long cardio vs. short cardio

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verapal
verapal Posts: 38 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi, what would you rather do...one long cardio session or break it down into several short ones?Does it make a difference?

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  • leonelmenchaca
    leonelmenchaca Posts: 1
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    It just depends on what your fitness goals are. Personally, I run intervals for about 15 minutes 4x a week. I start at a run speed of 7.0 on a treadmill and do that for a minute then drop down to 4.0 for a minute then increase my run speed on the next minute to 8.0. I keep increasing until I've reached 11.0 and maintain it that way for the remainder of the time. I do this after I weight train.
  • andyfalcon3
    andyfalcon3 Posts: 4 Member
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    Short cardio aka HIT cardio is superior imo. You burn calories faster and in a world where time is of the essence aint nobody got time for that long cardio lol. Unless you simply enjoy it or are training for race.
  • SingingSingleTracker
    SingingSingleTracker Posts: 1,866 Member
    edited March 2015
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    verapal wrote: »
    Hi, what would you rather do...one long cardio session or break it down into several short ones? Does it make a difference?

    All depends on what you are using the cardio to accomplish. Periodized training for endurance? HIIT Training? To get the heart pounding every now and then? Burn calories?

    I did an easy Zone 2 bike ride yesterday (kept the HR at about 140 for 2 hours) and burned 1558 calories. An interval session will be much shorter (30 - 90 minutes), but not burn as many calories. Thursday I did a hammer session of climbing pegging the heart at 166 - 179 on all of the climbs for 90 minutes, and the calorie burn was 1581 calories for 90 minutes. 30 minutes less workout time, but with the HIIT the calorie burn was about the same as the long, slow steady endurance ride.

    In terms of burning calories, your body doesn't care if you break up your session or do it all at once. If you are periodizing your training to build for an event(s) that requires endurance, then your body does care that you don't break it up into smaller sessions. In that scenario, you need to sustain the workout for the duration planned.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    Broadly it depends on the objectives.

    If you're just looking at epending calories, then it doesn't really matter. If you're looking at general health and performance improvements then you need a combination of long duration moderate intensity, medium duration higher intensity and short duration high intensity sessions. That said, to get the best from the highest intensity sessions involves a solid warm up and cool down so whilst it's a short period of high intensity, it's still a reasonable length of session. They each have different physiological effects.

    Personally I prefer my medium length sessions of 75-90 minutes as I get a good session, clear my head and get space to myself. Shorter sessions aren't as satisfying, and longer sessions of up to 3 hours leave me fatigued and hungry enough that my day is written off refuelling.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    One longer session. I prefer walking 45-50 minutes over 10-15 minutes of hiit.
  • Drewlssix
    Drewlssix Posts: 272 Member
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    leonelmenchaca wrote: »
    It just depends on what your fitness goals are. Personally, I run intervals for about 15 minutes 4x a week. I start at a run speed of 7.0 on a treadmill and do that for a minute then drop down to 4.0 for a minute then increase my run speed on the next minute to 8.0. I keep increasing until I've reached 11.0 and maintain it that way for the remainder of the time. I do this after I weight train.

    Yeah... I do something similar but it's more like 4.5 and 2.5mph. Never been a runner, can't wait to get back to the weights though!
  • arditarose
    arditarose Posts: 15,573 Member
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    I'd rather do no cardio.

    If I were to, I guess I'd try to do intervals for a short period of time? Oh I don't know. I go steady state sometimes because I'm lazy. 30 minutes tops unless I want chocolate cake.
  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,757 Member
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    Whatever you prefer, can stick to. and your body can tolerate. I like them both but mix them up depending on the length of time I have or my goals.
    In summer I love going for long, fast bike rides..or nice long jogs. In the winter, 30 mins of the elliptical (with tones of sprints thrown in) a few times a week is good enough to keep my mind clear and keep my fitness level high

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