Can I Do Too Much Cardio?

July 30th, 2010 | Posted in Fitness tips | No Comments »

I get this question a lot. People wonder if it’s possible to do too much cardio, and what the consequences are.

Usually, if you’re asking this question, you’re getting onto the right track — you’ve probably been doing a lot of cardio, maybe not seeing the results you saw initially, or were hoping for, and are starting to wonder about a couple of things:

1. Can I keep upping the level of cardio I do until I’m really at the maximum level?
2. Is this a good idea?

Frankly? No. You can certainly up the level of cardio you’re doing until you absolutely can’t do any more, but then you’re right on that little edge, at any moment able to tip over into injury. And that’s not really where you want to be.

Here are three reasons why I don’t think you should be looking to max out your cardio workouts.

First: Mental Exhaustion

Face it — cardio can be boring! 1 hour on a treadmill is also 1 hour staring at whatever happens to be in front of that treadmill. It’s repetitive exercise, and even if you’re working intervals into it, listening to a great radio show, or watching something super-compelling on TV, it’s still that repetitive cardio exercise, over and over again.

Solution: use cardio as a supplement to your main workout. Warm up with it, do 20 minutes of it, whatever you need to do — but don’t consider it the be-all and end-all of your workout plan, and you’ll stave off that mental tiredness!

Second: Repetition & Injury

Part of the problem with just doing cardio, cardio, cardio all the time is that you’re only working the same muscles. Ask anyone who runs marathons — the risk of injury to ankles, shins, knees, and feet is far higher, because they’re putting a disproportionate amount of strain and activity on those parts of the body.

To compensate for this, many people — including nearly everyone who is serious about running marathons — do circuit and weight training. They know that you need to be strong in order to run long distances, and that just repetitive running isn’t going to build all the muscles you need to do that repetitive running.

If you’re really insistent on doing huge stretches of endless cardio at the gym, and you’re smart about injury, at least imitate the top runners and add in some strength training, to make sure you can keep doing those long cardio workouts long into the future.

Finally: Just Cardio Doesn’t Keep Your Body Guessing

Almost everything I do has a big emphasis on working out smart. You can’t just find some exercises, wait until things get easier (once you’ve gotten used to and comfortable with them), and then watch the weight fall off, or the lean muscle tone build.

Nope: you need to keep your body guessing by changing things up, and even with weight and strength training, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone (certainly not me!) who suggests you just do the same workouts over and over again.

But that’s what a lot of people are doing with cardio — day in, day out, month in, month out, always hitting that stairmaster, over and over and over again, hoping that if they just put in the time they’ll get the body they’ve always wanted.

Bust Those Myths!

If you can bust that myth — and get over the “strength training = big muscles” myth at the same time, you’ll be on the path to a seriously better body in a lot less time, and without those crazy, near-endless sessions on the treadmill!