Will Cardio Affect Weight Lifting Progress?

‘Will running affect my weight lifting?’

You know ‘it depends’, right?😉

For a little while (hi, 2014 🙋🏼‍♀️) cardiovascular training was kind of portrayed as the killer of strength/muscle gains, but actually, running can quite happily live alongside making progress towards your weight training goals.

Cardio/ running is great for your health - mentally, physically, emotionally. It gets us moving, it gets us outside, it often enables us to be with other people / friends. I know we live in a very ‘diet-centric’ world, but it is not just a dieting tool. Movement is about so much more than that - and running can be too, remember that.

HOWEVER.

Running won’t ruin your lifting… until it does…

Until it puts you so far into a calorie deficit that you can not optimally gain strength nor build muscle; until it hinders your recovery; or means you are skipping rest; or it causes you to become mentally and physically stressed.

Growing muscle requires heavy loads, intentional movement, good execution, intensity, and progressing to get better over time…. Not just getting sweaty.

And so it might be helpful to think about two things:

1. What is your goal right now? (To get your first pull up? A heavier squat? Run a faster 10k?)

2. What is your intention behind wanting to run? (Health? Fear? Love?)

And is your current training taking you towards where you want to be in light of those?

It’s okay that we cannot do everything (remember the pie chart analogy from a few posts back?) We need to allow ourselves to live more in the ‘grey’, and in wiggly lines that are fluid and changeable - based upon you OWN goals and phase/season in life. A lot of that comes from to tuning in to YOU.

I hope that makes sense. ♥️