Hi!
I'm looking to make an adjustment in my cardio plan. I used to have a rolling gym workout schedule of 2 days on and 1 day off. this gave me 14 cardio sessions of 30 minutes over a period of 3 weeks time.
A few weeks ago, I made the switch from circuit training with weight training machines to beginner level barbell training. My schedule has changed so that I go the gym 9 times instead of 14 over the course of 3 weeks.
I'm still making good progress in improving my overall fitness level and my pant size is still coming down which is wonderful to experience. But my weight today is the same as it was 2.5 weeks ago even though I was making great progress before in bringing the number on the scale down before I made the schedule switch.
I suspect part of my current weight plateau has to do with beginner gains and water retention I'm experiencing as part of the muscle repair process with the higher intensity barbell training compared to with working with machines.
But I wonder if having 9 cardio sessions vs 14 over a 3 week period is also a contributing factor to my current weight plateau because I'm missing out on 150 minutes of cardio?
So here's my question: In order to catch up on the lost cardio time due to my new gym schedule, should I start working toward extending my cardio sessions from 30:00 minutes to 46:40 minutes in order to fully catch up on cardio workout time going forward? Or would I be better off finding a 4th gym day per week to get me back up to 12 sessions over the course of 3 weeks? (I've been increasing cardio intensity at a measured pace over time, so that's not a variable I want to tweak). Would it make a difference going in one direction or another somehow?
Thanks in advance for all your advice!
