Too much cardio?
- Thread starter Shanny
- Start date
yeah it is allot, if you over do your cardio, your body with start to catabolize your muscles(process involving the breaking down muscle for energy.
if you dont want to do to much cardio try HIIT, takes about 30 minutes (including 5 min warm up and 5 minute cool down) and is better than doing 45 minutes of cardio, bruns more fat and stops catabolism.
if you dont want to do to much cardio try HIIT, takes about 30 minutes (including 5 min warm up and 5 minute cool down) and is better than doing 45 minutes of cardio, bruns more fat and stops catabolism.
I might have to try HIIT.....
Haha, I've done something like interval training before, when I used the treadmill, dad just laughed at me because I kept speeding up, slowing down, and repeating, saying I wasn't getting as good a work out as if I kept steady. *laughs* Oh the irony...
Not only does doing too much cardio use up precious muscle, but it could put your body into "starvation mode." That means that your body will burn up all the mucsle first, in order to preserve fat to protect vital organs. Not a good thing. 6 days of 45 minutes is just a waste of time - there's absolutely no reason for it. When it comes to exercise, more is NOT better!
ANd yes, I strongly recomment HIIT - it's a lot of fun because it is so quick! It's the only way I can stand to be on the treadmill! And it's killer if you do it on the bike. Just remember it's HIGH INTENSITY intervals... that's why the work-out is so short as compared to doing regular intervals.
ANd yes, I strongly recomment HIIT - it's a lot of fun because it is so quick! It's the only way I can stand to be on the treadmill! And it's killer if you do it on the bike. Just remember it's HIGH INTENSITY intervals... that's why the work-out is so short as compared to doing regular intervals.
You are not going to be losing muscle unless you are not eating properly. Your body will not go into starvation mode if you eat healthy appropriate foods.
Does Aerobic exercise Make You Lose Muscle?
Yes, it's true. It's a scientifically proven fact that muscle proteins are broken down and used for energy during aerobic exercise. But don't worry, you are constantly breaking down and re building muscle tissue anyway. This process is called "protein turnover." Your body is constantly alternating back and forth between anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) cycles. That's just a normal part of life. Your goal is simply to tip the scales slightly in favor of increasing the anabolic side and reducing the catabolic side just enough so you stay on the anabolic side and you gain or at least maintain muscle.
This fact of human physiology has often been taken out of context and used to scare people into not doing cardiovascular exercise for fear of losing muscle. When you fast overnight as you sleep, you lose muscle too, but that doesn't mean you should stop sleeping!
Sure, it's possible for you to lose muscle from doing too much cardio, but it's highly unlikely. Shying away from cardio completely because you think you'll lose muscle is a huge mistake. Only excessive amounts of cardio would cause you to lose muscle because over-training tips the scale towards the catabolic side. It's difficult to generalize and pinpoint one specific amount as too much, but I think it's safe to assume that just about anyone could do up to 45 -60 minutes of cardio a day, 6 to 7 days a week without losing any muscle - as long as the proper nutritional support is provided.
Does Aerobic exercise Make You Lose Muscle?
Yes, it's true. It's a scientifically proven fact that muscle proteins are broken down and used for energy during aerobic exercise. But don't worry, you are constantly breaking down and re building muscle tissue anyway. This process is called "protein turnover." Your body is constantly alternating back and forth between anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) cycles. That's just a normal part of life. Your goal is simply to tip the scales slightly in favor of increasing the anabolic side and reducing the catabolic side just enough so you stay on the anabolic side and you gain or at least maintain muscle.
This fact of human physiology has often been taken out of context and used to scare people into not doing cardiovascular exercise for fear of losing muscle. When you fast overnight as you sleep, you lose muscle too, but that doesn't mean you should stop sleeping!
Sure, it's possible for you to lose muscle from doing too much cardio, but it's highly unlikely. Shying away from cardio completely because you think you'll lose muscle is a huge mistake. Only excessive amounts of cardio would cause you to lose muscle because over-training tips the scale towards the catabolic side. It's difficult to generalize and pinpoint one specific amount as too much, but I think it's safe to assume that just about anyone could do up to 45 -60 minutes of cardio a day, 6 to 7 days a week without losing any muscle - as long as the proper nutritional support is provided.
I'm sorry, RedT, but all the research I've done and all that I've learned in my Nutrition & Kinesiology courses at UCONN tell me that's bull.
The rate of catabolism is different depending on percieved exerted level. The compensation for building catabolized muscle in a period of longer aerobic training is more difficult for the body to compensate... especially if it does not exceed an interval of 24 hours rest. All aerobic training does catabolize muscle (I mean ALL), but it is better to have it is short durations than longer ones. I doubted this for awhile, but started to experiment on it and see if it's better to do a 20mins x 3 perday than 20 mins of sole HIIT and I lost more weight doing HIIT than doing cardio alone.
Shanny, I agree with RedT. 45 minutes a day 6 days a week isn't going to hurt you as long as it's at a moderate pace. It is difficult to tear down muscle doing cardio. I've had many conversations with the head trainer of our the chain of gyms I work for and he was Mr. California and took 6th at Mr. USA in the 90's. He used to do the same amount of cardio you're doing all the time. You CAN tear down muscle but you'd have to do a lot of cardio or be eating too little. Although I do think 45 minutes a day is around the limit you can do without having to worry about muscle loss. For the record, as far as practical knowledge, I'm a trainer and see this all the time and as far as theoretical knowledge I specialized in Exercise Science in college. IF you were were an advanced bodybuilder it might be a different story and easier to lose muscle. But obviously for you that's not the case.
Having said that, it would be hard to put on any appreciable muscle mass with that much cardio. And I am a fan of HIIT. I usually do 2 low-intensity 30 minute cardio sessions, 2 HIIT sessions, and 2 kickboxing sessions a week and it works well for me.
Having said that, it would be hard to put on any appreciable muscle mass with that much cardio. And I am a fan of HIIT. I usually do 2 low-intensity 30 minute cardio sessions, 2 HIIT sessions, and 2 kickboxing sessions a week and it works well for me.
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i do about 35-45 minutes of cardio at the gym 4 times a week most weeks but sometimes its just 3 times a week and do weights aswell.... will i still keep my weight stable by doing this and fit?
Natural_dreams said:
It depends on your diet. Ultimately, although it does get complicated, what it comes down to is calories in = calories out. If you're doing all that activity and eating enough to sustain it then yeah, you can maintain your weight with that amount of activity.