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I have been working out at the gym five days a week for some time now (Upper, Lower, Push, Pull, Legs) and I have started to commute (40km round trip) twice a week to work.

I do some high intensity segments during my commute, but I normally keep it at a steady pace.
I was wondering if I could treat my commutes as active recovery, and keep my 5 day a week resistance routine. Should I drop it down to 4 days a week, and push a little harder during my commute? I am 32 now, and overall strength is not as important as it once was, and I would like to get fitter (while keeping my base strength at a somewhat decent level).

Any advice would be amazing. Cheers.

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One question to settle beforehand is what do you want to get fitter at? Aerobic fitness or strength? Neither is wrong in the grand scheme of things if you want to live a long and healthy life. If you want to specialize in endurance sports, then there's a clear better answer, and the reverse is true if you want to specialize in strength.

If you do prefer to do strength training 5 days a week, and if you want to either put on muscle or gain strength or both, then 40 km twice a week may be on the long side for endurance work. Also, that's not even giving yourself a day off. Even serious non-professional athletes probably want to take one day off. On the weeks I have trained all 7 days, probably one or two days are extremely easy days, like 30 minute recovery days, no more than 2-300 calories estimated expenditure.

You might consider if 5 days a week of strength training is necessary to keep your desired target. If it's what you need, then that's perfectly fine, but I would probably sacrifice one of the commuting days, and definitely don't do intervals on it. If you do that, I have a feeling your overall performance will increase.

I wrote this answer assuming you want to prioritize strength training. From an overall fitness and longevity standpoint, the current guidelines in the US published by the government, and based on what I assume is the best available exercise science, say 150-300 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic exercise (or less time at intense aerobic exercise) plus 2 strength training sessions a week is preferred. Now, serious strength athletes may be working their hearts harder during their weight sessions than the government expects. So, these aren't set in stone, and you can probably swap some of the cardio for some strength training and you are likely to still see longevity benefits.

Keep in mind that I am not an MD or a exercise scientist. The last paragraph is based on intuition. Other paragraphs are based on personal experience as a fairly serious endurance athlete, but I used to dabble in heavier strength training as a kid.

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    thanks for the detailed answer. I do want to prioritise my strength training, but I also enjoy the commute to work. I think a good balance will be what I am after. I might move to a 4 day a week strength routine, and 2 days a week on the bike taking it somewhat easy.
    – Aaron Kilpatrick
    Commented Mar 13 at 1:51
  • Adapt you routine to how you are feeling and performing. People talk about this stuff like their body is a machine that responds consistently day in and day out with the same loading. That is far from the real world.
    – mattnz
    Commented Mar 13 at 3:05
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    @AaronKilpatrick if you're not dead set on 5 days strength work, but still want to do something, there are active recovery options; these could include balance and flexibility work which will back up the heavier and cardio stuff nicely (and are beneficial if you're spending a lot of time on the bike).
    – Chris H
    Commented Mar 13 at 20:35
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This may not work for time or other aspects of your routine, but doing (particularly upper body) strength work on the same day as a long commute would allow you to have some full recovery days. I used to do this with a 30km round trip commute at about your age. The gym was really near work, so I'd ride in at a good warm-up pace (or harder if the traffic let me), then go straight to the gym, and in to work for a shower.

After I started commuting that distance by bike every day, I dropped to 3 or 4 gym sessions a week. Riding home a few hours after a session on the legs was taken really rather gently.

Now I have a shorter commute and different routine, as well as being older, but I find that riding (only 7km) home directly after a leg session reduces stiffness.

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I'm well over 50 and I do 5 day commute and weight train those same days. I don't do legs because I'm already working them on the bike (and lazy). This works fine for me. Some weeks I feel fatigued for a day and I just skip the gym on that day. But I'm actively wanting to improve strength and muscle.

If you just want to maintain then 3 days in the gym is plenty. You can commute on the same days, you're working your muscles (even legs) differently than the weights. Even your upper body benefits from some active recovery.

Rest is very important, you should get two full days preferably consecutively to recharge everything.

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