21 : Lift AND Run - 4 Ways to Structure Your Weekly Workouts

Will running will kill your gains or wreck your hormones? 

Most of us aren't doing too much. Instead, we're probably doing too little, yet overthinking everything.

In today's episode, I'm breaking down the two biggest myths that keep women from running AND lifting, and sharing a simple 3-step checklist to help you figure out where to start.

Plus, I've built out 4 different program structures that show you how to fit both lifting and running into your week.

MY APP WORKOUTS - So you have a solid structure for your strength days that you can weave cardio into.

BLOG POST for this episode - to easily reference these 4 program options as you craft out your week.

Transcript

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You are not fit enough to worry about that. That was a quote I heard at a conference for health and fitness coaches. So hundreds of people who were actually quite fit. And the speaker was talking directly to us, saying that we were not fit enough to worry about cardio killing our gains. We were not fit enough to worry about over-training in general. And by speaking directly to us, telling us that we were not fit enough to worry about that, she also hammered home on the message that our clients are also not fit enough to worry about doing too much of either category. You should not worry about lifting too much or running too much and how those two overlap. And for context, this speaker has her PhD in exercise metabolism and female physiology. She knows her stuff. She is way smarter than me. And her presentation was one of my absolute favorites because in a world that experiences pendulum swings to each end of the spectrum every few years, she is out here encouraging us to prioritize both lifting and cardio. And in today's episode, I'm going to primarily focus on running when I speak about cardio. And I have built out a structure for four different programs that incorporate both lifting and running into your week of workouts. And we're going to go through those today. So how you structure a week of lifting and running is unique to you. It's unique to your fitness level and how much your body can handle within a week in terms of lifting and running. And when I was creating this outline, I had too much to say. So I'm going to have a follow-up episode within the next few weeks to walk you through what a potential half marathon training plan could look like by following these four program options and the structure that comes with that that I will be giving you today. But in today's episode, like I said, we are focused on the framework for what a week of running and lifting could look like. So let's dive in. I'm your host, Carly Kaikendal, and this is the Daily Tenny, the podcast about building sickening consistency through everyday habits. Being occasionally great does not get you very far, but being consistently good is what moves the needle forward. Every time you follow through for a workout, a meal, in motherhood, in your finances, in your business or in your life, you're putting another penny in the jar of the person you want to become. One penny that doesn't feel like much, but those daily deposits compound over time. Whether you're rebuilding habits, rebuilding confidence, or just simply trying not to quit that you're in the right place. Let's add another penny in the jar. We need a solid starting point. So I'm going to give you a three-step checklist for you to go through in order to know which program will be best for you. So step one is to decide how many days per week you can actually devote to exercise. And I'm not saying how many days do you intend on exercising, but how many days can you actually stick to a program week after week as a non-negotiable number of days, meaning even on busy weeks, I can still commit to X number of days. So decide how many days that looks like for you. Step two is to be a realist on what your current fitness level and the capacity that your body currently has. Because yes, we do not need to be uber worried or focused on potentially overtraining, but also you need to be realistic. If you're currently exercising zero days, your body has not built up the capacity to take on a lift-run split that is five to six days a week. So yeah, decide on them how many days and then also be a realist. Because once you actually start exercising, like I said, you're probably not going to be overtraining. But at the same time, we don't want you constantly sore. Because if you are constantly sore, your body's never going to actually adapt to get better over time. You're just going to constantly kind of be in like a recovery mode. But once again, your body builds up capacity over time. And then step three is to define your goal. So do you want to run a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, a full marathon? Or do you just want to start running just for the sheer enjoyment of running? Because that is full transparency where I am. I'm just running for the enjoyment of running. And yes, I have done a half marathon. And it was, once again, because I love the challenge that running brings, and it is fun to me. So anyway, decide your goal. Like, do you want to start running because you know cardio is just beneficial to your overall health? Because all of these goals can vary in their approach to what your week of training looks like. And later in this episode, like I said, we're going to talk specifically about how you can structure your week based on the amount of days that you want to run and the amount of days that you want to lift. But I also want to debunk two myths that you've probably heard. The first one is that cardio kills your gains. And the second one is that cardio is going to wreck your hormones. First, cardio killing gains. Simply not true. You can lift significantly less than you are volume-wise and still have a good amount of muscle. And by lifting significantly less, you give more room to work in more running if that's something that you desire. But the problem that I see is that people are way too focused on doing a ton of volume within their lifts, meaning a ton of reps, a ton of sets. They think more exercises equals more results. And that is wasting their time and it's also keeping them stuck. So here's what I want you to do instead. When it comes to your lifting sessions, I want you to make the most of those lifting sessions. Do not just go through the motions. I want you lifting hard and I want you lifting heavier than you probably are relative to you and your fitness level, which that's going to be a sliding scale for everyone, okay? And then also focus on the quality and effort of every single set. Don't, like I said, just don't just go through the motions. And then I also want you to focus on doing less overall volume, less exercises, and most likely fewer reps. Once again, this is just based on the amount of women that come to me from previous online fitness apps and previous programs, and they tell me that my program is a breath of fresh air because we have significantly less exercises. They finally feel like they can lift heavier weight and they actually see themselves building muscle. Whereas their other programs, like if they looked at the workout, they found themselves more worried about trying to fit in all of the exercises in the workout that day versus being focused on the actual effort they were bringing to those exercises. And if that's you, you are missing the plot. I promise you can do less volume at heavier weight, therefore less time spent overall lifting, but more effort focused when you are lifting, and that's gonna free up more time to incorporate more running if that's something that you desire. So no, cardio is not gonna kill your gains. That's simply not true. Myth number two is that cardio is going to wreck my hormones. Also, not true. And as women, we are just we are so subjected to the fear-mongering about cardio wrecking our hormones, but it's not just the cardio. It's like it could be a myriad. Like if you actually have something that's wrecking your hormones, it's probably a myriad of things all working together and all working against you that actually can impact your hormones negatively, but it's probably not just the cardio. So one of my favorite accounts to follow on Instagram is Doc Liss. And you know, you go through cycles of like following and unfollowing people, but she is an account that is just a wealth of knowledge. And I'm gonna read directly from one of her posts because it just really hit home for me. And I agree with everything in here. And she said it better than I ever could. So here's what she said The cardio is killing your hormones narrative is wildly oversimplified. Here's the actual science cortisol rises during exercise. That is supposed to happen. It helps your body mobilize energy, adapt to stress, and recover. A temporary spike in cortisol from a hard workout is not the same as chronically elevated cortisol from underfueling and under-recovering for months. So the problem was never running, but the problem was chronically under-fueled HIIT workouts six days a week with no recovery, or every session being max effort, not eating enough to support your training, no balance between hard and easy days, and not building muscle or supporting your cardio in the gym. Training for a race with a structured plan and adequate nutrition, that is not what's destroying your hormones. That is called being an athlete. And women can be athletes. The majority of women need to address sleep, food intake, and proper training before worrying about things like cycle syncing their workouts. Poor energy availability is a bigger concern than what phase you do in HIT, meaning what phase of your cycle that you incorporate HIT workouts in. And she continues, I'm still quoting her. Women are often undertrained, not over-trained. They are underloaded, they are underfed. And now we're trying to add fear of exercise on top of it. You can run long distances and have healthy hormones. You can train hard and recover properly. You can train through your menstrual cycle and still be listening to your body. The answer isn't to stop training hard, it's to train smart. So that's the end of her long post. And like I said, she said it better than I ever could. Because I can almost guarantee that everyone listening to this podcast is probably not going to have to worry about overtraining. Instead, we are probably going to run into the hurdle of simply not being able to fit the training into our week that we want. Because a lot of us are moms of young kids. We are women potentially 25 to 40, rising in our careers. Maybe if you don't have children, maybe that's you, rising in your career. So we have life just constantly pulling us in competing directions. So instead of being fearful of over-training, trust me, that's probably not going to happen. So you need to be more focused on consistently fitting the training into your week versus being worried about over-training. And to fit the training into our week, like I said, we have to be realistic with what our week can look like based on other priorities that we have in life. So after that's those three steps of deciding how many days that you can actually devote to exercise and then determining your current capacity that your body can devote to energy when it comes to lift run split each week, and then defining your goal, we now have a clear picture of our starting point. So let's dive into those four different program training options for a weekly workout structure. So let's say that right now you run around one to two times per week, but you're not following a structured training program. And by the way, you do not have to follow a structured program for running if you simply want to just run for fun and full transparency. Like I said, this has been me for almost an entire year now. I have not followed a single running program. I've just simply showed up week after week and challenged myself. And I think because I do follow a structured strength program, I've just let running be something that I didn't necessarily have a goal attached to other that, other than just showing up every week and getting better. But let's just say that right now you run around one to two times per week and you want to maintain a structured strength training program, but you want to work running into that. So I have four program options for you, and each one of those is centered around preserving your existing strength workouts and then building the running structure around those strength workouts. Because I have two different strength programs within my app subscription, I'm going to use those as the plug and play examples for the strength days. But if you are not one of my current app members, you can just substitute these strength day examples for the program that you are currently following. So for context, I have two program options within my app. One is called Split and one is called Foundations. Split is a four-day body part split strength program. So that looks like Monday, glutes and hamstrings, Tuesday, upper body push and core. Wednesday is an optional full body conditioning day. Thursday is hybrid leg day, and Friday is upper body pull and core. So that is the body part split program. And then Foundations is a full body strength program with three workouts scheduled on Monday, Wednesday, Friday each week. And then I just recommend if members, if they have an additional day to give towards exercise that week, they can just do whatever form of cardio they love on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday or Sunday. But the strength days are Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So let's dive into those four program options. Option number one is three days of full body strength and three days of running for a total of six days of training each week. In this program option, the three days of full body strength workouts would be the foundations program within my app, which means you will lift Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And then we're going to run on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The Tuesday run is going to be more of a speed day. So that means like either tempos or intervals. Some people call them repeats. And then Thursday is going to be a zone two run. And then Saturday or Sunday, I know I mentioned Saturday above. This can be Saturday or Sunday, is going to be the long run. Like I said, Tuesday for the speed day, we're going to take that as a speed day because your legs are fresh. You only have Monday's full body strength day under your belt so far. And so when I say speed, I mean tempo or interval or repeats. Tempo runs means that you're just running at a comfortably hard pace. So you can speak, but you can't carry on a conversation very easily. And your heart rate for a tempo run is going to be in zone four. And then when I say speed, once again, this can mean intervals as well. So that's going to be shorter bursts of very fast pace, followed by pulling back significantly, or some people even walk in between intervals. You also hear those called repeats. So for those, you would work up into zone five when we're speaking of heart rate zones. And then the Thursday is a zone two or a lower intensity run. It's going to help you build up that aerobic capacity, but it's not going to tax you so much. So then you can still give energy towards that final lift that you have on Friday. And then the longer run is on the weekend because we generally have a little bit more margin in our mornings when you compare them to Monday through Friday. Generally, you're going to have Saturday or Sunday have a little bit more margin in it. And your legs might be okay to go on that long run on Saturday, which would be great because then you have the rest of Saturday and then all of Sunday to recover before you lift again on Monday. But if you need to, you can push that long run to Sunday. And that's if your legs are too taxed from the week of lifting or running, you might choose that as an option. The only downside to running on Sunday is that the long run is going to leave you, you know, a little bit more taxed, and you might not have quite as much much energy to then devote to the lift on Monday, depending on how long that run was. But once again, it's not going to be just this significant, like I am out of commission, I can't lift on Monday. You're probably just going to be noticing just a little bit less energy to devote towards that lift. But Saturday and Sunday are those optional kind of flex days when it comes to that third and final run of the week. So that is program option one, which was three days of lifting, three days of running following the foundations program in my app workouts. So that would be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, full body lift, Tuesday, Thursday, and then Saturday or Sunday would be your running days. Program option two is three days of strength and two days of running for a total of five days each week. This is going to be the exact same program as we just spoke about. But instead of Thursday being a zone two run, you're going to take it as a full rest day. So you will keep the same Monday, Wednesday, Friday full body lifts following the foundation's program. And then your Tuesday run is going to be that same speed day. So temp tempo, intervals, repeats. And then Thursday, like I said, it's going to be a full rest day. And then Saturday or Sunday would be your long run. This is probably the most recovery-friendly layout of the week. And it's a good option for those kind of just at a starting point that's anyone coming from like a casual running background who wants to potentially add a little bit more running into their week. The trade-off is that, like compared to the first program, there is no dedicated easier or zone two run midweek. But the upside is that you're still covering two big foundations of becoming a better runner, which is Tuesday being your speed focus, and then the weekend being the longer run. So you're more focused on volume there. And you're allowing your body more time to recover by taking Thursday off. So that was program option two, which was three days of strength and two days of running. Program option three is four strength days and two days of running. So when I was training for my high rocks races, this is what I most closely followed. So you're going to be following the split program within my app when it comes to your strength days. So your strength workouts each week would be Monday, glutes and hamstrings, Tuesday, upper body push and core, Thursday, hybrid leg day, Friday, upper body pull and core. And then we're going to work the runs around those strength days. So for Wednesday, this would be your speed day. So once again, as we talked about earlier, that is your tempo run, your intervals, your repeats, and then Saturday or Sunday would be your longer run. So what I did is whenever I was training for high rocks, Wednesday was, like I said, the speed day. So I was doing interval running between some high rocks station work, but my day was mostly focused around the running. Like the running took up the large bulk of the workout. And then I just kind of mixed in some high rocks stations within those uh interval runs. And then I would either do my long run on Saturday or Sunday. Most of the time, mine was just due to schedules. So like during the fall, my husband coaches football. And so I would be out late on Friday nights. So I generally would do my long runs on Sunday because I would not want to, you know, I wouldn't have the energy available to give towards a run. I wouldn't have enough sleep under my belt to be able to run on most Saturdays. Some weeks I still would, but most of the time I would shift my run into Sundays. But if it's not during football season, sometimes if I just feel like it, I will push that run into Saturday versus doing it on Sunday. So really my weekends are just kind of flex days. And then right now, since I am not training for a high Rux race currently, I have shifted a little bit away from like the interval and high Rux specific work, more into just Wednesdays being my zone two days right now. So for the past few weeks, since I haven't had a Hyrux race on the horizon, I've just done some stairmaster workouts and then just like an incline walk on the treadmill after that. So right now I'm not taking Wednesdays as anything other than just, like I said, a zone two cardio day. But for this program option, like I said, four strength days Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then Wednesday is your speed day, and then either Saturday or Sunday. Sunday is your longer run day. That was program option three for a total of six days of training during the week. And then your last program option, program option four, is three strength days with two runs. So this is still going to follow the split program for the most part within the app, but you're going to merge upper body push and pull into the same workout each week. And if you choose this option, you're only going to complete the progressive overload blocks from within each of these upper body workouts within the app. So within the app program, we have the first three exercises after the warmup in every workout as progressive overload blocks, which means we repeat the same exercises in the same order for a month at a time. And within those, we build progressions in, such as like adding additional sets, additional reps, increasing effort through adding more weight, etc. So this means you would skip the back half of each of these workouts, and you would only do those progressive overload exercises, and you would put them within the same workout each week. So here's what your strength days would look like. Monday remains untouched. That's still going to be your glutes and hamstrings day. Tuesday is upper body push and pull merged together. Once again, only doing those progressive overload exercises. Wednesday is still going to be that speed day. So you're doing tempos or intervals or repeats. And then Thursday remains untouched. It's still that hybrid leg day. Friday actually becomes a rest day. And then you move that long run to either Saturday or Sunday. Once again, just really a preference when it comes to which day that you add that run to. But all in all, your body can handle significantly more than you give it credit for, especially when you build up the volume over time. So the concern about overtraining or lifting and running, interfering with each other is just something that I can almost promise that you are probably overthinking. If anything, the large majority of women are under training. So just show up week after week and watch your body build that capacity over time. And remember, you are probably not fit enough to worry about that. So less overthinking, more daily deposits. That's all for today. If you are interested in becoming a runner and one of these program suggestions sounds like something that you would enjoy, I'm going to link to my app subscription down in the show notes. And then, like I said, I'll also have a blog post that details out each of these programs discussed in today's episode so that you can easily reference back as you build out your own week. And until next time, keep adding another penny in the jar.