Suggestion to go along with leg workout

[mukey]

So I'm gonna start my strength gaining phase, my only problem is squats usually ruin my legs for any other kind of work out for about five days after I do them. I've been doing step-mill/stair-master for the past few months, and I figure that will be out of the question now with the leg work out I'll be implementing. Does anyone have a recommendation of a cardio exercise they do while working out their legs?

[tooncesthecat]

I just hammer through stair stepper, bike, or treadmill work. I hate it, but I do it!

[wil]

Yeah... just do your normal stuff. I actually find that the stationary bike helps my legs recover from an intense leg workout.

[IMFREAKZILLA]

watch out for atrophy.

[A1food4U]

AN Elyptical with the arm struts may be a good option, your arms can help keep the legs moving

[lizzyb]

have you considered any plyometric moves ie) squat leaps, lunge leaps, burpees, mountain climbers, rear lunge kicks etc....great aerobic workout along with some anaerobic benefits as well.....great leg shapers. Or how about side shuffles, running bleachers, jumping rope, hill running (run up, walk down, jog up backwards, run down frontwards, goup and down in a shuffle, going up in a lunge and down frontwards) Really the options are limitless......anything that keeps your legs moving the days after a hard leg workout keeps them from getting too stiff and as wil said already helps recover from leg day.......for my own personal recovery I do a short 25min walk after my leg day workout (means after my cardio as well) just out and about in the neighbourhood.....real casual, go for a bike ride etc.....but that is for nothing else but aid in recovery....otherwise for good cardio that aids in your development of legs....plyo's are the bomb!

[mooshue]

it sounds like you don't work legs at all after reading your post a few times because you asked what everyone does for cardio when they work their legs. You should work your legs every week and cardio should be a natural part of your workouts along with weights.

Now what do i do after a leg workout? I do the bike for about 30 minutes keeping my heart rate around 123 (im 33) for fat burning. I rarely do the same cardio twice in the same workout week, switch it up and suck it up!!!!

[mukey]

It isn't that I have never worked out my legs before, it's just that when I used to cardio was very much an after thought at the time. I got up to doing 250% of my body weight in squats at one point so I definitely think I know what I'm doing when I'm strength training in that regard. When I was at that point though my legs would always be hella sore and tired for up to five to six days afterwards, and I was already very low in the body fat percentage area so I didn't really think it necessary to do any cardio to go with it. I got to say thanks for all the suggestions though, I'll give some of them a try and see which ones I can manage to do.

[mukey]

Hey lizzyb, do you think you could link to a good post that explains those different plyo exercises that you mentioned? I'm afraid I don't know what some of those exercises are and would like to try all the suggestions everyone gave.

[JustAbout]

Personally I hate plodding away on a treadmill or panting my rear off on a stationary bike. I just recently started doing something different. I read an article on another website (t-nation) where you do conditioning work by carrying heavy weight in place of the traditional cardio work. For example do the farmers walk, suitcase carry, sumo carry, overhead carry, offset farmers walk, bear hug carry, etc for 100 steps each. Rest and then repeat twice.

When I tried this last week I felt like I had burned as much energy as if I had ridden the stationary bike for 30 min, but it didn't hit my legs as hard as the bike would have. So you may want to give it a try. Plus it really hits the core muscles and grip/forearm like no other. Two things I believe everybody needs to focus more on.

JustAbout