Is sticking with one type of cardio really that bad?

parkscs

DjinnMarie wrote: »

All I do is run and strike. Getting your heart rate up is what's important, not how you get it up (that sounds dirty).

MeanderingMammal

yopeeps025 wrote: »

There is so much you can change on one cardio machine.

So go outside and do something interesting.

But you can increase your time. That said much more than 5-10 minutes on a machine is quite long enough.

But back to the main point, it depends on what your objectives are. If you want to get good at something, practice it. If you just want to hamster wheel the calories away, it doesn't really matter what you do, change the machine every ten minutes if that's what's going to keep you motivated.

BlueBombers

I think it would get a bit boring after a while, but then again I'm not a big cardio fan.

JoRocka

Azdak wrote: »

JoRocka wrote: »

Azdak wrote: »

jacksonpt wrote: »

yes and no.

The more you do a particular exercise, the better your body will get at it and the fewer calories you'll burn. So doing exercise you're not good at and that your body isn't used to will help burn more calories (everything else being equal)... but I'm not sure that difference is great enough to be a deciding factor in what you .

This is absolutely not true. This is marketing gibberish that has been created to sell exercise videos, but has no basis in fact. In most cases, just the opposite is true.

no it's not- it's completely rational and reasonable. I don't agree with "muscle confusion" but the fact your body adapts is completely true.

If you only do curls with 10 pounds- at some point it's no longer work because your body adapts. That's what happens when you push your body- it adapts- and then you have to push harder.

You at some point have to do the following
> Change what you are doing-
> Do it for longer-
> Or up the intensity.

You cannot do the same thing exactly the same way for the same time with the same intensity and expect your body to continue to give you results- at some point you'll adapt- and you'll see no change.


I don't agree that you need to adjust your cardio- I only do one or two types- because those are the ones I like- and I get bored ONLY doing one thing but I sure as *kitten* don't run around doing 20 min on the elliptial- 20 on the stairmaster- and 20 on the bike- THAT'S stupid to me. I do my 20 min and I"m done.

Saying "your body adapts" and "your body gets used to doing a certain exercise and burns fewer calories" are two completely different things. One is a fundamental training principle and the other is gibberish.

By conflating the two, I hate to say but the rest of your post, while not incorrect, is irrelevant to the topic.

way to read all the way through- we figured that out already- but thanks for beating the horse again.

sciullo779

jrline wrote: »

It worked for me although mine was walking which turned into jogging which became running. All of it out on the road I loath treadmills. Good Luck

Thats my goal, to move up to running, its just that bad knees and bad backs run in my family and I want to make sure I dont stress them too much too fast.

runningforicecream wrote: »

I think most people cross train to prevent overtraining. If you're just looking to burn some calories, I don't see how it's bad to stick with just one type of cardio. That said, it is still a great idea to introduce some variety into your routine.

As an aside, I hate using the elliptical, too. Funny how people say that it has a lower risk of injury because less impact, etc but most of my injuries happened when I used them even though I am very careful with my form.

Second aside, maybe you don't have to wait to start running? I have seen a lot of people on MFP around your weight that have no problem running. Just be careful, is all. And, my friend, once you've discovered this amazing thing called running, you'll be hooked!

Thats what im hoping for, I just dont want to get hurt by pushing too fast.

MKEgal wrote: »

sciullo779 wrote:

My current (main) goal at the gym is weight loss, and with that I've been doing ~20 minutes of circuit training on machines, but the other 45 mins I'm at the gym I do cardio.

Sounds reasonable, as long as you're working all the muscles 2x a week with the weightlifting.

I'm currently 218lbs, down from 240 last month

Wow. 22 lb in a month?!?!? That's way too fast, at least at that weight.

Is there really a bad side of sticking to one cardio machine?

Other than boredom, no.
Perhaps you'll be developing some muscles more than others (like if you just used the bike, you're not working your core or arms at all).

The first week I dropped 10 pounds in water weight, but the other 12 took 4 weeks.
My gym has a "cardio" cinema. its basically a dark room with a projector and they play movies on it. Makes 45 minutes breeze by.

As for varying the workout, I do, when I started I could only do a 7.5% incline and now I can manage 14% for almost 20 minutes of my 45 minute routine with resting at 7.5%. I try to do incline intervals because I can push harder, longer if I do as opposed to just pushing 30 minutes straight at say 10%.