Jogging between weight-lifting sets

[bhalu]

I know muscles need oxygen to reenergize.
I know no matter what group of muscles you use, heart sends oxygen enriched blood to all the muscles in the body.
So is it ok if I jog when muscles of my arms are depleted,
so I can do another set after little, or no rest.

[dquenzer]

I wish I had the Mayo web site address that discussed the benefits of weight lifting.  They did a study of just how much lifting a person should do to gain strength.  

They found that there is no measurable difference of doing one hard set of 12 vs 3 hard sets of 12.  In otherwords once a muscle gets to a certain fatigue level it does not increase in strength with continuous work.

I know this flys in the face of all the ideas out there, but this is a scientific study.

So should you jog in between sets.  Only if you want to increase your aerobic conditioning.  Once your muscle gets fatigued making it more fatigued won't make much difference.

Also there is a truism in coaching.  "It is better to under train than over train."  This fits well with the Mayo study.

The problem with many is that they over train and suffer injury or get over fatigued without enough recovery.  We rest for a reason.

I would say jogging is only going to help you aerobically.  It will not get more oxygen to your muscles.  If that would be the case then you should become a marathon runner to become the strongest man in the world.  I don't think it works quite that way.

[abir]

Good post. The old days' arnold routines of training x2 a day, every day are long gone. Most routines out there will leave you overtrained unless you are on a heavy cycle of steroids. I'm a relatively lean 200lb bodybuilder. I lift once a week, all you really need.

But, I believe what has been (re)discovered here is the age old bodybuilding technique of super setting.

Excerpted from
http://diet.ivillage.com/workouts/wweight/0,,f17,00.html

What you describe is called super setting or giant setting, and it's a standard weight-lifting practice. Although some machine manufacturers and gym owners discourage it (extra sets mean longer waits for equipment), most seasoned weight-lifting veterans do it regularly. I think that super setting can help you pack more work into your workout.

Doing multiple sets is a good time-saver and can be an effective muscle-building technique. When you super-set opposing muscle groups -- groups on opposite sides of the same joint -- you cut down on rest time because you're resting one muscle while working another. So, for instance, you could do a set of flies for your chest immediately followed by a set of pull-downs for your upper back. You can also super-set the same muscle group to work that muscle to full exhaustion. A set of military presses followed by a set of lateral raises and then a set of front raises is a killer routine for your shoulders.

[willtme]

All good posts.  And physiologically, if you are running between sets you are depleting your glycogen stores much more quickly than you would just by weightlifting.  This causes your body to begin feeding off of protein and your own muscle to a greater extent for energy.  Save the cardio for after your weightlifting sessions, or better yet--at a completely different time in the day to maximize your results.