Cardio: how much is too much?

i do cardio every day. i do the elliptical (i have one at home) about 3x/week and some sort of crossfit or HIIT 7 days a week. i also ride my bike or go on frequent walks.

Actual cardio in the gym, 1-2x per week, some plyo circuits or interval training and some stair climber on my non lifting days. Otherwise I am generally active and on my feet most of the day. Plus I am breastfeeding a toddler so I am burning a few extra cals there so I don't want to overdo my deficit

I walk every day for 2-3 miles. I usually hike longer one day a week. I run about 40 mpw. On xt day I'll do stationary bike for 45 minutes or so. That works for me. I enjoy running long races, so need to maintain a decent aerobic base.

You, OTOH, have a different schedule, and different goals. How much time are you willing to spend exercising? Why? I know people who run 70 mpw and others who only run once a week. It's up to you.

Too much is if you are either getting injured or if you are not doing other things that are important to you.

How much? In summer months c. 34 hours a month cycling, that's 550+ miles. Wide range of distance and duration from 1hr to 8+ hrs rides.

Daily? No.

How much is too much? For who? You? Me? There is no general answer.

There is no 'too much' but I think you will know when you are doing too little.

Cardio and a bit of yoga is all I do at the moment because I have 3 very active tween and teen children. I play Mom taxi and since we live in the mountains, can get a good walk, jog or hike in while they are at their activities. It's not ideal, but I'm proud that I was able to sneak *something* in and take care of myself. My 'minimum' is 10k steps 5 days a week. I take walk breaks & lunches from my office job to hit that goal. The GOAL each week is to double that number 2-3 times a week (usually through a jog or hike).

I'm a diabetic. Freelance computer artist, so unless I make an effort I'm completely sedentary. If I don't do some sort of cardio every day I see it in my blood glucose numbers the next day. However, I get better results with shorter, higher intensity workouts. My default is 15 minutes of HIIT on stationary bike. However, I try to switch it up so my body doesn't get adjusted to my workouts - sometimes I do tabata cycling or other tabata, sometimes I walk, sometimes I do Zumba or Bollywood dancing. I do strength 6 times a week arms, legs, abs, repeat, rest). This is kind of a weird strength routine but I get better blood sugar readings if I do some heavy strength training every day, so I try to spread it out so each body part gets a chance to recover.

When I say HIIT I mean that 15 minutes leaves me sopping wet with sweat. When I get used to my current level, I crank up the resistance and go faster. As for tabata, it's only 4 minutes plus warm up and cool down, but should be a maximum effort - if it's not the longest 4 minutes of your life, you're not doing it right.

Some studies have found that long periods of steady state cardio during a period of calorie restriction leads to muscle loss. I've gotten really excellent results from short periods of high intensity - my A1c dropped from 11 to 4.9 and I've been averaging 10 lbs / month weight loss - so I'm not itching to spend more time doing it. This may change later if I decide I want to train for some specific goal, such as a race.

Between running, swimming and cycling I'm probably doing 1 to 2 hrs of cardio per day (I also do strength training 2 to 3 times per week) but that's also because I'm training for a triathlon.

As others have said "too much" depends entirely on your goals. I would certainly recommend that if you're going to do some kind of cardio every or most days make sure that your mixing up impact & intensity to allow sufficient recovery (you can walk, cycle & swim at moderate paces 365 days a year as there's no real recovery needed but if you were doing more intense workouts then you'd want to alternate days)

I think the CDC recommends 1 to 3 sessions of muscular and 3 to 5 sessions of cardio for a well balanced plan. They also recommend 150 minutes per week of exercise to maintain fitness level, and double (300 minutes per week) to improve fitness level.

I try to do some kind of cardio most days...at least 5 days per week. Right now I'm not training for anything in particular, so it's just general fitness and nothing major. My week day rides are typically 10 miles in the AM and that takes me about 35 minutes before work. Once per week I do either a sprint interval session or hill repeats. I usually do a 20-30 mile ride on the weekend and typically hit the climbing gym on either a Saturday or Sunday for an hour or two. I lift 2x per week.

I think "too much" would very much depend on one's objectives. My bodybuilding friends don't typically do much cardio...maybe a jog a couple times per week for like 1.5 miles and some walking...they spend most of their fitness time lifting and per discussions with them, they don't do much cardio because they already have to eat a lot and don't want to or can't eat more to fill the void that more cardio would leave.

Endurance athletes are going to obviously do much more cardio. When I'm training for an event, I do a lot more cardio than when I'm just exercising for general fitness.

As most people have said, it is totally dependent on each individual's goals. I lift 5 days a week, and do cardio after every one of those workouts. Leg day and back day get followed by 20 minutes of High Intensity Intervals on the stair mill. Chest day, arm day and shoulder day get followed by 30-45 minutes of treadmill walking (2.8 mph at a 15 incline) Find what works for you. Good luck.

Ask an alternative question: How much cardiovascular fitness is too much?

No more than a couple of hours a week. Far too much scientific literature out there regarding the ironic health risks associated with excessive cardiovascular training.

joeboland wrote: »

No more than a couple of hours a week. Far too much scientific literature out there regarding the ironic health risks associated with excessive cardiovascular training.

define excessive...

joeboland wrote: »

Far too much scientific literature out there regarding the ironic health risks associated with excessive cardiovascular training.

Another endurance athlete here, currently averaging 10-12rs of cardio/week. Source and details please?

Personally, my resting heart rate appears to be linked to overtraining - train too much and my resting heart rate goes up. That's when I know it's too much cardio and time to back off a bit.