Cardio all at once or in blocks?

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SquashedChocolateFrog
SquashedChocolateFrog Posts: 142
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,

I try to do about 30-60 mins of cardio per day, usually spinning. I have been doing it mainly all at once at a moderate pace with some sprints every so often, but find I can go much more intensely if I spit it into blocks. Some fitness posts and blogs have cited studies saying that to burn fat for weightloss, 20+ straight minutes of cardio are required - If I just did it in blocks of 10 minutes throughout the day, would I really not achieve the same amount of fat burning?

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  • rainydays5
    rainydays5 Posts: 217 Member
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    I do mine all at once and have never even considered doing it throughout the day. I am not sure what difference it would make but I would just much rather go all at once and be done then have to worry about when I will get it in throughout the day.
  • SquashedChocolateFrog
    SquashedChocolateFrog Posts: 142
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    Yeah- I think I need to look into interval training or mix up my cardio types a bit more- I just don't seem able to go for an hour without getting bored any more and find doing it in split sessions makes things a bit more exciting!
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    Some fitness posts and blogs have cited studies saying that to burn fat for weightloss, 20+ straight minutes of cardio are required

    So if i were to do 15 minutes of cardio every waking hour of the day - that's 4 hours of cardio per day - i would not burn fat?? :huh:

    Most of the studies on the topic show equal or greater fat loss by doing multiple shorter sessions per day.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    Yeah- I think I need to look into interval training or mix up my cardio types a bit more- I just don't seem able to go for an hour without getting bored any more and find doing it in split sessions makes things a bit more exciting!

    Different modes of CV training have different effects. If you're only interested in burning calories then it doesn't really matter, but for any cardiac effect either a long steady paced session, a shorter higher intensity session or a shorter high intensity intervals session will have different effects. If you're doing an hour on a machine then I admire your mental fortitude, I get bored in a few minutes and generally train outside.

    The long steady session conditions you for endurance and stamina. That's going to be longer than your current 60 minute session. Somewhere around 60-70% of Max Heart Rate

    The shorter higher intensity sessions would total about an hour, a warm up at about 50%MHR, followed by about 30 minutes at 70-80%MHR then a cool down of about 15 minutes will help your exercise efficiency and your ability to deal with waste products created during your session.

    Your intervals are generally about 15 minutes of warming up, then 20 minutes or so of some form of intervals taking you to 90-95%MHR then back down to about 50-60% several times. Cool down again for about 15 minutes. This improves your oxygen uptake; VO2Max.

    Essentially the three modes are complementary, without the aerobic base the other two have little to build on.

    I'm sure someone will be along to start advocating HIIT as it's apparently magic and burns calories for days after an 8 minute session. Not to put too fine a point on it, that's nonsense. IF you do a combination you will see a significant improvement.

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