Is doing the same cardio every day okay?

Christie23

I love my elliptical... something about it puts me in a very zen place. Sometimes, after my standard 50 minutes on the elliptical, I will get on the bike and I do a lot of walking all the time (I'm a waitress). And while I switch up my program on the elliptical, I am wondering if my body will adjust to the same exercise every day and cause it to be less effective?

Nina74

Your body will get used to it over time and not burn as many calories, especially if you go for the 50 minutes at the same settings, intensity, etc. At our gym we have the Precor ellipticals and I do the weight loss/fat burning program, which changes the intensity every couple of minutes. Like you...i LOVE the elliptical- and I was going for a good 45-50 minutes at the same rate/intensity, but over time I found it to not be as effective for calorie burn because my body and muscles got used to the routine. As soon as I started incorporating the variations, intervals, etc, I went back to burning more calories and losing weight. Basically your body is smart & gets lazy! That would be my advice.

BlackBeltLife

Yes

Cardio is always good, but change up things will help effectiveness. Tony Horton built his P90X program around the philosophy of muscle confusion.....changing things up.

DancingDreamer

yes if its the exact same thing every day your body will get used to it and stop burning calories as well.

that being said i wouldnt cut out an exercise that you enjoy doing so much! i suggest finding another form of exercise (or two or three, you can never have too many) that you can enjoy and switch it up with every other day or two!

lizzys

mix it up have fun

hroush

My favorite work out on my elliptical is doing interval hills, but I haven't been using it lately as I have been running outside. Just changing what you do on your elliptical will help prevent your body getting used to it. As others have said, to help even more, find another workout that you like that you can work into the mix.

TheMaidOfAstolat

Switch it up every other week or so. Doing the same thing for a week isn't long enough for your muscles to become used to the movement, it takes time...so do the elliptical for a week, then a video, then dance, then running...that's a full month of fun stuff. Don't forget to add some strength training as well.

00trayn

I think one of the reasons I've been successful for 6 months with no plateaus is that I mix up my exercise routine every 6 weeks to 2 months. I started out doing just the elliptical and using EA Sports Active for the Wii. Then I added in the 30 Day Shred and stopped doing EA Sports Active. Then I switching to doing the Couch 2 5K program with the Shred. Now I'm doing Chalean Extreme, Zumba, and running at the gym, with a bit of elliptical and stationary bike still thrown in. It works all different muscles, strength, cardio, etc. Your body definitely will get used to it, so if you can even throw is something different one or two times a week, it'll help. And definitely increase intensity and use the hill setting or something. I still use the elliptical now, but on Level 11 or 12 on hills. I started at like Level 3 flat...

MacMadame

I know we say your muscles "get used to it" but what really happens is the muscles get more fit. Then, if you don't increase your time working out or your intensity, you are just maintaining that fitness and not increasing your fitness. Since it's taking less energy to do the same thing (because you are more fit), you burn less calories.

Therefore, you don't *really* have to "mix it up" if your only goal is to burn fat. You do have to increase your intensity as doing what you used to gets easier for you.

The reason to switch things around is:
-not getting bored (not an issue with some, but a big one for me)
-hit other muscles and other fitness that the exercise you do now doesn't work on

The reason not to:
-you love what you are doing
-you can't care about the muscle groups you aren't working

I find that I get bored doing the same thing all the time, but that i also need a routine. So, I've been swimming every week on Wed. for an hour for two years now and I do a group bike ride every Thurs. for 90 min. When it gets too dark to bike, I switch to a Crossfit workout on Thurs. I have a few other workouts that I do consistently for months at a time but that change throughout the year.

Because I swim, bike, run, do Crossfit and strength training, I am exercising all my muscles and working on all aspects of fitness and I don't get bored. But, because I have a routine and certain set workouts that I do every week, I don't find myself going for weeks without working out because other things come up and I have no set routines.

However, just because I go biking every Thurs. from March through Sept, doesn't mean I am doing "the same thing" and my muscles have "adapted". That's because when I started, I couldn't even finish the full routes but had to take shortcuts. Now I can do the full route in the time allotted. By the end of the season, I'm hoping i can add in an optional loop. So I am continuing to increase my intensity over time. The routes change slightly too. Our "hill" route is different from last year and we do it every other week instead of every 3rd week. We also have interval workouts we can do as an option to the flatter rides.

This is how I "change things up" while still "doing the same thing". It works for me.

Oh, one thing though: all fitness gains happen during rest. You need to take a day off once in a while or you will not be getting the fitness gains that you could get if you take some rest days.

SuzanneRogers

Christie,

I love the elliptical too but hit a plateau from it after 6 days a week for month. I was using the same muscle they are getting bigger but he rest of my body didn't change. I start doing the elliptical for 10 minutes get off and do 1-2 minutes of jumping jacks, burpees, push ups, jumping rope, running in place. High Intensity drill then back on the elliptical for 10 minutes, then 1-2 minutes of drill then back on for my last 10 minutes. I jumped start my calorie burn and used more muscles by incorporating over muscles into elliptical routine.

Here are link of HIIT you can mix in with your elliptical routine.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=high+intensity+interval+training&aq=0sx

I now do my elliptical with HIIT, treadmill weight lose program and TuboJam & Brazil Butt Lift to try to hit each body part and burn more calories. Each day I do something different so me and my body doesn't get bored.