Cardio everyday??
 

Is doing cardio everyday a good thing?

i hear you should rest at least one day after working out a particular muscle. Does this apply to the heart too?

Your heart is constantly beating, it doesn't rest..if it did you would die.

You can, and depending on your particular situation, probably should do cardio everyday.

There is certainly nothing wrong with doing cardio everyday, however, you must also be careful how much you do per session. For instance, I run at least 5 miles a day every single day. That's good. "Excessive" differs from person to person, but "excessive" for anyone is probably 20+ miles a day everyday, and your excessive and my excessive is probably somewhere in between. Basically what I'm saying is, you can do cardio everyday, but don't overdo it and hurt yourself.

which cardio activity is the best way to burn fat? treadmill, stationary bike, or eliptical? is there best or optimal activity?

Cardio everyday is good, but as stated above excessive is bad. Learn and know your limits. I once read something, it said something like "the person who runs for 3 hours everyday brags that they're adding 10 years to their life, but what they don't realize is that they're spending most of those 10 years running."

Personally I don't do it everyday, but I'm trying to work up to it.

it's always good to take one day a week off from cardio, and just do something fun. like if you run 6 days a week, go golfing or play basketball instead of running on the 7th day.

the big problem with cardio everyday is overuse injurys. running can give you shin splints, biking can give you back pain (i assume, it's not a natural position), etc.

I did cardio every day for some time. By the fourth day my effiency would go down as much as 30% from the first day (calories burned/distance). However, when I did two days of cardio, and then had a two days break, then on the first day after the break I did do better then before the brake, sometimes as much as 10%. Sure, it`s impossible to keep a rate of improvement like that, but it is somethink to think about.

I do cardio every day for my fatloss program. I do HIIT on the stationary bike at the gym, 12 minute session if I'm lifting that day, 23 minute if it's just cardio or abs. Works for me.

I have a different question...

I do cardio everyday to lose fat also. I run 20 minutes on the treadmill almost every day. That gets my heartbeating at around 140-150 bpm. Then, I get on some elliptical machine to try and burn some more caloires. I usually do about 30 minutes on that, but my bpm is only about 95-105. That seems really low to me. Am I still burning enough calories to make it worth while? Would I be better off doing some more running or something. Bikes and things like that don't get my heartrate up that high. Any advice?

I do at least 30 minutes jogging 5 days a week, it's great.

How old are you? Using a rough estimate (220-your age)*.6, should be your minimum heart rate to burn fat. Try to aim it for 70-80% though. Anything lower than 60% and you're wasting your time (you're still burning calories, but not efficiently.)

If the activity doesn't get your heart rate up, just step up the intensitiy.

...And make sure you dont go above 80% for extended cardio periods or you'll end up looking like a marathon runner (maybe that's your goal though) HIIT is different, of course. I stick with HIIT 3 days a week of 8 minutes, 3 days of lifting, and an off day.

can you increase the intensity by changing the machine's resistance or going faster?

actually, the less intense it is, the more fat that will be burned... but, when you're going harder, as long as your staying under your anabolic threshold, you'll be burning more glucose and less fat by percent, but because you're burning more calories, you have more fat burned total.

remember, the more intense an activity, the higher percent of glucose burned and lower percent of fat, but higher total calories.

Shin Splints are a bitch...believe me. Cardio everyday is fine, just don't overexert yourself, and change up the routine to keep your muscles "shocked"

i don't think i've ever had a shin splint. what do they feel like? how do you know you have one?

... youll know... just a pain in the front of your shins... the best for minor ones is ice em down... and cut down on the workout... you can try to gradually bring it back up once their gone and see if they return or not... and if you have shinsplints for an extend period of time... even with a large reduction in the amount your running... go see a doc... could be microfractures

son of a........... i recently started running/working out again at my gym. Last week saturday i go and do 20min of moderate running. then i take a break for the rest of the week (i was in a lot of pain from the weights - yes, i haven't been to my gym in ages). Anyways, i go back on friday and do some more running.. guess what? my shins start hurting - i think i have shin splints! (it's like a pinching sensation at the front of my shins). Boooooooooooooooooooooo...

come to think about it, i think i might have had shin splints b4...

Can you get shin splints from the bicyle or the eliptical machines? i'm assuming you don't cuz they are less impact?

if you can, you're a better man than i... or at least unluckier... shin splints are caused by when the muscles on the front of the shin bounce off the bone, they pull off the bone a bit and then slap back down, causing a bruise, but it can end up causing microfractures.

so because there's no high impact from biking and the eliptical machine, you won't get them from those modes of exercise.