[MsBrightside]

How much cardio is to do on a daily basis?

I have heard all sorts of things, depending on the intensity. So, what if you do a pretty intense workout for over an hour? Is that causing more harm? Are 30-45 minute intense cardio workouts with intervals more efficient? How about 90-2hour workouts? Too much cardio for a day?

[IanG]

I generally keep it below one hour of cardio a day, 6-7 days a week.

If you do too much there are a few things that can happen in my experience.

First, unless you are eating right you will burn out. On my weightloss diet, I used to run 6 miles every day. That worked well for a few months until one day I could just not face running. My body just said no. I revisited my diet and cut back on my mileage. And everything was good again. But it was a rude wake-up call.

Secondly, you risk injury. The times I have hurt myself were when I did cardio twice a day, adding up to about two hours.

Thirdly, you are going to eat your muscle. Cardio makes you lose weight because it burns fat and muscle. You might therefore consider doing up to an hour of cardio and up to an hour of weight training, perhaps on alternate days or (like I do) in alternate sessions on the same day, instead of full-on cardio. That way you will preseve some lean mass which will make you look better when the weight has gone.

Bottom line: 30-45 minutes of cardio every day should be absolutely fine. With a rest day or two if you are feeling lazy.

[bbarber62]

i do two days a week of only cardio (about 25 minutes of HIIT intervals followed by 15-25 minutes of walking).

The other days of week, i do about an hour of weight lifting followed by 20 minutes of cardio.

[autodidact]

I am going to go against conventional wisdom here. As an ex ultra runner I did loads of cardio. 4 hours 5 hours at the weekend....at least an hour a day. I did running streaks where I found I had run every single day for months without a day off. I ran a 50 km ultra and a half marathon 6 days later.

I am rarely injured, I am also older (52) menopausal woman.

That said, running ultras is generally, for those not at the front, lower intensity, with periods of walking especially uphill trails. When I was out for hours some of that would be walking, and the running slower than say 5 and 10 km training.

I have heard a lot about how bad it all is for a person, and read a lot too. In the end I decided to live my life my own way. What did it in the end was reading of an older wonam 86 years old who died the day after running the New York marathon. We all have go go sometime and that sounds OK to me.

I have stopped running and I have aches and pains coming back, I feel grotty, and I'm getting fat again. Today marks my restart. Hubby has taken our dog (who has stitches and cannot run) for a walk leaving me free to run!

Here goes

[Streudel]

As autodidact points out, some athletes will build up to hours per day. Some of us have to keep it to 3 x per week to stay injury free.

I try to let my body tell me when it's done. Usually it'll give me some warning and if I listen and rest I'm fine. For me, there's another aspect to overexercising. Feeling like I have to exercise to burn off calories or feeling like my self esteem is dependent on getting my work out in are flags for me.

I guess what I'm saying is people vary, but if you pay attention to what your body is telling you, you should be able to develop a routine that is safe and effective.