strength train but I tended to short-change my strength workout to accommodate my cardio sessions. Now, I do them equally and with the same intensity. My cardio workouts rotate through the week -- intervals (high intensity), gradual increases (moderate intensity), and slow long-distance (low intensity). The same for my strength sessions -- circuits/supersets etc. (high intensity), pyramids (moderate intensity), and high reps (low intensity). I always make the weight for the reps challenging and I have been able to keep my HR at close to 75% doing weights. I never work the same intensity for both cardio and strength--I tend to alternate them inversely (high-low, high-med) so as not to over train. Then about every 8 weeks, I back off from my strength training and do cardio and stretching only. Over the last 2 years, this has provided the best results for me and been a mainstay of my program.