Probably A Stupid Exercise Question

It does not matter.

Hi there,

I am sure this is probably going to come off as a dumb question, but I honestly am not sure of the answer. I have read many many times before that its best to get in at least 30 minutes of cardio activity a day. But that if you don't have 30 full minutes to dedicate, you could break it up through out the day. i.e 3 ten minute walks.

My question is this... Does the same ring true for strength exercises? For instance. If I were to do 50 push ups, 3 times a day, spread out over the course of a 24 hour period, is this beneficial at all? Or are these types of exercises best done in sets, all within a much shorter period of time?

Thank you so much for your responses. I just want to make sure I do things properly without unintentionally wasting my time.

Lisa

I might have to disagree. I was under the impression the reason the elusive "they" say to do 30 minutes of cardio is because you have to stay around your target heart rate for at least 20 minutes before you start dipping into fat (plus, I don't even break a sweat for like 18 minutes!). Maybe thats ancient information, but isn't that why people who weight train do super-sets without rest inbetween? And on top of that, my gym rat buddies lift first, then go on the cardio machine (which many people do the opposite) because by the time they're on the cardio machine they're already burning fat. But that's the great debate. If really 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there is all you can do, then that's absolutely better than nothing. But if we're being perfectly honest, you can't wake up 20 minutes earlier to do that extra 20 minutes so you can break a real sweat? I mean, I hate doing it, but I get my butt up at 5:45am, throw down a cup of coffee, and then run on my treadmill (or outside, whatever I feel like).

You should really look in to a crossfit WOD = Workout of the Day, they are high intensity and rarely go over twenty min.

I am sure there is a certain threshold for each workout to be effective (maybe 15 minutes), however i know that exercising multiple times a day is beneficial. In fact it effectively tells your body that it's strength will be demanded more often and frequently and cause your body to adapt faster than otherwise.

it probably does not matter..

however, you would benefit more from a more structured program.

Something that has you doing compound movements (squats, deadlifts, overhead press, pull ups, chin ups, bench press, etc) and then building a total body work out routine around these moves where you are hitting arms, legs, back, shoulders, etc three times a week and then doing cardio two to three times a week with one day of rest ..maybe two days rest if you only do cardio twice...

^^^^^ This! :drinker:

I think if you are doing 25 push ups at a time, that alone isn't bad particularly if they are the military ones. 100 in a day has to be doing something. If that gets easy there are a bunch of different kinds on the net of varying difficulty.