cardio- thoughts?

angied80

Ok so I have heard from multiple people that doing any cardio over 30 mins is basically a waste. They say that your body stops resisting after 30 mins. Anyone have any thoughts supporting this or against this? I would appreciat as much feedback as I can get. I mean... who wants to do more cardio than is necessary?! :bigsmile:

ojell

Hmmm... I've never heard of this.

lynzy713

bump - i'm curious to see what is said...

Dave198lbs

Ok so I have heard from multiple people that doing any cardio over 30 mins is basically a waste. They say that your body stops resisting after 30 mins. Anyone have any thoughts supporting this or against this? I would appreciat as much feedback as I can get. I mean... who wants to do more cardio than is necessary?! :bigsmile:

if your body stops resisting at 30 minutes...who or what is doing the work at minute 31?

iwillsoonbeslim

Resisting what?

Donna_Houghton

Unfortunately I don't think this is true, otherwise fitness instructors would make group excercise classes of 30 mins rather than an hour.

FabMrFox

I wish my body would stop resisting on half marathons......

melaniecheeks

It is possible to do too much cardio - but I don't think 31 mins is too much, I'd say 2-3 hours every day is too much.

colochel

Where did you hear this? Just curious...

nurse_christieyne

I have heard that from 2 different trainers. They each said that any more than 30 minutes is a waste of time.

nurse_christieyne

Unfortunately I don't think this is true, otherwise fitness instructors would make group excercise classes of 30 mins rather than an hour.

I pointed that out to a trainer, he said you have 10 minutes of warm up, 10 minutes of cool down, the other 40 minutes is never at one steady pace so your heart rate goes up and down,

onedayillbamilf

I have heard this as well.

angied80

Where did you hear this? Just curious...

I was talking with a girl at the gym last night. I did 45 min of cardio. She said I should just stop at 30 mins yada yada. She said that she "knows" alot of fit people and they all tell her this. I have also heard it before, not sure where. I just wondered if there was any truth to it. Im sure it all depends on what your goals are and such. I couldnt find anything to really support this via the internet.

Lesa_Sass

Very interesting. I know from my personal experience that the more cardio I get, the more fat I burn. I do not even break a sweat until I am about 20 minutes in. When I went for a stress test last year, it took 12 minutes to get my heart rate up to where they could do the test.

My trainer runs marathons, I think he would have a good laugh out of this one.

Dave198lbs

I have heard that from 2 different trainers. They each said that any more than 30 minutes is a waste of time.

so if I burn 150 calories during minutes 31-45 they dount count? there is no exact number of minutes where exercise becomes overkill. You can do too much or too little. If you do 30 minutes a day thats good.

lauraemthomson

i dont think so honey. its not ideal to work the same muscles as the day before. eg. running two days in a row or cycling two days in a row. Try mix up ur excercise (run one day, cycle the next, tbt the next etc) is more benifical, and allows previous mucles to recover as such.


keep going!
:happy:

maryjay51

depends on your goals and needs and what you want to do..im training for a 8k run so thats five miles..wouldnt make sense for me to stop at 30 minutes knowing darn well i cant run a 8k in 30 minutes..im praying for me to do it in 50 minutes and thats pushing it but if i only do 30minutes of cardio i will struggle after 30 minutes on my run

plus it does not hurt to do extra cardio if you are looking to burn up some extra calories. last night i hopped on my treadmill during Gossip Girl and did a half hour of 4miles an hour.. it was better than sitting still and eating chips or something

royalstewart13

Bad Advice. In fact nonsense! Just think about it -- it is better only to do 30 minutes of exercise rather than 60, just doesn't make sense.

ZachS92

Don't think it apply's to cardio. Strength training is a waste after an hour... But I don't think that apply's to cardio and if it does it would be longer then 30 mins..

angied80

Other things I have heard is at that point it starts to burn muscle and not fat. But I dont think that is necessarily true is it? That would be more based on what your diet is, correct? I think there are alot of myths out there, sometimes its hard to determine which ones are accurate! Thanks for the help guys! I'll keep up my cardio!

grinch031

Its all about context here. If you want to be a long-distance runner and see continued improvement, you must run more than 30 minutes at a time and you must do it frequently. However if you want to burn fat and improve physical fitness, then 30+ minutes of cardio is not the best use of your time. You are better off doing resistance training and high intensity intervals. But if cardio keeps your more motivated, better that than nothing!

Oh and I am in marathon training and have actually gotten stronger because I always lift weights before I run, and I have upped my protein intake to prevent muscle loss. I've definitely burned fat without losing muscle in recent weeks.

nurse_christieyne

I have heard that from 2 different trainers. They each said that any more than 30 minutes is a waste of time.

so if I burn 150 calories during minutes 31-45 they dount count? there is no exact number of minutes where exercise becomes overkill. You can do too much or too little. If you do 30 minutes a day thats good.

I have no idea, I am just stating what they said to me. I still do an hour of cardio.

heybales

Other things I have heard is at that point it starts to burn muscle and not fat. But I dont think that is necessarily true is it? That would be more based on what your diet is, correct? I think there are alot of myths out there, sometimes its hard to determine which ones are accurate! Thanks for the help guys! I'll keep up my cardio!

Who ever is spouting this stuff, don't use them as trainer.

if you run out of glycogen, required for burning fat, then your body will break down muscle to convert amino acids to glycogen, and it keeps burning fat. You are not likely to run out of fat energy, since it has 3500 calories per lb. Even then folks got an extra lb to spare for that.

How much glycogen you got stored ready for use? Avg 1500 to 2000 calories worth. More if you aerobically train.

That is the "wall" people hit when doing marathons and are not pro-athletes with correct training program. Sugar ran out, muscle is used, and fat still is used.

There are a lot of myths. You must use discernment as to where you hear things, and research.

Like, please research what I just said.

Dave198lbs

Don't think it apply's to cardio. Strength training is a waste after an hour... But I don't think that apply's to cardio and if it does it would be longer then 30 mins..

nonsense as to strength training being a waste after an arbitrary amount of time. it depends on intensity not time

angied80

Its all about context here. If you want to be a long-distance runner and see continued improvement, you must run more than 30 minutes at a time and you must do it frequently. However if you want to burn fat and improve physical fitness, then 30+ minutes of cardio is not the best use of your time. You are better off doing resistance training and high intensity intervals. But if cardio keeps your more motivated, better that than nothing!

Oh and I am in marathon training and have actually gotten stronger because I always lift weights before I run, and I have upped my protein intake to prevent muscle loss. I've definitely burned fat without losing muscle in recent weeks.

This is kinda what I was looking for. I am maintaining on Jamie Eason live fit trainer. I have gained a very nice amount of muscle I would say.. you just cant see it I am having a hard time loosing fat. I just started to up my cardio, if that was a bad idea then I did not want to dig myself into a hole. I definatly do not want to loose the muscle that I have gained. I usually do my strenght training, usually takes 30-45 mins, then I get on the treadmill and switch it up doing fast paced walking incline, HITT or the eylptical. Does this sound like a good routine, or should I change it up a bit to see some fat loss?

heybales

There is a difference between a waste of time, and time better spent.

Since you provided no context for the statement, it could be the discussion was around burning fat, and if you have an hour, better time spent doing just 30 min of cardio and then doing 30 min weights.

That has been shown in studies to burn more fat and have better effect than just 60 min of cardio.

But if you have time every day, then split the days, the total 60 min still beneficial. And can spend more time on weights the other day.

grinch031

Other things I have heard is at that point it starts to burn muscle and not fat. But I dont think that is necessarily true is it? That would be more based on what your diet is, correct? I think there are alot of myths out there, sometimes its hard to determine which ones are accurate! Thanks for the help guys! I'll keep up my cardio!

Who ever is spouting this stuff, don't use them as trainer.

if you run out of glycogen, required for burning fat, then your body will break down muscle to convert amino acids to glycogen, and it keeps burning fat. You are not likely to run out of fat energy, since it has 3500 calories per lb. Even then folks got an extra lb to spare for that.

How much glycogen you got stored ready for use? Avg 1500 to 2000 calories worth. More if you aerobically train.

That is the "wall" people hit when doing marathons and are not pro-athletes with correct training program. Sugar ran out, muscle is used, and fat still is used.

There are a lot of myths. You must use discernment as to where you hear things, and research.

Like, please research what I just said.

I do all my training runs (6+ miles) in a glycogen-depleted state due to a low-carb diet. I have found as long as I eat enough protein, any break down of muscles to fuel my brain is completely reversed by both lifting weights and eating adequate protein. The only proof I have of this is that I am just as strong as I was before, in fact I got stronger because I significantly increased my protein at the same time that I started my training plan. If anything when I used to lift weights prior to this, I was not eating enough protein because I was eating mostly carbs during that point in time.

angied80

Other things I have heard is at that point it starts to burn muscle and not fat. But I dont think that is necessarily true is it? That would be more based on what your diet is, correct? I think there are alot of myths out there, sometimes its hard to determine which ones are accurate! Thanks for the help guys! I'll keep up my cardio!

Who ever is spouting this stuff, don't use them as trainer.

if you run out of glycogen, required for burning fat, then your body will break down muscle to convert amino acids to glycogen, and it keeps burning fat. You are not likely to run out of fat energy, since it has 3500 calories per lb. Even then folks got an extra lb to spare for that.

How much glycogen you got stored ready for use? Avg 1500 to 2000 calories worth. More if you aerobically train.

That is the "wall" people hit when doing marathons and are not pro-athletes with correct training program. Sugar ran out, muscle is used, and fat still is used.

There are a lot of myths. You must use discernment as to where you hear things, and research.

Like, please research what I just said.

Thanks! I have a hard time calling bull**** on people! I researched a bit but never really found anything that supported those facts. I am a newbie so I am a little uneducated in the fitness world. Hoping to change that. I appreciate everyones feedback.

grinch031

Its all about context here. If you want to be a long-distance runner and see continued improvement, you must run more than 30 minutes at a time and you must do it frequently. However if you want to burn fat and improve physical fitness, then 30+ minutes of cardio is not the best use of your time. You are better off doing resistance training and high intensity intervals. But if cardio keeps your more motivated, better that than nothing!

Oh and I am in marathon training and have actually gotten stronger because I always lift weights before I run, and I have upped my protein intake to prevent muscle loss. I've definitely burned fat without losing muscle in recent weeks.

This is kinda what I was looking for. I am maintaining on Jamie Eason live fit trainer. I have gained a very nice amount of muscle I would say.. you just cant see it I am having a hard time loosing fat. I just started to up my cardio, if that was a bad idea then I did not want to dig myself into a hole. I definatly do not want to loose the muscle that I have gained. I usually do my strenght training, usually takes 30-45 mins, then I get on the treadmill and switch it up doing fast paced walking incline, HITT or the eylptical. Does this sound like a good routine, or should I change it up a bit to see some fat loss?

I think you have a good exercise plan. If you're not losing fat, that is probably because you aren't eating the optimal amount of calories. I know many here will say there is some magic number like 1200, 1500, etc. But I think exercise is the perfect litmus for the amount of calories your body needs. Its simple, if you are lethargic when exercising, you are eating too little calories. If you feel energized, then you are eating at least enough calories to fuel the workout, but at the same time you could also be over-eating. Keep in mind that the closer your diet is to a 'natural' diet, the better your body will regulate your calorie intake on its own.

heybales

I do all my training runs (6+ miles) in a glycogen-depleted state due to a low-carb diet. I have found as long as I eat enough protein, any break down of muscles to fuel my brain is completely reversed by both lifting weights and eating adequate protein. The only proof I have of this is that I am just as strong as I was before, in fact I got stronger because I significantly increased my protein at the same time that I started my training plan. If anything when I used to lift weights, I was not eating enough protein because I was eating mostly carbs during that point in time.

Low-carb does not mean by default glycogen-depleted - though it is easier to cause that.

If you are always eating enough protein, the body is just breaking that down for glucose first if not enough carbs.
And since that is harder on your system to get glucose from amino acids, you are just stressing different parts of your system.

So while you may indeed be in a low-glucose storage state, that just means that during extended periods of a exercise, your body turns to breaking down muscle quicker than it would otherwise.
And then you eat enough protein to build it back up.

But their is a difference between the muscle repair that occurs after weight lifting say, and the muscle re-building that occurs after it is torn down for energy. Former makes it stronger, latter just gets it back.

angied80

Its all about context here. If you want to be a long-distance runner and see continued improvement, you must run more than 30 minutes at a time and you must do it frequently. However if you want to burn fat and improve physical fitness, then 30+ minutes of cardio is not the best use of your time. You are better off doing resistance training and high intensity intervals. But if cardio keeps your more motivated, better that than nothing!

Oh and I am in marathon training and have actually gotten stronger because I always lift weights before I run, and I have upped my protein intake to prevent muscle loss. I've definitely burned fat without losing muscle in recent weeks.

This is kinda what I was looking for. I am maintaining on Jamie Eason live fit trainer. I have gained a very nice amount of muscle I would say.. you just cant see it I am having a hard time loosing fat. I just started to up my cardio, if that was a bad idea then I did not want to dig myself into a hole. I definatly do not want to loose the muscle that I have gained. I usually do my strenght training, usually takes 30-45 mins, then I get on the treadmill and switch it up doing fast paced walking incline, HITT or the eylptical. Does this sound like a good routine, or should I change it up a bit to see some fat loss?

I think you have a good exercise plan. If you're not losing fat, that is probably because you aren't eating the optimal amount of calories. I know many here will say there is some magic number like 1200, 1500, etc. But I think exercise is the perfect litmus for the amount of calories your body needs. Its simple, if you are lethargic when exercising, you are eating too little calories. If you feel energized, then you are eating at least enough calories to fuel the workout, but at the same time you could also be over-eating. Keep in mind that the closer your diet is to a 'natural' diet, the better your body will regulate your calorie intake on its own.

According to bodybuilding.com I should be taking in 1640 calories a day, I find that hard. Most days I usually get between 1300-1400 and I am stuffed and my energy is very good. I "think" I am eaSting healthy. That is something that I have really been working hard on. I am slowly mastering it. So are you saying since my energy levels are good, maybe I should try lowering my caloric intake and see what happens? By maybe just 100-200 cals or so?