Losing cardio endurance
 

Hey, everyone. My gym routine has been 4 days on, 2 days off, repeat, for about a month now. I do my cardio on an elliptical, and I do strength training on the 1st and 3rd day. I'm having an issue though, that after my rest days, when I go back to the gym for that first day, it almost feels like I'm starting all over with my cardio. I have no endurance and my legs just burn like I've never been on an elliptical before. The next 3 days are totally fine. I'm just wondering if that's a normal thing, or should I not take 2 rest days together. Or am I not resting enough? Any thoughts?

If I have this right, you're only doing cardio two days? Is that right? Days 2 and 4? You've been doing this about a month?

I don't think you're doing it often enough to really build a good solid cardio base. I would recommend cardio at least three days a week. I like to do cardio 5 days per week with some days being heavier than others. So I'll do heavy cardio days where that's all I do and then two days I'll lift and do a little cardio too.

I do find that my cardio endurance is weaker than my lifting endurance. If I take a few days off because I'm sick it's easy to come back to lifting, but almost as if starting over again with the cardio. I can take Saturday/Sunday off with no problem though.

How much time do you spend on the elliptical?

No, I should have explained more clearly. I do the cardio all 4 days, I just add strength on 2 days. And this has been my routine for a month, but for the two months before that I was doing cardio (no strength) days a week. For the first two months I could only do about 15 minutes, but now I do 30 minutes.

Why not try only 1 rest day in between? Say two days on, 1 off then repeat.

I agree with Ursula 745. Try only 1 rest day betwen workouts.

And the most important thing - do you eat right? Some multivitamin pills for recovery will also help.

You shouldn't be losing cardio fitness over two days. Fitness just isn't THAT tenuous.

I agree with Maria. Is it possible it's entirely mental? Sometimes cardio is as great a mental game as it is physical. Try getting some music you really enjoy or an audio book or a good TV show...or a class!! The last is my personal favorite. ;)

No one feels at peak energy levels for EVERY WORKOUT...at least nobody I've ever met. Expect high energy days, followed by I can barely walk a mile days...I guess it's hormones, etc. and all other kinds of fluctuations in our body. No worries...just make sure to push yourself each and every workout. Don't be discouraged if you can't do today what you did yesterday. That's just how it goes.

Remember...it's not HOW MUCH to do in ONE workout...it's how MANY DAYS you do it....it's those of us that hang in for the long haul, consistent in our efforts that attain success and reach our goals. Much success to you!:D

Ditto. About once a month or every few months I have a few days where it's just a battle to make it through the simplest of runs. I actually just came off of one. It took every ounce of my energy to make it through my Friday, Saturday and Monday runs. This morning I felt awesome. So don't worry too much about it.

Thanks! I feel less anxious about it now. I guess the main point is to just keep at it. I appreciate the advice!