Cardio

daviloreana

How often do you all do cardio? I do at least four days of lifting a week but I find when I do cardio more than 3 days a week I lose a lot of muscle, and I'm trying to maintain as much as possible. But if I decrease to 1 or 2 days, I feel like I'm slacking! How much is too much, and how much is too little? Opinions?

MeanderingMammal

Four sessions of running, three one hour and one longer run of up to three.
One or two sessions on the bike of an hour, in the summer one of those will get to two or three hours.

cwolfman13

How are you determining that you lose a lot of muscle if you do more than 3 days a week of cardio?

I lift 3x weekly and I get in around 80 miles or so per week on my bike and do some running here and there or I'll do some cross train on the elliptical or hike or whatever...my muscles are just fine.

Muscle loss with cardio is generally only an issue if you are substantially underfeeding your body for your activity or doing some major endurance training.

enterdanger

I like cardio 4-5 times a week for 45-60 minutes. I don't do any free weights though. I do use the stregnth machines at the gym and do their machine circuit 3 times a week.

goddessofawesome

Depends. Right now I am getting back into cardio so I will be doing it 2-3x a week along with my weight training and DDP yoga. In March I will start my training for a duathlon in May so my cardio will range from 3 days a week to 6 days a week.

earlnabby

I do six hours a week in addition to getting my 10,000 steps in. I do one hour of lap swimming, then go right into a water aerobics class for another hour. Both will strengthen in addition to the cardio.

daviloreana

cwolfman13 wrote: »

How are you determining that you lose a lot of muscle if you do more than 3 days a week of cardio?

I lift 3x weekly and I get in around 80 miles or so per week on my bike and do some running here and there or I'll do some cross train on the elliptical or hike or whatever...my muscles are just fine.

Muscle loss with cardio is generally only an issue if you are substantially underfeeding your body for your activity or doing some major endurance training.

"a lot of muscle" was a little dramatic, I just feel the long distance running I like to do is slimming me down but is taking away from the toned look I'm trying to achieve. I was just wondering whether decreasing cardio to 1 or 2 days instead of 3 or 4 was too much of a change, especially since most people responded that they are at at least 3 days of cardio.

cwolfman13

daviloreana wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

How are you determining that you lose a lot of muscle if you do more than 3 days a week of cardio?

I lift 3x weekly and I get in around 80 miles or so per week on my bike and do some running here and there or I'll do some cross train on the elliptical or hike or whatever...my muscles are just fine.

Muscle loss with cardio is generally only an issue if you are substantially underfeeding your body for your activity or doing some major endurance training.

"a lot of muscle" was a little dramatic, I just feel the long distance running I like to do is slimming me down but is taking away from the toned look I'm trying to achieve. I was just wondering whether decreasing cardio to 1 or 2 days instead of 3 or 4 was too much of a change, especially since most people responded that they are at at least 3 days of cardio.

How long are your runs...this really shouldn't be an issue at all for the average Joe/Jane just out there getting their fitness on. Even when I'm training for a century ride, I don't notice any muscle loss, and that's a good 12-15 weeks of pretty much cardio, cardio, cardio with only a little body weight type of stuff thrown in for good measure.

Really, what this comes down to is your fitness aspirations...there are loads of people who do very little in the way of cardio outside of some walking here and there because their fitness goals don't necessitate it. Others do a ton because they want to run marathons, etc...you should let your fitness goals help determine how much is enough or too much or whatever....

As a matter of general health and fitness, it is recommended that individuals get in at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week...if you're lifting for an hour 4x weekly, I think you're covered if that's all you feel like doing.

esjones12

It depends on your goals. Everything I do involves cardio, even my weight lifting. So that would be 5-6 times a week. I am training for and enjoy events where muscle endurance is key though.

There are plenty of athletes in various sports that are nicely toned and obviously do a lot of cardio (football, soccer, OCR, swimming, etc). Clearly they aren't body builders....but they look pretty fine, I mean athletic, imo

MeanderingMammal

daviloreana wrote: »

I just feel the long distance running I like to do is slimming me down but is taking away from the toned look I'm trying to achieve.

What sort of mileage are you doing?

It's extremely unlikely, as cwolfman says, that running is significantly depleting unless you're not fueling your training effectively.

Unless you're looking at elite level marathon performances there's no reason to be losing mass.

sijomial

Sounds implausible to me - muscle isn't fuel for cardio unless you are extremely malnourished. It's almost impossible to continue training if you get completely glycogen depleted, there's no mistaking the feeling!

When training for a long ride I was doing 4 weekly cardio training sessions (up to 12 hours a week) plus two strength training sessions and only saw and measured improved strength and muscle mass. My normal routine is 3 strength and 3 cardio sessions a week as that works best for me.

How much is right for you depends on your goals and if you enjoy it.

YogaNikki

I totally get what you mean - it's not losing muscle, it's more the 'flat' feeling I get after doing more cardio. I stick to the tread climber three days a week and run on day four. Yoga three times a week and I lift five. I have found that my diet leads to that 'flat' feeling more than cardio does. The days I veer off and go carb heavy, I feel flatter. The days I stick to my diet, I feel fuller in the muscles, and leaner. I hope that makes sense.

daviloreana

YogaNikki wrote: »

I totally get what you mean - it's not losing muscle, it's more the 'flat' feeling I get after doing more cardio. I stick to the tread climber three days a week and run on day four. Yoga three times a week and I lift five. I have found that my diet leads to that 'flat' feeling more than cardio does. The days I veer off and go carb heavy, I feel flatter. The days I stick to my diet, I feel fuller in the muscles, and leaner. I hope that makes sense.

Absolutely, thank you, that's what I'm trying to get at; not literally losing muscle huge amounts of muscle mass, I feel more "flat" as you put it than I do when I'm lifting.... cwolfman, that was very helpful, I was wondering how much people looking to gain muscle do cardio, and 150 minutes is do-able, maybe I'll switch it up to swimming or things like burpees that include both cardio and toning elements.. I'm obviously not good at explaining myself, sorry everyone!

sijomial

Feeling flat could well just be because you are training hard in a calorie deficit. Performance and recovery are both impaired. The bigger the deficit the harder it will be.

Low carbing could also contribute to feelings of fatigue.