better conditioning or just plain overtrain??

[helpmehere]

i was thinking about getting up in the mornings to do 20 - 30 minutes of cardio...but then i was wondering if its just too much cardio since i workout in the afternoons and cardio for 20 - 30 minutes after lifting already..any thoughts and studies or personal experiences are all cool...this is just a discussion...not any one answer will be correct of course.

[jbrowncbr]

Probably just over training, could be beneficial if you were training for cross country but you would have to make sure you're eating enough and getting a few days of rest every week. I love over training but all you get is injuries.

[RandyJH]

It really depends on what your goals are. Alot can change when you look at something from an athletic standpoint vs. a pure bodybuilding standpoint.


I'm a little bit of a cardio freak myself, but during my bulk I know I'll have to cut back on it. Truth be told, I enjoy cardio, however it can potentially hinder mass gains and atribute to muscle loss depending on your caloric levels.

Just my opinion.

[helpmehere]

say its from a standpoint in which im cutting at 2000 cals a day getting in about 180+ grams of protein weigh 170...standing at 5 feet 8 inches....lift weights 6 days cardio 7...

[Lector606]

What are your goals and how is your current fitness level?

I have been doing at least an hour of cardio seven days a week for a few years now and have been completely injury free throughout this period. It's perfectly fine as long as you build up to it, but if your fitness level is not high enough it can lead to burnout/injuries.

Overtraining is a much overused word around here. It exists, undoubtedly, but it can be avoided in most cases by a great diet and proper manipulation of intensity.

[helpmehere]

im sure im very capable of this..i feel that i do have a great endurance...and can run an hour easily in one gym visit...but given i dont have the time since i do have school/homework and studies..so the most i could probably commit in the afternoons after my workout is 30 minutse of cardio...so i was wondering if just waking up and doing 30 minutes in the morning is okay...ive stated my fitness goals above also

edit: ive done this before too when i was cutting really low at only 1500 calories...but now im cutting at 2000 calories.

[Lector606]

im sure im very capable of this..i feel that i do have a great endurance...and can run an hour easily in one gym visit...but given i dont have the time since i do have school/homework and studies..so the most i could probably commit in the afternoons after my workout is 30 minutse of cardio...so i was wondering if just waking up and doing 30 minutes in the morning is okay...ive stated my fitness goals above also

edit: ive done this before too when i was cutting really low at only 1500 calories...but now im cutting at 2000 calories.

To be honest I'm not sure what you're asking. Is it okay in what sense? If it fits your schedule and it works for you then it's okay, if it doesn't, it's not. Try it out and see how you feel... the best judge of things like this is always yourself. Overtraining is a result of too many stressors and inadequate recovery, but these stresses can come from a limitless number of things - diet, training, sleep, school, work, personality type... everything

[cyde]

You should be fine. 40-60 minutes of cardio a day isn't that much unless you are jogging a brisk pace or sprinting.

[man0war]

I guess the best help I can be here is just give my personal example.

By the way , this overtraining thing , as Lector606 said , is quite thrown around a lot

I myself am overweight now [277 at 6'5"] and but I'm already well into good training and eating generally speaking.
Last year I was 330-ish and first time I started using the stationary recumbent bike at the gym for some cardio [since I can't jog or run cause of a back issue] I think I felt like I was gonna die in JUST UNDER 4 minutes. Needless to say I was vastly out of shape from a sedentary crap food filled life. I worked it up a little more every time I did cardio and always ate < enough > , not always clean , but < enough >.
Eventually in my best period I was doing 20-30 mins light cardio after breakfast and a VERY intense 40-45 interval cardio right after my workout in the evening. I did this absolutely daily. Thanks to newb gains and being horribly out of shape, I < surely > built some quite visible muscle, and lost about 40 pounds of fat in two months. I think the main issue here was I gradually built up the endurance to do decent interval cardio sessions and from that I felt it was just a matter of eating right. Always ate enough protein, used to drink some form of gatorade or something during my workouts [since they were really long] , and completely balanced and well spaced out meals.
I really think if you sleep well and eat right and -enough- you can do a lot of bloody cardio in addition to weight training.

BTW - I know our situations might not be very similar. I was just totally out of shape and trying to lose weight [and built muscle given my condition and how well I ate all of a sudden] BUT my wall of text up there is just meant to show that the over training isn't really that frequent. I was and still am a really fat dude and I was pushing myself beyond my limits every time with both double cardio a day and weight lifting. I ate really balanced and cheated just a bit every 2nd day to keep me happy and I obviousely felt exhausted at the end of the day, but I never felt like I was tired the next day for my next training sessions. I put it all on the good food / sleep I was getting.

[helpmehere]

yeah okay i was just wondering if doing this was too much..i used to do this but stopped about a month ago thinking i was overworking myself..ill test it out again and see how it goes....i usually run about 2 miles in 15 - 18 minutes and then walk for another 10 minutes or so.

[man0war]

I'm saying I feel that generally an extra cardio session, even daily, shouldn't be anywhere near overtraining as long as you eat enough and decent food. But I also mentioned that while I did feel exhausted aftery my daily workouts - given they were quite intense, I always felt I completely recovered the next day. Never felt sore, tired, or funny in any way. If you feel you're eating great but you do feel exhausted the next day, then that's a general sign that you have trained too hard. That's up to those subtle individual differences between everyone, but I still doubt another cardio session will be a problem.
Just another personal thought : I never did an early cardio session without a decent meal before it, given I worked out so much I didn't believe in running or something on an empty stomach I quite literally felt better if I fed myself every couple of hours

[NDame616]

I'm training for a triathlon and I'm basically starting at ground 0, so I'm doing two-a-days with weights AM and cardio PM. Cardio is one or two legs of the triathlon. It sucks cuz it's MUCH different than what I've ever done, but I gotta bump up the cardio a ton.

And down 5 lbs in a week, btw.

[PalmtreeCo]

3-4x a week, 30-40min cardio is very decent amount.