In the opinion of those here:

I am currently doing cardio three times a week.
I am not a great runner, but i make big improvements every time i run.

I am currently doing 400 calories in 25 minutes, alternating between run/walk-jog and do a mile in about 11:10

however someone has recommended that i start to do 2 20 minute cardio sessions each day in order to get a faster fat loss happening.

my question is simple:
do i shoot for two smaller workouts, or two HIIT workouts.

Can anyone accomodate that much HIIT without potential problems? and i have also heard that HIIT is much better for protecting muscle than slower cardio is... but when running at those speeds listed above i am getting my heart rate to upwards of 170bpm. i am 27 and a half years old btw.

i personally find HIIT really hard to do, and dont know how long/what intensity i should actually get to before quitting.
I have heard that 15 minutes of real HIIT is as much as anyone should be able to do, and anything else isnt really HIIT... that true?

What is the best way to go about this. i am burning 1200 calories a week now with 3 days cardio, but how much should i shoot for so i can do a good steady fat loss but faster?

What I have been doing (its only been a week, but I have seen tremendous results), is doing cardio in the morning almost every day, coupled with lifting and HIIT. For example:

Day 1: Fasted cardio in a.m, lifting that evening
Day 2: Fasted cardio in a.m, cardio in p.m
Day 3: Fasted cardio in a.m, lifting that evening (legs)
Day 4: No morning cardio, evening HIIT
Day 5: No morning cardio, lifting that evening
Day 6: Fasted morning cardio, evening cardio
Day 7: Fasted morning cardio, evening HIIT

There was no morniong cardio day 4 and 5 because I was recovering from legs the night before, and HIIT the next night. You really should only start out with HIIT once a week for the first week or two, then bump it up to twice a week, then 3x a week. You should never do it twice in the same day...

If you find HIIT too difficult, try doing your intervals at 30 seconds of 90-100% instead of 1 minute, and build yourself up. 30 seconds is better than not tackling the challenge at all..

Brian

Before going harder on cardio, tell us about the progress you have been making with your current routine. Have you been losing weight? If so, how much and how quickly? Are there differences you are seeing in fit of your clothes, or in any progress pics you have been taking?

If you are already burning 400 calories in 25 minutes, and getting your HR up toward 170 bpm, why are you interested in upping the amount? That sounds like a good routine right now. REMEMBER - cardio does not protect muscle, nor will it add muscle. Only lifting will do this. Cardio is for overall health, and to help get your caloric output greater than your intake during a cut. Too much cardio will begin to push your body toward losing muscle over fat.

Your goal should be to lose as much fat as you can while retaining or adding muscle. I will suggest that you focus on increasing the intensity of your lifting by reducing rest intervals or supersetting exercises, so that you will get your HR up higher while lifting. This is what I have been doing for the past three months - I now get in 20-30 sets of lifts in around 35 minutes, with an average HR of 125 and an average max at 160-165. I work out at a corporate health center, and believe me when I say I am the only guy there who is sweating and breathing hard at the end of my lifts (most people read the paper between sets).

EDIT: I just went back and looked at my stats for the last 10 lifting sessions. Average time was 37 minutes and average calories burned was 396.

Before going harder on cardio, tell us about the progress you have been making with your current routine. Have you been losing weight? If so, how much and how quickly? Are there differences you are seeing in fit of your clothes, or in any progress pics you have been taking?

If you are already burning 400 calories in 25 minutes, and getting your HR up toward 170 bpm, why are you interested in upping the amount? That sounds like a good routine right now. REMEMBER - cardio does not protect muscle, nor will it add muscle. Only lifting will do this. Cardio is for overall health, and to help get your caloric output greater than your intake during a cut. Too much cardio will begin to push your body toward losing muscle over fat.

Your goal should be to lose as much fat as you can while retaining or adding muscle. I will suggest that you focus on increasing the intensity of your lifting by reducing rest intervals or supersetting exercises, so that you will get your HR up higher while lifting. This is what I have been doing for the past three months - I now get in 20-30 sets of lifts in around 35 minutes, with an average HR of 125 and an average max at 160-165. I work out at a corporate health center, and believe me when I say I am the only guy there who is sweating and breathing hard at the end of my lifts (most people read the paper between sets).

EDIT: I just went back and looked at my stats for the last 10 lifting sessions. Average time was 37 minutes and average calories burned was 396.

i guess the short answer is, i have made pretty good to excellent progress with the current routine.
the next question you may have is: why change then?

i guess i dont want to CHANGE things, just try and push things a little further along.

however, i can see the benefits of the lifting intensity being upped. i currently rest 1:30 between sets. i could cut that down to a minute flat (i use the stopwatch on my ipod to keep track of that btw, no guessing here) and that would up the intensity.

i am currently doing 7-10 reps each set... and am at weight i like now. when i get up to 10 reps and i dont feel as though i am challenged, i up the weight so it is 6-7 reps max....

so i will keep up with the lifting/cardio as it is.

more cardio would be hard to put into my schedule anyhow.

If the goal is to increase caloric output, I will suggest trying supersets. A 90 second rest between sets is OK, but I have been doing more like 30 sec rests, moving from one exercise to another, then back again.

Example: I do 5 pullups, then immediately go to 5 lat pulldowns, then immediately go to 5 shrugs. Then back to pullups - 5 sets of each exercise in total, usually taking less than 12 minutes. Then on to the next superset (rows and DB presses from the floor). Then I supset abs and obliques. By the end of my workout, my HR usually peaks at 165 or so, and averages 120ish.

Then I do my cardio - my HR is already up in the 120's, and so it is easy to get to 150-160 steady state for 30 minutes. If I recall correctly, you work in Vegas, and the high temps help you burn a lot of calories at your job. Probably no need to increase cardio in this case, but if you want to intensify your lifting and make it more "cardio-like", just reduce rest intervals and superset exercises.

If the goal is to increase caloric output, I will suggest trying supersets. A 90 second rest between sets is OK, but I have been doing more like 30 sec rests, moving from one exercise to another, then back again.

Example: I do 5 pullups, then immediately go to 5 lat pulldowns, then immediately go to 5 shrugs. Then back to pullups - 5 sets of each exercise in total, usually taking less than 12 minutes. Then on to the next superset (rows and DB presses from the floor). Then I supset abs and obliques. By the end of my workout, my HR usually peaks at 165 or so, and averages 120ish.

Then I do my cardio - my HR is already up in the 120's, and so it is easy to get to 150-160 steady state for 30 minutes. If I recall correctly, you work in Vegas, and the high temps help you burn a lot of calories at your job. Probably no need to increase cardio in this case, but if you want to intensify your lifting and make it more "cardio-like", just reduce rest intervals and superset exercises.

super sets seem a little bit advanced for me. I am just a month into this lifting program, and i do not want to drastically change things that much. i can see the theory, and it is not the first time i have read about it.

seems to me that i can add some caloric burn by reducing my time between sets.
i can also perhaps add ONE more compound movement to my routine with the exception of my back/bi/forearm day.
Example of this, today is my fifth week for chest and i will add in a decline bench press as it is a compound movement, and it will work a part of my chest that i havent really worked...

my routine is taking me about an hour each day. the back/bi/forearm day takes about 20 minutes longer as there are more movements.

if you are interested, here is my entire routine for the first month. i am starting anew today:

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa167/stevenj-89145/firstmonthworkoutcomplete.jpg

Having recently seen your progress pics in another thread, let me start by saying "excellent progress".

As to adding decline bench, there has been a recent thread on chest development that generally pans decline bench, and suggests flat and inclines as the better exercise. I would suggest keeping the exercises you have now, and simply adding weight (or reps in the case of your dips).

I also would reduce or eliminate much of the arm isolation work you have in day 4 (all those curl variations). Replace all of the curls with 4 sets of pullups to failure. Trust me, your arms will grow, but so will your back and shoulders (and in the right proportions for your physique).

You have pullups listed, but from the weight and reps I'm guessing you actually mean lat pullDOWNS. Try moving your chins and pullups to the start of your exercise routine, and hit them hard. Follow with DLs or pulldowns, then rows.

Do you do any cardio after your lifts? I find this to be very helpful in geting the HR up.

Just as an example: today's workout was a combined chest and back lift, then ab work
36 sets total, 5 or 10 reps depending on specific exercise
Total time = 41:21
Calories burned = 511
Max HR = 167
Average HR = 133

Cardio was stair stepper
Total time = 30:58
Calories burned = 494
Max HR = 161
Average HR = 156

So in my 90 minute workout block, I burned over 1000 calories, the majority coming from lifting. Using this approach, do you think you need to add cardio, or simply increase the intensity of your lifting?

Having recently seen your progress pics in another thread, let me start by saying "excellent progress".

As to adding decline bench, there has been a recent thread on chest development that generally pans decline bench, and suggests flat and inclines as the better exercise. I would suggest keeping the exercises you have now, and simply adding weight (or reps in the case of your dips).

I also would reduce or eliminate much of the arm isolation work you have in day 4 (all those curl variations). Replace all of the curls with 4 sets of pullups to failure. Trust me, your arms will grow, but so will your back and shoulders (and in the right proportions for your physique).

You have pullups listed, but from the weight and reps I'm guessing you actually mean lat pullDOWNS. Try moving your chins and pullups to the start of your exercise routine, and hit them hard. Follow with DLs or pulldowns, then rows.

Do you do any cardio after your lifts? I find this to be very helpful in geting the HR up.

Just as an example: today's workout was a combined chest and back lift, then ab work
36 sets total, 5 or 10 reps depending on specific exercise
Total time = 41:21
Calories burned = 511
Max HR = 167
Average HR = 133

Cardio was stair stepper
Total time = 30:58
Calories burned = 494
Max HR = 161
Average HR = 156

So in my 90 minute workout block, I burned over 1000 calories, the majority coming from lifting. Using this approach, do you think you need to add cardio, or simply increase the intensity of your lifting?

right. By doing cardio like that you can increase fat burn.

Now as for chest. I thought that decline press was an upper chest movement. From what I understand the chest has a lower and upper section.

Anyhow what I may do is add a few lighter sets after the heavier lifts. 2 sets with 10 reps each of less weight to get intensity up?

Anyhow thx for the encouragement. I really think I can push myself. Who knows how far butni might as well try and see.

Reminds me of a character inthengame grand theft auto 4 who's saying is he is "genetically different" LOL!

Seems that this is becoming a 2 person discussion! Anyway, as for the value of decline versus other chest exercises, please look at post#4 in this recent thread:

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=43955

Excellent article on the value and effectiveness of different chest exercises.

Seems that this is becoming a 2 person discussion! Anyway, as for the value of decline versus other chest exercises, please look at post#4 in this recent thread:

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=43955

Excellent article on the value and effectiveness of different chest exercises.

well as for today:

started my chest/tri workout at 12:40pm and was finished at 1:15

I rested about 45 seconds between sets. The weights i kept the same, but since i rested less i was not able to do the same number of reps per set.
To offset this, i went ahead and added one more set at the end with about 20lbs less weight, and another 5 reps.

So for example, my flat bench last week was:
6x90/6x90/7x80
today:
6x90/5x90/5x90/6x70

Also, after flat bench and incline bench like this, i started to worry whether or not this was working for me since i felt weaker (which i guess is normal considering the rest was half between sets) so i went into the locker room real fast and was surprised that i was actually really pumped up...

so i continued, and i did add flat dumbbell flys to the mix... that really made me feel pumped as well, and really hard worked.

All in all it was a good experience. Hope that i got the same net result from this as last week. i am nervous of changing at all considering the results ive been getting.

i am nervous of changing at all considering the results ive been getting.

What you're doing is clearly working - IMO there's no real need to change until progress stops.

What you're doing is clearly working - IMO there's no real need to change until progress stops.

yep, you are correct sir.

and follow up as i am waking up now.

WOW AM I SORE

Sore in a good way, like when a person takes off an extended period and thenc omes back to the gym.

that is great.
:)