I have a condition in which I cant go all out in cardio I wanna lose weight and be fit and ive been doing alot of weight training but. When it comes to cardio I cant go to fast 3-4 mph on the treadmill is about all I do for about 30min daily.
Does Cardio always have to be fast/strenuous(sp?)
- Thread starter booboofetish
- Start date
That's a-okay. Cardio is, through nobody's fault, a submaximal exercise. In doing cardio, even at your best, you're only using 20%-30% of your maximal energy output - you're primarily limited by your aerobic capacity.
If you're trying to burn fat, this is fine. Working at low-intensities is how you burn fat (though for cardio workouts you're going to burn carbs first). In this case, you'll probably want to go for more than 30 minutes. At least 45 mins to an hour, if you can, since you won't be able to burn much fat if you're going at these low intensities.
Now, for cardiovascular training (improving heart health) you're going to have to get your heart rate up, and walking alone might now cut it -- so you might consider mixing weights in with your cardio or doing circuit training. My recommendation is (unless you're on a treadmill) do a sprint as fast as your condition allows for a certain distance, then at the end of the sprint get down, do a pushup, tuck your legs in and jump as high as you can. Then sprint back and do the same thing. Repeat until you can't anymore
This is a great way to get a strong cardio and resistance workout, especially if you're not conditioned for higher intensities of cardio.
If you're trying to burn fat, this is fine. Working at low-intensities is how you burn fat (though for cardio workouts you're going to burn carbs first). In this case, you'll probably want to go for more than 30 minutes. At least 45 mins to an hour, if you can, since you won't be able to burn much fat if you're going at these low intensities.
Now, for cardiovascular training (improving heart health) you're going to have to get your heart rate up, and walking alone might now cut it -- so you might consider mixing weights in with your cardio or doing circuit training. My recommendation is (unless you're on a treadmill) do a sprint as fast as your condition allows for a certain distance, then at the end of the sprint get down, do a pushup, tuck your legs in and jump as high as you can. Then sprint back and do the same thing. Repeat until you can't anymore
This is a great way to get a strong cardio and resistance workout, especially if you're not conditioned for higher intensities of cardio.
you only have to get your heart rate up to a certain amounts of beats per minute, and that's what's going to burn the fat for you. going faster isnt going to help. or sweating more.
truth_seeker said:
That's untrue. Or at the very least, very misleading. Even running at your highest intensity only utilizes about 20%-30% of your maximal energy output. Running is, by nature of your aerobic system, a low energy-intensive activity, meaning your body will be able to release enough energy from fat to meet the needs of the exercise. The primarily limiting factor in running is your aerobic capacity, which won't ever catch up to your energy output.
The reason endurance is important, for any intensity of aerobic activity, is because your body will use carbohydrates before fat if your energy needs are too high (especially towards the beginning of a workout) to be bioavailable in fat form. So burning through your carbohydrate stores by running for a longer period of time is important to really tap into fat stores.
Working out at a really low intensity WILL burn fat - but it doesn't necessarily matter if you target fat or carbohydrates because whichever you don't burn at the end of the day is going to end up stored in fat cells for later use. It's better to burn more calories at a higher intensity than to target fat at lower intensities and burn far fewer calories.