40 minutes of cardio?

chefkate

chefkate

Cathlete
I was talking to a personal trainer the other day while in line at a store and got to telling him about our Cathe. He started to talk about that doing more than 40 minutes of cardio is NOT good for you. Unfortunately my turn came up and I couldn't hear the rest of this. Does anyone know WHY this would be? If anyone has any ideas please let me know....if no one else has heard of this I'll post in Ask Cathe, but I didn't want to bother her if one of you knew. I have a hard time believing that Imax 2 isn't healthy! Thanks so much!
 
I don't think that this is true at all. Elite athletes train for as much as 5 hours per day, cardio and weight training. I know that Paula Radcliffe (long distance runner) runs for 2 hours in each session and she does 2 sessions of running including 2 hours or weight training a day.

Personally, if I want to improve my cardio I tend to increase my training times to 1.5-2 hrs. I think this increases my endurance.

But this is just my opinion.

Yen
 
Yes, long cardio sessions certainly DO increase your endurance! I think after 60 minutes a cardio work out stops being useful for fat/weight loss but is still great for increasing endurance. This does not mean, though, that it's BAD for you. Maybe the trainer just chose the wrong words...??
 
i think its all in the personal goals. right now i am mixing up an equal balance of weights and cardio but maybe next month i will want more cardio and ease back on the weights for more endurance(summer comming up lots of running with the kids). if you want to build muscle then keeping cardio to minimum seems to be the plan for body builders and fitness competitors. but techincally most workouts we do are only 40 mins of actual cardio then rest is warm up and cool-down stretches.

and i am reading strength training for women, imax2 is interval workouts and interval workouts are best for building power,endurance, and metabolism!!! in other words one of the best for active women.


kassia

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"And do what thee wilt as long as ye harm none"

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Something about how too much cardio decreases muscle mass. That's what I've heard anyway. Or maybe not, maybe he was going to make a completely different point.
 
I have my masters in exercise physiology and that is false that you should not workout for more than 40 minutes at a time. Even the US Health Dept is now saying that 60-90 min of "vigorous" activity per day is recommended for weight loss.

Any intense cardio over 90 minutes can slightly lower your immune system effectiveness, but it is unlikely unless you are consistently pulling 90+ workouts (mainly cardio/endurance work).
 
It's true that it depends on your goals. Donna is right in that after a certain point you'll start losing muscle mass with too much cardio. Also, from a physiological standpoint, women are blessed or cursed (depending on your perspective ;-) ) w/the childbearing thing. I've read that evolution has caused women's bodies to stop burning fat after about 60 minutes of cardio b/c of natural disasters like famines--basically our bodies are designed to carry enough fat to maintain a fetus for 9 months. Which is one reason our cycles stop if our body fat gets too low.

So really it does depend on your goals. If you're going for endurance you can do as much cardio as you want. If you're going for weight loss you should stop before your hour is up.

All of the above comes w/the disclaimer that we're all physically different, so any advice is going to be kind of ambiguous until you find out what works best for your body.
 
I agree with what everyone is telling you. The PT needed to give you more information instead of leaving you hanging.

Cardio burns tissue...muscle tissue included. They say as the minutes build up...or get beyond 40+ minutes, more muscle tissue is being used. But since muscle is not an efficient source of energy, the body doesn't prefer to use muscle.

I am not sure that will set your mind at ease so maybe this will....I believe that as long as you are strength training and eating properly, doing 40+ minutes of cardio is perfectly fine.

I am into distance running so 5 out of my 6 cardio workouts are 70+ minutes. The 6th is an hour or so. Weekend workouts are sometimes usually 2+ hours...even 3+ hours. I promise you my muscle definition is perfectly fine. I get compliments just about every time I leave the house.
 
Perhaps he was about to refer to the free radicals produced as a by-product of aerobic metabolism? I would add that impeccable nutrition is an essential part of the fitness equation and especially for those partaking of aerobic endurance events.
 
Wow! Thank you everyone for your insight! It really helped. Wish I could talk to him to find out more about why he thinks this. In the mean time....tonight is a good, long cardio sweatfest! =)
 
If he chooses to limit his cardio training to under 40 mins, that's hunky-dory. But if you ENJOY doing longer cardio sessions, then you gotta go with what makes YOU happy. If you are resting well, eating well, who cares?!??!?!?!

Clare
 
>I was talking to a personal trainer the other day while in
>line at a store and got to telling him about our Cathe. He
>started to talk about that doing more than 40 minutes of
>cardio is NOT good for you.

How anyone can make a blanket statement like that is beyond me.

I do think that there is a point beyond which doing MORE is of no benefit, and may be detrimental, but I don't think that's 40 minutes! (I have heard/read that doing more than an hour of weight training at once gives no additional benefit, and may actually be counterproductive. I'm much more inclined to agree with that).

Maybe he was speaking from the perspective of going for maximum hypertrophy (muscle growth). In that context, then more than 40 minutes of cardio could lead to fewer gains, not necessarily breakdown of muscle tissue, but using up calories that could go to muscle building.

More than 40 minutes of cardio may not be NECESSARY, but 'not good for you"? Though Dr.OZ mentions something about over 30? minutes of cardio having deterimental effects (because of the stress it creates).

Sorry for rambling, I'm a bit spacey today!
 
>I don't think that this is true at all. Elite athletes train
>for as much as 5 hours per day, cardio and weight training. I
>know that Paula Radcliffe (long distance runner) runs for 2
>hours in each session and she does 2 sessions of running
>including 2 hours or weight training a day.

I wouldn't look to elite athletes as models how to exercise. Trying to do what they do would definitely be too much for most people. And they have a lot of support to help deal with a regimen that would possibly be excessively tough on most people.

Elite athletes also know how to recover, and how to nutritionally support their gruelling training.They also know how to use periodization. And, let's not forget, they are somewhat self-selected, meaning that they are doing what they are doing because they are genetically and structurally suited for it. Tests done on Lance Armstrong, for example, showed that his body clears lactic acid much faster than normal. This may be due to his training, his genetics, or a mix of both.
 
>Perhaps he was about to refer to the free radicals produced
>as a by-product of aerobic metabolism? I would add that
>impeccable nutrition is an essential part of the fitness
>equation and especially for those partaking of aerobic
>endurance events.


Most definitely.
Also, long bouts of exercise can stress the adrenal glands, and too much stress of any kind can lead to adrenal fatigue. Nutrition is so vital to help prevent this.
 
I just read an article somewhere (sorry, I cannot remember where) where the author had studied people who did very intense cardio (like marathon runners), and when they got older they were more likely to develop a particular type of heart arrhythmia (atrial fibrillation, which is usually not fatal but is hard to treat and is very uncomfortable). The doctor who did the study said it was a significant correlation, and based on what he'd learned, he advised people to not do super intense cardio for long periods of time, he thinks it stresses the heart in ways they're just starting to recognize. This study did cause me to scale back my IMAXs and other tough cardio workouts, to modify them to where I'm never really gasping for breath, whereas before I would just go for broke and figure the more intense, the better.
 
I don't think anybody really knows for sure. Studies will be done and the findings will be embraced by doctors and the fitness industry, then, 5 years later, they'll say they were wrong. This has happened so many times. I take everything I hear with a grain of salt and rarely take anything i hear as gospel truth.

40 minutes is enough for me. There's no way I would do 90 and with two bad knees, I don't think I could. I've heard of people on these boards talk of losing more weight doing less cardio. I think I'll try that one first. I love to exercise but I don't feel the need to kill myself doing it.
 
"where the author had studied people who did very intense cardio (like marathon runners), and when they got older they were more likely to develop a particular type of heart arrhythmia

What the heck type of marathon runner is this author studing to even conclude that marathon runners partake in intense cardio??? That author is studying specific subjects that will give him the numbers he wants and it sounds like he is selecting poorly trained marathon runners!

Check out the training journals of any decent marathon runner and you'll see that "intense cardio" consists of about 10%-15% of their weekly mileage. Say they run 35 miles a week...that is 3.5 miles of intense cardio which will be less than 30 minutes!! The rest consists of long, super slow miles.

The marathon runners that do journalize a lot of "intense cardio" in their training..well, they resemble marathon walkers after the first half of the marathon.

My point is, the author has no freaking idea what he is talking about and he blew his cover with the "intense cardio like marathon runners" suggestion.
 
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