Cardio: How Many Times a Week?

elga_thres
elga_thres Posts: 117 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi, guys! I hope you're all doing great. I do strength training 3x a week. I'm a university student and I walk to my campus and always take the stairs to get to my class. How many times should I do 'official' cardio training? My goal is to maintain my weight and overall health. Thank you.

Replies

  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    as many or as few times as you want. If you are already walking to/around campus you are probably getting a good 30 minutes or more of walking every day (when I went to university it was 10 minutes each way to the car, up to 10 minutes between classes if they put them far enough away so I could easily do 60 minutes of walking in a day).
  • Joanna2012B
    Joanna2012B Posts: 1,448 Member
    I do some form of cardio everyday! The intensity varies. I usually do intense cardio 4 to 5 days a week.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    i try to do 3-4 time's a week for at least an hour. plus some yoga and/or strength 1-2x a week
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    You don't need to do any, above and beyond what you are doing now. Weight loss comes from a caloric deficit, whether you use cardio or not as a means to help achieve that is personal preference.

    Reasons for cardio:
    need to eat more to stick with a deficit,
    training for an endurance event,
    you enjoy it,
    Heart health,
    etc.
  • Lleldiranne
    Lleldiranne Posts: 5,516 Member
    It depends on your fitness as well as your weight goals. You are already doing the strength training, plus walking (carrying a bag, I would guess), so unless you are looking at training for a run or something, you're probably fine. Just make sure that as you walk around campus that you're pushing your rate, a slow walk won't be as helpful in building cardiovascular health/endurance. Then again, you're probably already doing that, too. :wink:
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    for me now that summer is coming I will be doing cardio at least 4x a week...maybe 7x.

    I lift 4x a week as well.

    But my cardio is usually

    Running 3x on non leg days
    walking/biking on non running days and if I feel tired I take a rest day on Friday and don't do anything but if I feel good...active rest day with a walk...could be a 5k at a slow pace or 3k at a fast pace depends on how I feel.
  • kes840
    kes840 Posts: 66 Member
    The guy who (progressive strength) trains me just rolled his eyes when I told him my doctor recommended adding cardio 5X a week. He said "People are already in a cardio state ... now do three sets of eight."
  • elga_thres
    elga_thres Posts: 117 Member
    Thank you for all your answers. I was worried that I didn't do enough cardio.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    kes840 wrote: »
    The guy who (progressive strength) trains me just rolled his eyes when I told him my doctor recommended adding cardio 5X a week. He said "People are already in a cardio state ... now do three sets of eight."

    Hope you don't pay much for the service then...
  • LKArgh
    LKArgh Posts: 5,178 Member
    kes840 wrote: »
    The guy who (progressive strength) trains me just rolled his eyes when I told him my doctor recommended adding cardio 5X a week. He said "People are already in a cardio state ... now do three sets of eight."

    Find another trainer then?
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    elga_thres wrote: »
    Thank you for all your answers. I was worried that I didn't do enough cardio.

    Whilst walking is perfectly adequate, it's not putting your heart under enough stress to really improve performance.

    It's functional human level of cardio activity.
  • abadvat
    abadvat Posts: 1,241 Member
    MeanderingMammal wrote: »
    kes840 wrote: »
    The guy who (progressive strength) trains me just rolled his eyes when I told him my doctor recommended adding cardio 5X a week. He said "People are already in a cardio state ... now do three sets of eight."

    Hope you don't pay much for the service then...

    either that or just stop paying him all together - guy is an idiot!
  • Ws2016
    Ws2016 Posts: 432 Member
    Every day to burn calories. I have a love/hate relationship with cardio and just doing it every day makes it easier for me to do.
  • latincoffee
    latincoffee Posts: 187 Member
    I'm striving to workout at least 4 times a week

    I get home with no energy from work :(

  • peter56765
    peter56765 Posts: 352 Member
    I like to think of cardio as strength training for your heart. The heart is the most important muscle in your body and heart disease is still the #1 cause of death in the developed world, more than all types of cancer combined. And yet people will go 20 rounds arguing about this food or that food that many or may not cause cancer - while cardio and heart health too often take a back seat.

    The CDC and AHA recommend 30 minutes of moderate cardio exercise at least five times a week or about half as much if you go in for vigorous activity. Ideally, we should strive to get in some cardio every day to maintain our hearts in good physical condition.
  • jparks527
    jparks527 Posts: 17 Member
    What does Mets mean on stationary bike
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    Several.
  • nordlead2005
    nordlead2005 Posts: 1,303 Member
    peter56765 wrote: »
    I like to think of cardio as strength training for your heart. The heart is the most important muscle in your body and heart disease is still the #1 cause of death in the developed world, more than all types of cancer combined. And yet people will go 20 rounds arguing about this food or that food that many or may not cause cancer - while cardio and heart health too often take a back seat.

    The CDC and AHA recommend 30 minutes of moderate cardio exercise at least five times a week or about half as much if you go in for vigorous activity. Ideally, we should strive to get in some cardio every day to maintain our hearts in good physical condition.

    If you are going by the CDC and AHA recommendations then that moderate cardio is fast walking. Again, with how much I walked on campus I easily went well beyond those guidelines. Now I have to compete in sports or deliberately exercise to meet/exceed those guidelines.

    If you (OP) want to increase endurance, then add some more intense cardio in there, if you just want to make sure you are moving enough, then walking to campus 5x/week at a decent pace is good enough. Just remember that when school ends that you'll have to replace that walking with something else (assuming your walking drops off as it does for most).

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