Q&A: Recreational Activity on Recovery Days

Question:

I have been reading about HIT and it seems great, because I can fit it in to an hour or so in my schedule. I have questions though:

1) I play a bit of Soccer and Basketball. Not seriously, but I enjoy them and would hate to miss out on them. Would it be a bad idea to play on rest days between workouts?

2) Would the lack of cardio affect my endurance in these sports adversely?

Thanks in advance.

Answer:

If you enjoy playing soccer and basketball you should structure your workouts around them, not the other way around. Exercise should contribute to the enjoyment of other activities in your life, not replace them. If you find that you do not recover as quickly between workouts due to the additional activity, then add extra recovery days between workouts.

High intensity strength training produces greater metabolic and cardiovascular benefits than traditional cardio, more safely and more efficiently, so as long as you’re still doing your strength training workouts you won’t be missing anything. Although the metabolic and cardiovascular benefits of HIT are of a more general nature, if you’re playing soccer and basketball regularly you will get all the specific conditioning you require from those.

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  • E Jan 28, 2009 @ 21:51

    Drew, from your posts on fat loss it you routinely suggest to avoid doing cardiovascular activity aside from the cardio workout one gets from the HIT training.

    I find that during a maintenance phase, without some kind of extra activity such as recreational sports I tend to gain fat quite easily. I eat clean but I do not count calories during maintenance. Sitting at the computer 10 hours a day for work does not help. Despite being 6’2″ 225lbs @ 12% BF, my maintenance seems to be around 2750kcals per day due to the low levels of normal activity.

    Would you suggest adding extra recreational sports while being able to eat more food as part of a regular HIT training program? This concept would be similar to Dr. Berardi’s G-Flux idea, if you are familiar with his work.

    • Drew Baye Jan 29, 2009 @ 10:02

      I recommend cutting calorie intake back, since most activities do not burn enough calories to be worth doing just for that purpose, especially considering how little free time a 10 hour work day leaves you. If you want to eat more food you can cut calorie intake while increasing the volume of food you eat by replacing the grains and starches in your diet with more fibrous vegetables.

  • E Jan 29, 2009 @ 13:47

    @Drew Baye
    Thank you Drew. That makes sense. 500kcals of playing some sports even 5 times a week is barely enough to offset gaining 1 pound due to extra calories. I will try to eat less calories and more volume of vegetables.