Do any of you do cardio every day?

[Rainmaker]

I've been doing steady state cardio at moderate intensity for about 30-45mins every day (not ready to do HIIT) for the past three months and occasionally I feel that I need half a week to rest. But then when I take two or three days off I start feeling crap and the compulsion to start exercising arises.

Is this common?

[Tor]

You've come into a bad habbit. Rest is more or less just as important as the excercise itself.. Perhaps try putting a day of rest between some of the excercising days, e.g. 5 times a week and see how it goes..

[taphappy]

I used to do HIIT 2-3 times a week. That did wonders for my endurance.

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Health is gonna kill you in the end

[Robert Delahunt]

I have done so before. I would jog 3 days a week and do a stationary bike 2 days a week.

[Gearjoneser]

Sexercise....the best cardio. Just the word cardio makes me cough (guilty smoker)

[shark]

when I do cardio, I always leave a day in between the exercises. So day one, I do cardio, then rest a day, then again cardio, then rest...

[Rich_T]

I cycle a few miles almost every day. I smoke 15 cigs a day too, so I doubt it makes any difference.

[Animal]

Today, I ran around my neighbourhood through parks, streets, and bushland for almost 70 mins. Covered a distance almost 10km. I feel bloody fantastic. Content as anything right now! Just gotta keep it up.

Doing cardio everyday isn't wise. You need at least one day to recover. Taking too many days off can also be negative cause you'll feel guilty about not working out, "not giving it your best" .etc making you depressed and then giving up. Perhaps the one of hardest part about an exercise routine is getting in the habit of doing again after taking a break.

I've been going in and out of phases since I was 16. It's a little bit less important for me to exercise in my spare time these days as I have to walk a big distance everytime I work. Yesterday I attached my pedometer to my pants to see far I would walk in an 8 hour shift. It clocked just over 15km and 25,000 steps! YIKES!

[GuitarStv]

I have always found that interval training three/four times a week for cardio and weightlifting once or twice seems to be the optimal balance for me. You never really take more than a days break so you don't get too out of your schedule, and you always have a day or two off each week.

Taking three days off in a row to rest is probably too much. Your muscles don't just rebuild after you workout, they rebuild much better (supercompensate) for a short period of time. I find I get best performance a day and a half (36 hours) after doing some cardio . . . that's when I can push myself much harder. Three days later I feel rested, but I can't seem to push as hard . . .

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Da new drug....overachivers and workout maniacs....ruuun!
lol

[H8Red442]

I've readded cardio to my workouts. I lift 5 days a week and do 30-40 mins of cardio on those days except leg day. I can barely walk out of the gym when I'm done legs let alone get go for a jog.

About two years ago while nursing a shoulder injury I was doing cardio 4 times a week, taking Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday off. At least two of the 4 days were running the other 1 or 2, depending on how I felt, were walking.

You really should do no more than two days in a row. Your body needs to to recover. You will eventually burn out. I made time for rest simply not to blow my knees out and because after two days of running I could barely walk.

So don't feel lazy about 1 or 2 days on 1 day off. It's good for you. As far as the amount of time off, I usually take 2 days a week off. The weekend. I rarely if ever go to the gym on the weekend but that's mainly because it just doesn't feel the same to me. Five days is a long time to take off if you're doing it often. For me aside from taking the weekends off I usually take a week off every 4 months or so.

[Rainmaker]

Thanks for your input, fellas.

I'm trying to get my body fat percentage to an ideal but maintainable level. Resistance training is only for maintenance purposes, so I don't have to do that balancing act.

I may well try this new schedule:

Mon - Cardio
Tue - Cardio
Wed - Cardio
Thu - Rest
Fri - Resistance training for maintenance
Sat - Rest
Sun - Cardio

Problem is that in the morning, I feel like I need a rest... but then hours pass and I'm pumped to jump on the bike.

I knew what I had to do with my nutrition, but I've been lax. A solid diet has recently come together for me and I'm most definitely reaping the benefits.

[H8Red442]

Try this:

Monday and Tuesday - Cardio
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday and Friday - Cardio
Saturday and Sunday either rest or upper one day lower the next

Four days in a row is too much which is what you're doing. 2 days on 1 day off is ideal or even every other day. Do four days Cardio 3 days light weights. Or you could try something like

Monday - cardio
tuesday - pulling excercises (back/bis)
wednesday - cardio
thursday - Pushing excercises (chest/shoudlers/tris)
Friday- Cardio
Saturday - Rest or legs
Sunday - rest or legs.


You're basically doing 4 days of cardio then 3 days without right now as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are all cardio.

The one thing I noticed over the last couple years without cardio and doing a 2 days on one day off split with weights is those second two days were very hard because. I can only chalk this up to having stopped the momentum in the middle of the week by taking wednesday off. However with cardio you have to. It's a repetative motion that can wear you down fast where as weights are not as you generally work a different group every day.

I know some runners that run everyday, sometimes as much as 15 miles a day. They're also 30 something, been running since they were kids and weigh 120lbs. But I don't know anyone that worksout everyday all year long. It's too much. You're body needs rest to recover but the rest needs to be paced out as much as the activity to have optimal results.

And let me just cancel out everything I have just said by saying that you're 19. If you're in relatively good shape and have had an excercise routine for sometimes you can pretty much do whatever you want and recover. Don't be afraid to take a rest though. If you're body is telling it's tired it's not a bad idea to take a day or two off every week.

[Robert Delahunt]

The concept is to use different muscle groups if you're going to do cardio 5 days a week. This is why I can jog three days a week and cardio bike two days a week and not hurt myself. You are correct, your body needs rest, but it's the muscle groups that need it. However, I'll add to this by saying that the majority of civilians that start an exercise routine need this rest, yes, but once they get started, often they don't because they are not pushing themselves nearly as hard as they think.

But as usual, with everything, if it hurts, stop.

Lastly, one very important way to prevent injury is to stretch the muscles after workout. Stretching cold muscles does almost nothing, so it's optional. However, stretching out, thoroughly, after workout drastically decreases the possibility of being sore and/or injured the next day. I've done this so long that I'm hardly ever sore the next day, and never hurting, when I stretch after workout.

[BigAlTheBird]

If I was with my girlfriend every day, yes.

Considering that I'm not with my girlfriend much... yes.

[Tor]

Lastly, one very important way to prevent injury is to stretch the muscles after workout. Stretching cold muscles does almost nothing, so it's optional. However, stretching out, thoroughly, after workout drastically decreases the possibility of being sore and/or injured the next day. I've done this so long that I'm hardly ever sore the next day, and never hurting, when I stretch after workout.

I disagree about that, at least to a degree. I believe it's good to stretch out very carefully and controlled after a workout, but the single most important thing is to easy run / jog out, so to increase the blood circulation which takes care of removing the waste parts (in a lack of a better term) that derive from the muscle activity. 10 minutes should be sufficient. However, I see many people stretch, almost frantically, in a wild manner, because it seems like the efficient way. It's not. At least if you have had a heavy workout for your muscles. For those types of workouts, tiny fibersized wounds open in your muscle fibers (which is perfectly normal, the restitution process is mostly about 'fixing' these wounds, and enhancing the structure). When you stretch out heavily afterwards, you also stretch out these fiberwounds unnecessarily, and in most cases, unfortunately. Careful stretching, fine, but if you push yourself and feel that you are 'stretching in an efficient manner', that's a no-no.
Stretching for the sake of softening up your muscles for the long-term (man, I really run out of good words now..) can be done after you have warmed up easily..
This is what I have learned from a renowned sports physician, but I know his opinion is not the end all be all.. It's just that I also intuitively think it is logical, so I choose to stand by that view.

Edit: I realize I might be misunderstanding the type of stretching out you advocate...? Depends on if you mean thoroughly is pushing your stretch limitations of your muscles, or carefully stretch out for a longer time period..

[Robert Delahunt]

I disagree about that, at least to a degree. I believe it's good to stretch out very carefully and controlled after a workout, but the single most important thing is to easy run / jog out, so to increase the blood circulation which takes care of removing the waste parts (in a lack of a better term) that derive from the muscle activity. 10 minutes should be sufficient. However, I see many people stretch, almost frantically, in a wild manner, because it seems like the efficient way. It's not. At least if you have had a heavy workout for your muscles. For those types of workouts, tiny fibersized wounds open in your muscle fibers (which is perfectly normal, the restitution process is mostly about 'fixing' these wounds, and enhancing the structure). When you stretch out heavily afterwards, you also stretch out these fiberwounds unnecessarily, and in most cases, unfortunately. Careful stretching, fine, but if you push yourself and feel that you are 'stretching in an efficient manner', that's a no-no.
Stretching for the sake of softening up your muscles for the long-term (man, I really run out of good words now..) can be done after you have warmed up easily..
This is what I have learned from a renowned sports physician, but I know his opinion is not the end all be all.. It's just that I also intuitively think it is logical, so I choose to stand by that view.

Edit: I realize I might be misunderstanding the type of stretching out you advocate...? Depends on if you mean thoroughly is pushing your stretch limitations of your muscles, or carefully stretch out for a longer time period..

I'm recommending a full methodical stretch afterwards. It has already been proved, both medically, historically, and in my own personal experience, that stretching afterwards will prevent injury. This would be at the end of the entire session (for me, for example, the session M/W/F is run 30 minutes, then pushups and situps, then stretch all tendons used during those items, etc).

This is how I feel: Why? because it's one of the few areas in which I have experience. I basically depend on working out to stay in the military (for obvious reasons). If I fail enough physical tests, I can get kicked out of the military. I also had to recuperate from breaking my leg while stationed in south korea (skateboarding accident) when I arrived back in the USA, so I had to undergo physical therapy. I've been around, basically, is what I'm saying. I'm not a medical expert, but I've been given instructions on how to work out by them.

[Tor]

Sure, see your points.. If it's working for you and you don't have issues with your practice, great. I stick to my practice though, it works well for me..

[H8Red442]

I always stretch before, to get the flexibility that cold muscles do not have, especially when I'm squatting. There's nothing like sticking 315lbs on your back and not being warmed up and stretched. I never stretch after a workout, mostly because I'm too lazy and just want to go home. Not that it doesn't or wouldn't help. I've never hurt myself from NOT stretching mostly from doing too much weight with poor form or in the case of cardio pushing entirely too hard when my body wasn't ready for it and medicating the resulting pain with ibuprofen to cover it and still be able to get through my work out.