How much cardio is too much?

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zasiiniya
zasiiniya Posts: 100 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
How much time (in hours/minutes) is too much cardio over 1 day? How many days a week is safe to do cardio?

I love cardio. Love it. And I do it daily until my body begins to get too exhausted and I feel ill. Then I have to force myself to take a rest day.

I know with weight training, you shouldn't work the same muscle group two days in a row, so I always alternate leg days and arm days (with the weekends as rests). But is cardio 7 days a week too much?

Edit: if it makes a difference, I eat back all of my exercise calories except 100-200 because I know ellipticals can lie about calories burned. I also am only on half a pound a week loss so I am aiming for 1530 calories a day, and I never go below 1200 net.

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  • Night_hawker5000
    Night_hawker5000 Posts: 17
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    Idk, right now I do 45 min on the treadmill on max incline 15 and 3.6 mph each and ever day.
  • drea0703
    drea0703 Posts: 83 Member
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    bump
  • kperk91
    kperk91 Posts: 226 Member
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    I believe you can perform cardio daily, typical suggestion I've seen thrown around is 30-45 min a day.
    Wish I loved cardio, I need to do more but struggle to motivate myself for it.
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    For cardio/running it depends on your current fitness. If you are very fit then somewhere between 12-15 hours a week is probably too much. If you are unfit then more than around 3 hours a week might be too much. You can divide that weekly time over seven days however you like.

    You just have to judge it for your own condition. If you continue to improve then you are not doing too much. If you begin to get worse or stop improving and are tired all the time then you are doing too much for your current fitness level.

    It all comes down to how much stress each workout puts on your body and how long it takes to recover from it.
  • PrimalTC
    PrimalTC Posts: 1
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    Hello there, I own a personal training center in San Diego, CA and would like to point out this is a good question that never has a simple answer. That said what I tell my clients are the main facts that the world always seems to ignore everyone of us is different. That said lets prove that point so my view is clear. How many of us know that person that eats what ever they want often etc, but never seems to gain a pound? Take that the other way how many times have we seen the people who work out like crazy and nothing seems to change. So to answer your question, you said you run or do cardio 7 days a week? I would professionally say that is to much, BUT :smile: the upside is your body for now is dealing with the abuse, at the end of the day you always need rest and 7 days there is no rest. So if I had to suggest a training for that gift you have id say run 3 days rest 1 and repeat that way the rest is there to help you recover and allows you to keep training.

    Good luck, wish you the best with your goals.
    www.Primaltrainingcenter.com

    If you have any direct questions please feel free to shoot me a email.
  • zasiiniya
    zasiiniya Posts: 100 Member
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    Thank you very much for your answers, everyone. They've helped a lot.

    I do work out 7 days a week some weeks, but I rest some days too. Yesterday I rested (mainly because I had lots of classes and stuff to do, but also because of tiredness) and was missing it all day, but in the end I felt much better after it because it let me have more energy today. So I'll try to rest more often in the future.
  • Vermilla
    Vermilla Posts: 348
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    It really does differ for people and takes a bit to find out what works. I found out that I -do- need to do cardio seven days a week but not all the same stuff. For 4-5 days, I'll do heavy cardio, and the other 2-3, I'll do some light stuff, maybe some non-machine workouts, a stationary bike, things like that, maybe only burning 300 calories or so a day. That's just because, for me, if I stop a day, I'll gain weight at light speed, but if I don't tone it down for a few days, I wear out and then overeat, and also gain weight! It took a while to figure it out, but it's definitely different for everybody. I do suggest, though, that if you do heavy cardio in a single day, spread it out. Don't try to do something like 3 hours all in one shot.
  • sofitheteacup
    sofitheteacup Posts: 397 Member
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    I also do an hour of cardio daily- I don't feel like it's too much, and I'm very much a creature of habit, so it's not something I want to take a "rest day" from, though I change up the forms or may do yoga before/after to keep things interesting. I'd say listen to your body- as most people will say, everyone is different. If you aren't experiencing any negative effects, I'd say you're fine. But if you genuinely work out to that extreme point of illness/exhaustion, that is probably not good for you.
  • gabe_carrizales
    gabe_carrizales Posts: 17
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    I do 5K 7 Days/Week and on Sundays I include a 10 mile Bike ride. Feel awesome!!! :D
  • gabe_carrizales
    gabe_carrizales Posts: 17
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    Average run is about 9:40 min/mile...

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