How much cardio do you do at the gym?

LotusF1ower

I don't know where this has all suddenly come from. Suddenly doing cardio over half an hour is not an ideal way to burn fat??

News to me. Cardio burns fat because it burns the calories and continues to burn them for hours and hours AFTER the workout has finished.

I really cannot believe that this argument has appeared on these boards. Some fly-by-night trainers in some gyms have deemed it wise to tell some people that it is unwise to do more than 20-30 mins cardio in one session. Another even said it was unwise to run for more than QUARTER OF A MILE lest it damages the body!

What a crock of *kitten* - sorry but this is beginning to get my goat.

Look at marathon runners, look at ultra distant runners, study their training sessions and then look at their physiques and then tell me that it is not an ideal way to burn fat.

Weight training is excellent, so is cardio. Cardio does burn the fat - big time - even an hours worth with no weights involved too!

I have absolutely nothing against weight training in any form, I used to do a hell of a lot of it myself. Perhaps it depends on the body of the person concerned - if I do weights, I build up muscle rather quickly.

Not everybody goes to a gym or has access to weights, in fact, not everybody even wants to touch weights. Saying that cardio is not effective on its own is daft, it is as effective as you can get, it will burn the fat, burn the calories, gets your heartbeat going and will tone the muscles.

I am not going to argue what is better, weights or cardio because the vast majority of people on this site are doing some sort of exercise and are doing one or the other if not both. It is unfair and unwarranted to say either one beats the other, it belittles the effort that people are putting into their lives.

BOTH weights and cardio are excellent, but I would stand my corner and defend that there is absolutely nothing wrong with more than 30 minutes cardio in one session - because 30 minutes cardio is not enough in my opinion and anybody here that comes face to face with one of those trainers that tells you it is bad to run for more than 20 minutes or more than quarter of a mile - run for the hills and do not stop until you find somebody who talks some common sense because where they have come up with some of that rubbish is beyond me and is an insult to anybody with half a brain!

HOSED49

Thats why we have these forums, so that someone who is inexperienced or confused by something that a training professional has told them, can ask questions here and get another opinion. Everyone reacts differnetly to exercise, some can lose weight by doing hardly anything, others have to leave a puddle under their cardio equipment only to move onto another piece of equipment to leave another puddle.
If you have been doing cardio for over an hour for months and you are losing weight, keep doing it, its working for ya!
If you arent losing weight, try a little longer, push a little harder, until it works for ya.
If you want some strength and muscle tone, lift some weights, or do bodyweight exercises, it can help!
Maybe you hate being on a machine for hours, then go shorter but harder, push your intensity ,make your heart work for ya!
Bottomline for me is, you leave the gym when you know you have done everything you needed to do, you walk out with a sense of accomplishment, like you just won the fight or race or whatever, you should have a little high from your workout, no matter how grueling it was a few minutes ago, you know you didnt slack off and really pushed yourself to your limits. Doesnt matter how long you were on what, , you know you just whipped your own *kitten* and you survived to come back and push yourself again!

LotusF1ower

Hosed, I 100% agree with you, unfortunately, what I am getting annoyed with is being told "just doing cardio is no good", "don't run for more than 20 minutes, it is bad for you", "running for more than a quarter of a mile is too much strain on the body" etc. These are the things that could really muck people about, especially, if as you just said, somebody were to not know any better because they have just begun.

There is nothing better than doing your utmost at a training session and feeling knackered afterwards - it is a physical tiredness and it is an accomplishment for sure. The hardest competitions are those against yourself, because you can never win

david1956

One thing about doing longer and longer cardio sessions involving one type of activity is that in terms of fitness it can become a case of diminishing returns, due to our body becoming more and more efficient. So running for hours on a treadmill is great if you are training for distance running, as your objective IS for more and more efficiency. But IMHO for fitness it's perhaps better to seek out something new. For example, if you can run for hours on a treadmill, put on some boxing gloves and try serious sparring... you might be in for a shock, but in terms of fitness that's a good thing. Keep trying new things, and somewhere around 30 mins should be totally adequate in conjunction with weight training.

Same weight programs. Recently when my trainer changed my program (and this happens every time) I felt like a mess, failing again and again during the routine. My trainer smiled and said, "Good, that's what i'd expect to be happening and it's what we're after. But our bodies are amazing at adapting." Sure enough, within a couple of weeks I am ascending from hell to.. I guess purgatory LOL. So somewhere down the track (4-6 weeks) it'll be time to change again. Although it doesn't feel nice, we get the best gains, I am fairly certain, when our body is yet to adapt and become efficient.

abricklin

I am kind of struggling with this as well. I HATE weights, but I was also told that strength training is SUPER important because the more muscle mass you have, the more calories you will burn during rest and cardio. Up to 3500 extra calories a week if you have the proper amount of muscle. My husband is the opposite- he said cardio at the gym is like a giant hampster wheel just moving but not going anywhere and it drives him crazy. Maybe they are just afraid that if you focus too much on cardio you'll just give up the strength training. I usually do the weights for 20-25 min and then 30 min of cardio (3X a week). On the days that I am not doing weights I do strictly cardio- zumba or running long distance for atleast an hour. I feel like this helps build up my endurance. Keep it up! You're doing a great job.

This is what I discovered after months and months and years of just cadio. I did have my good days of cardio and strength had not lifted a weight in 12 months prior to this past weekend. I incorporated the 30 day shred into my workout (am) and added strength to my gym (afternoon). I will probably do a long cardio only session on Sundays. I feel a huge difference in just 4 days.

jkohan

Hosed, I 100% agree with you, unfortunately, what I am getting annoyed with is being told "just doing cardio is no good", "don't run for more than 20 minutes, it is bad for you", "running for more than a quarter of a mile is too much strain on the body" etc. These are the things that could really muck people about, especially, if as you just said, somebody were to not know any better because they have just begun.

There is nothing better than doing your utmost at a training session and feeling knackered afterwards - it is a physical tiredness and it is an accomplishment for sure. The hardest competitions are those against yourself, because you can never win

Agreed with everything you've posted in this thread. I went and asked MY trainer on Tuesday about doing "too much cardio leading to burning muscle and being ineffectual". She told me that unless my HR is above my max, that doing cardio will burn fat and is not counterproductive to weight loss. There are no short cuts. Yes, weight training will lead to muscle mass which burns more than fat under our skin, but in terms of good health AND weightloss, cardio is a HUGE part of the equation. Those trainers that tell you otherwise are NOT worth the $ you are paying them.

jkohan

oops...double post.