Can you "split-up" your daily cardio?

[skyfiiire]

Hi all, I'm new to this board and have a question in my head that I don't see answered anywhere on the site. My question is this: We have all seen the recommendation that @30 a day cardio is a great thing, but for great fat-burning results we should be aiming for @45-60 of cardio. What I am wondering is whether or not this must be done in one marathon session or not. Is there any evidence that doing say 2 30-minute cardio sessions will give me the results I need? I'm just wondering if the amount of time spent raising your heartrate is more important that one long endurance session.

Thanks,
Steve

[PickItUp]

Hi all, I'm new to this board and have a question in my head that I don't see answered anywhere on the site. My question is this: We have all seen the recommendation that @30 a day cardio is a great thing, but for great fat-burning results we should be aiming for @45-60 of cardio. What I am wondering is whether or not this must be done in one marathon session or not. Is there any evidence that doing say 2 30-minute cardio sessions will give me the results I need? I'm just wondering if the amount of time spent raising your heartrate is more important that one long endurance session.

Thanks,
Steve

Yes...split it up.

You can split it up if you want to. I think that you actually get better results if you split it up. I strive for 2-3 sessions daily, but time restraints usually keep sme doing 1-2 a day, not hte 3 that I find ideal.

By doing cardio more often, you tend to increase your metabolism more. Seperate each session by 4 hours or so.

Splitting a 1 hour cardio session into two half hour sessions is good, but three 20 minutes sessions could be better. Optimally, you would have one in the morning before breakfast. Then you would have one around lunch time, and the final one would be before dinner, or after...your choice...

BTW, walking counts too...

[tfg]

Actually this was in a magazine that I read. I can't remember if it was an older issue or not, but they said that splitting up your cardio into 2 15 minute sessions showed better results in the study that they did. I don't see how that can be. Unless your doing really high intensity. Either do 45 minutes of medium intensity or 25-30 minutes of high intensity.

[writeknight]

One way to think of it is like a longer-term HIIT. HIIT works because you're mixing things up for your body. Splitting up your cardio is similar, just on a larger timescale.

[Swivel]

Hi all, I'm new to this board and have a question in my head that I don't see answered anywhere on the site. My question is this: We have all seen the recommendation that @30 a day cardio is a great thing, but for great fat-burning results we should be aiming for @45-60 of cardio. What I am wondering is whether or not this must be done in one marathon session or not. Is there any evidence that doing say 2 30-minute cardio sessions will give me the results I need? I'm just wondering if the amount of time spent raising your heartrate is more important that one long endurance session.

Thanks,
Steve

Where the heck did you come up with the idea that "@30" or "@45-60" was an acceptable substitute for the phrase "30 minutes" or "45-60 minutes?" It's not.

That's pretty weird. "@" stands for "at."

Go back and read your post again outloud to yourself, substituting the "@" symbol for the actual word "at" and see how stupid it sounds.

Also, to answer your question, it's perfectly fine to split up your cardio throughout the day. There's even some evidence (and it would make sense) that six 10-minute cardio sessions split throughout the day instead of one 60-minute session is even MORE effective at burning fat. The more often you're active, the more elevated your metabolism remains throughout the entire course of the day.

[skyfiiire]

Where the heck did you come up with the idea that "@30" or "@45-60" was an acceptable substitute for the phrase "30 minutes" or "45-60 minutes?" It's not.

That's pretty weird. "@" stands for "at."

Go back and read your post again outloud to yourself, substituting the "@" symbol for the actual word "at" and see how stupid it sounds.

Also, to answer your question, it's perfectly fine to split up your cardio throughout the day. There's even some evidence (and it would make sense) that six 10-minute cardio sessions split throughout the day instead of one 60-minute session is even MORE effective at burning fat. The more often you're active, the more elevated your metabolism remains throughout the entire course of the day.

You know, as soon as I started scrolling down to your post, I saw all the red next to your horrible reputation on this site, and I knew your response was going to be stupid and ignorant. "@" is an all-purpose symbol for several words that begin with the letter "A". In "science" and "computer-technology", we also use the "@" symbol to mean the word "approximately". Sorry I confused you, please go back and substitute the word "approximately" for the symbol "@" and stop trolling the message boards.

Also, thank you for your information.

Sincerely,
Steve

[dc8585]

Great question, skyfiiire...it's been something that's been on my mind as well.

One further point to ponder though, I recall that one needs to do about 10-15 minutes of cardio first before one gets into the "fat-burning" mode. If that's true, wouldn't an hour session of cardio be less beneficial for fat loss if it was split into two 30-minute sessions ie less time is spent in the "fat-burning" zone due to the necessity to "warm up" 10-15 minutes per session? In other words, if the hour session is done in one go, you would get 45-50 minutes in the "fat-burn" zone as opposed to only 30-40 minutes if you split it up into two sessions.

Hope what I just typed made sense!

[skyfiiire]

What you typed made sense...but honestly I have no idea, LOL...

Steve

[noone12456598]

I Think it depens what you do i.e

if one man/women runs 1 mile in 20 minutes

its not the same as

one man/women running 3 miles in same time

As long as your heart rate is up above a certain level you will burn
so if you do three sessions of 20 minutes a day then that will still benefit you

[EddieDaGod]

so would it be ok to do cardio at 5am then go to work and go back to the gym at 5-6 pm!!

[reyalp]

You know, as soon as I started scrolling down to your post, I saw all the red next to your horrible reputation on this site, and I knew your response was going to be stupid and ignorant. "@" is an all-purpose symbol for several words that begin with the letter "A". In "science" and "computer-technology", we also use the "@" symbol to mean the word "approximately". Sorry I confused you, please go back and substitute the word "approximately" for the symbol "@" and stop trolling the message boards.

Also, thank you for your information.

Sincerely,
Steve

Yeah, he got some negs for that comment.

Hey, I thought tilde (~) meant approximately?

[JaeGee]

First that comment about the @ symbols was simply retarded. To answer your question, splitting the sessions up is a great thing to do, you burn calories through maximizing your heart rate so if you can run faster and harder and get a good heart rate going for 15-20 minutes. Then do it again 4-5 hours and do another hard workout for 15-20 minutes. It would be considerably more beneficial than doing a medium workout for 40-50 minutes.

Great idea, if you are going to split it up I recommend a HIIT cardio session where you sprint for a small interval of time then jog or walk for a small interval then sprint again. Or you can do the same method on any machine: bike, stair, ellyptical, etc... Using the same priniciple.

Good luck!

[dc8585]

What you typed made sense...but honestly I have no idea, LOL...

Steve

LOL... anyone???

[thealadar]

Splitting it up shouldn't be a problem, but if your looking to build endurance then gradually increase your time, before you know it you will be easily doing one hour segments.

[blackfrankwhite]

I have been Splitting my cardio into 2 1/2 hour sessions

One before lunch ( too lazy to get up in the morning, although that would be ideal)

One after lifting - the results are incredible; I have gotten incredibly lean

Plus I dont get as sore as I used to doing an hour post lifting
(its probably because my stretch time to cardio time has effectively doubled)

I truely recommend splitting cardio

[TheManofSteel]

Actually this was in a magazine that I read. I can't remember if it was an older issue or not, but they said that splitting up your cardio into 2 15 minute sessions showed better results in the study that they did. I don't see how that can be. Unless your doing really high intensity. Either do 45 minutes of medium intensity or 25-30 minutes of high intensity.

The article your refering to is in the 'Cardio Bulletin' section of June's Men's Health Magazine (Hugh Jackman on cover)

I've been doing two 20 minute (+ warm-up/cool-down time)...
besides being effective (as supported by the article) the split makes the cardio work boring [if you feel that way]

I don't think I could do 40 minutes without it becoming monotonous... two 20 minutes sessions keeps it exciting...

Good Luck skyfiiire