152: How to Actually Use Cardio: A Framework for Women Who Strength Train

You’ve been told cardio kills your gains. Or that you need more of it. Or that HIIT is the answer. Or that HIIT is the problem. You open Instagram and find a different opinion every time, and at some point you just start guessing because the information around cardio is genuinely that contradictory. Here is the thing: cardio itself is not complicated. The noise around it is. Just like with strength training, there are nuances with cardio that you need to know if you want to see + get results. Most of the time, the lack of results are not because you’re doing too little, but usually because you’re doing the wrong type, at the wrong time, for the wrong goal. This episode fixes that. What's Discussed: The three types of cardio — Zone 2, steady state, and HIIT — what each one actually does to your body, and why knowing the difference changes everything about how you program your week Why Zone 2 is the most underrated form of cardio for women who strength train — and why a 30-minute brisk walk during a work call counts as a legitimate training session The Peloton problem: why the popular high-energy classes are almost always steady state or HIIT efforts, why that is not building the aerobic base you think it is, and what to choose instead How much cardio you actually need based on your goal — strength-first, balanced fitness, or training for a specific event — with realistic session numbers for each The interference effect: why doing cardio and lifting too close together blunts the results of both, why order matters, and the one exception that is not actually cardio Six signs your cardio volume is exceeding your recovery capacity — including the ones that show up in your joints and your sleep before they show up anywhere else Why the fix is always subtraction and not more effort — and why none of the warning signs mean you are failing A practical weekly structure for women lifting four days a week and women lifting three — with specific session types, timing, and how HIIT fits in as a tool rather than a default The specific cardio plan for the busy woman who lifts two to three days and has a Peloton she uses once a week. Let’s simplify this! If your joints have been feeling beat up, grab the free Mobility Guide — five minutes a day for seven days. https://www.broads.app/mobility-guide For the full picture on how cardio, protein, and strength training work together to actually shift your body composition, the free Body Recomp Webinar covers all of it. https://www.broads.app/body-recomp-webinar Ready to have your cardio and training programmed so everything works together instead of against each other? Apply for BroadsCOACH at broads.app/broadscoach. Learn more about Broads: https://www.broads.app/ https://www.instagram.com/broads_coach/ https://www.instagram.com/broads.podcast/ Check out more from Tara LaFerrara: https://www.taralaferrara.com/ https://www.instagram.com/taralaferrara/ YouTube: @TaraLaferrara TikTok: @taralaferrara