Getting The Most From Your Cardio

rachel132

rachel132

Cathlete
This questions has probably popped up here before. I'm in the process of working the physical transformation program. They said that it is better to do a 20 min. cardio workout in the morning and than another in the evening rather than a 40 minutes in the morning only. This is because the benefits of a cardio workout burning calories only lasts for 8 hours. For a 16 hour after effect, the routine should be split up. Is this true???? It makes sense, but I always enjoyed finishing a 45-60 min. cardio thinking I did something extra good for myself.
Just curious if I should change my routine to 2 25 min. routines and only using the longer cardios to get over a plateaus.
 
It has worked for me

Hey Rachel,

I don't know if this is "scientifically" proven but I can tell you that it has worked for me. I don't do 2 20 minutes sessions like Physique Transformation suggestions but I have cut down to no more than 3 30 minute (includes warm up & cool down) cardio sessions a week depending on my rotation & have seen a tremendous change in my body since. I'm jumping to the conclusion that's the program you're speaking about because the information is so similar to what they had to say. If I'm wrong, I apologize!

There are others that visit this site that are doing the same program who can share their results. You should post over on the open discussion board. Specifically, Wutheri (Shari) comes to mind. She was having TREMENDOUS results with the program.

Hope this helps.
 
I am finishing up my physique transformation rotation this week and I'll just tell you what I've experienced as far as cardio. I too enjoy the feeling of accomplishing a longer cardio! I'm up to 8 cardios a week, with 3 days of doubles (2 sessions per day). So, a few mornings a week, I do the longer cardio (Imax, CK, whatever!), and then do a CTX cardio and some extra cardio (10min or so) in the afternoon. The days after I do the doubles is when I notice my weight drops. Specifically, on Monday I do doubles and on Tues. morning my weight is down a pound. On Friday I do doubles and on Sat. morning my weight is usually down another 1/2 pound. Now, that is my experience with my body, yours may react differently, but this pattern did not start until I started doing double cardios.

BTW, I've lost over 13 pounds and am in the high 16% for bodyfat. It does work.

I apologize to the rest of you reading this and aren't sure what we're talking about - it's a great program. Check out www.physiquetranformation.com.
 
Here's the way I look at it. Losing weight means burning calories. And most people who do their workout in the morning eat more calories throughout the day, so a deficit is never created. The additional evening workout allows for additional calorie expenditure and thus fat loss. But it won't be beneficial if after the workout, you eat back the calories.

I used to follow a fairly clean diet doing both morning and evening workouts and was in the best shape ever. Now I still do both workouts but my diet sucks (to be blunt!) :7 , and I am not losing anything. So for me, I need to create that calorie deficit with FOOD, not another workout (lest they find me on the floor with a barbell on my head!). :7

-Roe
 
Thanks for everyone's input. Kotacam, how long have you been on the program? I should probably take this over to Open Forum, but thought I'd just ask that quick question. I'm in my 3rd week of conditioning right now and am adjusting to 2700 calories a day. Amazingly, I have not gained any weight. I'm looking forward to the Fat Loss Phase and am interested to know how long it took to lose the 13 pounds.
 
The weight loss was not from water loss - I also took measurements on Tues. and my measurements kept getting smalleras well as the scale going down, so I knew was dropping body fat.

I just started maintenence this week. I did 14 weeks of FB. Some weeks I didn't lose anything, some weeks I lost 1.5 pounds. I averaged about a pound a week. Right now, I'm 105 and between 16 and 17% bodyfat. I'd like to go lower on the bodyfat and add more muscle, but I'm going on vacation in 2 weeks and I'll start another rotation after I get back. Most likely it will be a long conditioning phase to really pack on muscle. Feel free to e-mail me privately: [email protected].
 
Not to throw another log on the fire, but I am curious about the whole working out in the morning thing because supposedly you use fat as a fuel source instead of carbs. Frankly, I'm pretty confused about the whole thing. Since I began working out in the morning, I have lost a bit, but more importantly, nothing else comes up later to prevent my workout so I know I must be in better cardiovascular shape. I really don't know if my results are from the timing or the consistency. Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

Lori

:)
 
It may be both. The way I see it, is in the morning your body is still trying to wake up and you shock it with excersize. So I feel it has to work harder to get your heart rate up. I find that when I excersize in the morning I breath heavier and sweat harder than the afternoon. It may just be because my body isn't used to the whole morning routine that I am now trying to get more used to doing. But I like to think that my body is having to work harder because it just got done resting for 8 hours. I'm not an expert but I thought about it and it seemed to make sence to me.
But, yes you are probably getting in better cardiovascular shape because of the consistency that the morning excersize is allowing you to have.
You asked for an opnion, there is mine, I hope it helped.
 
RE: It has worked for me

I am delighted to hear about a program that works. I have a question -is 2x 20 minutes the minimum length of time for each workout, or should each workout be more than 20 minutes? I have read many different opinions, and my Dr. says 30 minutes of sustained cardio is the minimum needed to burn fat. However, 2x20 seems to make much more sense. Opinions anyone? :)
 
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