Thread: Cardio Seggestions please

im not any expert but if ur tryin to get rid of fat u should be doin at least 45 minutes of cardio a day, i overheard a trainer at my gym tellin that to someone the other day, and i find its best to do cardio first thing in the morning. I did the stair master for the first time a few days ago and i thinks its prolly one of the best cardio machines, but the excersise bike , treadmills, and elipticals are good to. Good luck

If you're doing cardio in the morning, make sure you have eaten beforehand. There is lots of information on this site regarding fasted cardio and it is, in general, not recommended due to high levels of cortisol first thing.

If you have a lot of weight to shift, i would recommend 5-6days of cardio per week, probably something along these lines:

Monday: 30-45 mins steady state cardio
Tuesday: interval training at max effort
Wednesday: repeat Monday
Thursday: repeat Tuesday
Friday: 30 mins steady state (higher intensity than Mon/Wed)
Saturday: 60 mins UT2 (btw 60-70% max heart rate)
Sunday: day off

Just a suggestion, but there is lots and lots of valuable information on this site, in the stickies and in members journals. If i were you, id get trawling through the lot!!

Best of luck and all that

I'd also suggest that you pick up a game, especially if you're into sports or are competitive in nature. A pick up basketball game, raquetball, flag football. Something that keeps you moving without you thinking about moving if you know what I mean.

It depends on how much resistance training you are doing, but generally a mixture of interval training and possibly steady state aerobic exercise is best, but only if you have time for the latter. Generally, I recommend 1-2 days of interval training depending on the frequency with which you train your legs. If you have more time beyond that, then some aerobic exercise isn't a bad idea.

I'm totally against doing fasted cardio. You can do some searches around to see many discussions on that topic. It comes up quite often.

I should have said, i do cardio 6 days a week, sometimes 2X per day, so i find that a 3 day split of push/pull/legs is perfect for me.

I do legs on a Monday, then have a hard cardio session, and keep my low heart rate work until the next day, when my legs need loosened up!!

And, i agree with CP, for me fasted cardio is not even worth considering

I agree with meat. Seeing as ur 18, summers just beginning, and u seem to be an athlete from ur signature, find ur friends that like to be active and play sports and hit that up big time. BEST way to do cardio IMO. I burn the most calories, get the best workout and on top of that, its mad fun. Best sports id recomend are Basketball(full court) and football. When i do any sports, cardio is my first priority lol. In football, I sprint every single play, jog back, repeat the process. defense is even better. Its like HIIT with your buddies while playing ball. whats better than that? aside from pwning all your friends, not much.

As for fasted cardio, id recomend against it. id DEFINITELY recomend some High Intensity Cardio (such as my examples above) involving lots of sprinting and high intensity movements. Doing that on an empty stomach would be impossible. With the cardio that im doing now, it doesnt feel like cardio at all, and the weight is flying off. good luck dude.

while we're on cardio training...any suggestions on cardio in the pool (swimming)? I also go full court basketball, but my knees (legs) are really hurting and I need a full body workout cardio plan for the pool if anyone has suggestions?

I'm going to say that fasted cardio isn't so bad in certain situations. If you want to lose weight at a fast rate, and aren't quite as concerned with maintaining muscle mass, it can be good.

Probably a better alternative to completely fasted cardio: have a scoop or 2 of whey protein powder in a glass of water. Wait 15 minutes, then do your cardio.

As for the amount of cardio, I'd recommend a good balance of weight training and cardio. Maybe 2-3 days of each per week? Also, incorporating a circuit style of weight training can help you burn some extra calories. But diet is still very important.

zonaguy03:

It really depends on your skill level for swimming. I'd recommend switching up the strokes if you can do them, try to get a good balance of each. I usually do some sort of variation of this workout, and it takes about 1/2 hour:

200 Freestyle warm up
100 backstroke warm up
100 breast stroke warm up
500 Freestyle
4 x 100 IM
100 Free Cool Down


Basically I just do a 300-400 meter warm up, a 100 meter cool down, and switch up the stuff in the middle. Another variation of the middle stuff I like is:
2x 200 stroke of choice, whatever I feel like working on
4x (100 IM, 50 Kick in IM order)