Too much cardio?

ProjectSYD

Okay, so I've been doing some reading about doing too much cardio. A lot of people have been saying doing more then one hour of cardio a day can cause your body to resort to using muscle as fuel. Now from what I read the people asking were doing 2 hours straight cardio.

My question to you guys is this then, I do 45 minutes of cardio in the morning after I eat my oatmeal. At the end of the night, a few hours before I'm about to go to bed I do another 45 minutes of cardio, then 30-45 minutes of weight lifting.

I take rest days when I need them, and I never feel fatigued or overworked.m

Sorry I forgot to actually ask the question, will my routine have the same results as someone doing 3 hours straight? Should I do less cardio? I feel lazy if I do less.

roverdisc98

what is your question?

Unknown

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scottb81

There is no single definition of "too much". Too much is the amount you cannot recover from before the next training session. That depends on your genetics, sex, diet, sleep, current fitness level, recent training sessions, and probably other factors as well.

The idea that you start burning off muscle after some arbitrary period of time is not true.

rassha01

Depends on your goals! If you want to put on muscle eat at a surplus and cut back on the cardio, if you are looking to lose weight eat at a deficit and keep on.

KANGOOJUMPS

I try to do 2 to 3 hours a day 7 days a week, love it!

Jiggle_all_the_way

I'm half marathon/marathon training right now. I'm working up to running for two hours at a time right now. When I do a 2 hour run, I'm fueling every 35-45 minutes to make sure I don't start using muscle.

I'm pretty sure that you breaking your exercises up one in the morning and one at night isn't the same as someone running for two hours. Your eating in between your exercises and getting your blood glucose probably back to normal before your second workout. Your body will use blood glucose as fuel before it starts to burn fat and then finally muscle.

deksgrl

It appears you are 10 pounds to your goal. Make sure you are eating at a small calorie deficit so you can preserve as much LBM as possible. You might want to focus on a body fat% goal instead of a weight goal and work towards that.

Unknown

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vorgas

Short answer is: Yes, that will work.

Long answer:
One of the problems in this discussion is "what is cardio"?

Some people say that cardio is any exercise that elevates your heart rate. However, this can lead to lots of ambiguities. It is best to think of cardio as an exercise designed to improve your cardiovascular (heart) or cardiopulmonary (circulatory) systems. For these, you really need an elevated heart rate.

What most people are doing when they say "cardio" is some form of aerobic exercise. That is, their heart rate is elevated, but only to about 50 to 65 percent of their maximum. In this case, the body is able to mix fat with oxygen to create energy. The presence of oxygen is what makes it "aerobic". Obviously, as long as you have fat stores, your body can carry on at this pace for a very long time. In fact, your mind will probably give out before your body will.

When the heart rate climbs above 65%, then the aerobic process is no longer sufficient to provide fuel. It's a relatively slow process. At this point, the body turns to utilizing the glycogen (carbs) stored in the muscles to provide the remaining energy demands. This is anaerobic exercise (without oxygen). The heart is beating really hard to push all that wonderful O2 through the body, which is why it's a good cardiovascular exercise.

Eventually, you will run out of glycogen and your body will have to find another fuel source. This is when it begins breaking down your muscles to provide fuel (by turning amino acids into sugars within the liver). How long it takes to get to this point depends on how much glycogen you have stored up and how quickly you're burning through it.

That being said, some studies have shown that after about an hour of intense exercise, your body builds up cortisol, which is a catabolic hormone. That means it causes your muscles to break down to give up fuel.

So basically, yes, you can easily split your workouts up, as long as you get plenty of fuel in between.

Aerobic vs Anaerobic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_exercise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_exercise

Muscle breakdown for fuel
http://www.livestrong.com/article/554481-when-does-the-body-start-to-use-muscle-tissue-for-energy/

Cortisol
http://www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/losing-muscle-cortisol.html
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol

michail71

If you are not eating enough that can happen. Too much cardio can be like not eating enough and impact ones ability to strength train. Weight comes down to caloric deficit or surplus. Body composition is a factor of strength/resistance training.

If you want strength you should weight train before doing cardio. That signals the muscles to grow or maintain strength and saves energy for the resistance training. More Lower intensity cardio training will signal the muscles to adapt for endurance. Lifting will signal for strength gains.

It sort of comes down to goals. Do you want to be thin and wirely, lean and strong or fat and strong?

Per week I do four 60-90 minute strength training sessions and 3 30 minute high intensity cardio sessions on the other days. I actually eat an extra 1200 calories per week to adjust for the cardio so as to not lose lean mass.

Unknown

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