how often to increase exercise time

achampionsheart
achampionsheart Posts: 1,020 Member
edited September 26 in Health and Weight Loss
hey everyone...
i have been doing one hour of cardio, on an almost daily basis, for about a month now....i am thinking of increasing my time by 15 minutes starting next monday....do 75 minutes of cardio for a month, then increase again by another 15 minutes. is this realistic or should i increase it earlier than that? any help is appreciated.

Replies

  • ImperfektAngel
    ImperfektAngel Posts: 811 Member
    what type of cardio do you do?
    I have done cardio from the beginning of my weight loss, I suggest instead of putting in more time, make your workout more difficult. I used to do the elliptical a lot! I would keep my time at 45 minutes but made sure to try and beat my previous distance every time. I do not think you need more than an hour of cardio, just get better within that time :)
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,021 Member
    I agree. It's not really about the minutes, especially if you're working out on an almost daily basis. Intensity is the key. When your workout becomes noticeably easier for you (and you can't attribute it to something else, like taking a rest day or eating a lot of carbs the day before), then it's time to step up the intensity.
  • RunHardBeStrong
    RunHardBeStrong Posts: 33,069 Member
    I agree with the others! If you're going for endurance then upping the time for certain workouts is a good thing but you can get to much of a good thing. After an hour of steady state cardio your body starts burning muscle for fuel, which in my opinion I've worked way to hard to build that muscle! I'm not going to burn it up doing to much cardio. If you want to do more cardio can you split it up into two 45 min sessions a day?
  • gcineas
    gcineas Posts: 121
    you should definitely alternate your long steady state cardio days with shorter intense cardio work-outs like HITT (high intensity interval training). I find that I lose weight and body fat faster when I increase the intensity.

    You can start small with the HIIT for example:

    5 min warm-up at 6.0-6.5 on the treadmill
    6-12 min HITT: 1 min 7.0; 45 seconds 7.7; 15 seconds 8.3
    15 min cool down at 6.0-6.5

    You can do this 2 or 3 times a week and after 2 weeks you can increase the length you are doing HITT for. My goal is to do anywhere between 20-30 mins of HITT, which would be killer.
This discussion has been closed.

Categories