Cardio, strength and flexibility workouts..what should the ratio be?

ash2008

Hi,

I work out at home and try to incorporate cardio, strength and flexibility workouts into my routine. Im just wondering how many of each should I do per week? Is there a set formula?

My goals are to lose a bit of weight - Im female, 5ft 2 and just over 8 and a half stone, so I don't think I have too much weight to lose, but I am a bit flabby in my thighs and hips. I'd like to build some strength too, as from my (admittedly limited) knowledge this will help firm up my body? Id also love to have the strength to do things like pull ups and push ups

Thanks.

siochain

Hard to give an exact reply without knowing the exact plan that you have for each of the areas you mention.

For me flexibility/mobility is very important and to be honest it's something I do every day it can easily be done while watching TV. My roller and lacrosse ball are the best of mates and only wish now that i had invested more time on this while battering my body over the years.

Based on the small amount of info you have given this would be my recommended order of priority:

1. Nutrition plan.

2. Flexibility to ensure you have the correct range of motion while doing weights and to ensure you can stay active for many years to come.

3. Weights done properly is excellent way for females to loose weight

4. Cardio for the health benifits

To learn this stuff and speed up your results find a good strength and conditioning gym to teach you all of the above.

ash2008

Thanks for the reply

For cardio, I usually do HIIT workouts.

For strength, I have a set of dumbells and usually do a mix of squats, lunges, overhead press, deadlifts, chest press etc..

The flexibility is what I used to ignore, but Im starting to see the importance of it more recently. I now always stretch after workouts, maybe 10mins of stretching. Is that enough, or should I dedicate whole workouts to stretching?

For nutrition, I think i'm doing okay (but probably lots of people say that lol). Eating out is when I tend to mess that up.

siochain

I would advocate a warm up\down and stretch\mobility work before and after all cardio. Some sessions I would only dedicate to stretching and mobility I have even dedicated a whole week sometimes. This can be tough to do and I love working out but the return is well worth it.

This helps keep you injury free and improve your results. For example most people don’t squat and deadlift right simply because their range on movement is restricted. Better range of movement equals better technique and better results.

Transform

on the mobility side of things check if you can pass all these test (i use them with every single client i work with ) -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct6lJcYh-Ak