10 hours of cardio a week...too much?

[broncojosh]

I'm jogging 45 minutes in the morning, and walking on the treadmill for 1:15 minutes before bed. My last meal of the night is usually around 8:30, and I do the pm cardio around 1:30am, trying to have somewhat of an empty stomach. I don't do any cardio on leg day, and I am taking one day a week completely off, no cardio or weights. I've never done this much cardio before, and i'm shedding the pounds, but at what point do you risk muscle loss? Any thoughts?

[Johny-too-small]

depends on your goals.

[helium3]

sounds like a lot to me,especially if your training hard too.id drop the treadmill walk and keep the jogging,youll easily cut on that.

[perfectbeast2001]

I would say intensity is more important in muscle loss than ammount. As long as your keeping it at 65% (age-220*.7) HR then I would say your ok. Try BCAA before and after to prevent catabolism. Plenty of BBers do 45-60 mins am and pm when cutting.

[spywizard]

I would suggest that you could do this without muscle loss, but that would depend on your food intake and if you were using var or test to stop the catabolic rate at which your body is running..

[doby48]

Depends on how intense your walking is... if you are doing just casual walking and your HR is nowhere near 65% then its definatly not too much. Walking on a treadmill below that percentage is just like walking around a store for a while or walking around work. Its good for your health to keep moving but its not going to hurt you by any means.

[Ufa]

I'm jogging 45 minutes in the morning, and walking on the treadmill for 1:15 minutes before bed. My last meal of the night is usually around 8:30, and I do the pm cardio around 1:30am, trying to have somewhat of an empty stomach. I don't do any cardio on leg day, and I am taking one day a week completely off, no cardio or weights. I've never done this much cardio before, and i'm shedding the pounds, but at what point do you risk muscle loss? Any thoughts?

I only do one hour a day, however I use dumb bells at the same time.
It increases my pulse about 30 points. One hour of curls,ect can
put the burn on. I started with 8 lbs. Sounds light but a few hundred
curls and other dumb bell exercises is an fantastic work. I've seen
some fantastic results form this. I'm just getting started and am some
what hooked.

[doby48]

I only do one hour a day, however I use dumb bells at the same time.
It increases my pulse about 30 points. One hour of curls,ect can
put the burn on. I started with 8 lbs. Sounds light but a few hundred
curls and other dumb bell exercises is an fantastic work. I've seen
some fantastic results form this. I'm just getting started and am some
what hooked.

Keep in mind though you need to keep an eye on your HR, if your HR gets too high you are not burning weight efficiently. It sounds like your goal is to burn fat but not muscle in which case I would personally keep it in the 60% - 75% range. Below is a rough guideline on what will be accomplished based on your HR while doing cardio:

50% - 60% of MaxHR - The lowest level you can exercise in and still increase fitness levels. For beginners or people who have not exercised for a long period of time. This zone can be for just improving your overall health. It can also be a good recovery zone for people who are over-training and need to take a break. This mode is also good for people who want to lose weight as the main source of fuel used by the body is fat stores.

60% - 70% of MaxHR - This is the zone where the heart begins to benefit. Training in this zone will begin improve your hearts ability to pump blood and improve the muscle cells ability to utilize oxygen. In this zone stored body fat is the primary source of energy utilized hence this zone is referred to as the weight management zone. This is a good zone for long slow distance exercise as the body becomes more efficient at feeding the working muscles more efficiently especially with fat as the main fuel source. Fats are 85% of food energy burned in this zone.

70% - 80% of MaxHR - This zone is the most effective for overall cardiovascular fitness and is often called the "aerobic zone" or "target heart rate zone". This is the optimal zone to workout in to increase your cardio-respitory capacity or the bodies ability to transport oxygenated blood to the muscle cells and carbon dioxide away from the cells. After a while you will be able to cover more distance during workouts in less time. Your body will burn less glucose and more stored fat as fuel thereby working more efficiently. This zone is also effective for increasing overall muscle strength. Fats are 50% of food energy burned in this zone.

80% - 90% of MaxHR (85-90%= Anaerobic Threshold) - this level is where you cross over from aerobic training to anaerobic training which is called the anaerobic threshold or AT. This is the point where the body cannot effectively remove lactic Acid from the working muscles quickly enough. Lactic Acid is a by product of glycogen consumption by the working muscles. This zone is primarily for people who want to increase their performance levels. You would characterize this zone as hard. During this zone your muscles are tired, your breathing is heavy and your fatigued. The benefit of training in this zone is you can increase your bodies ability to tolerate and deal with lactic acid for a longer period of time as the enzymes in your muscles responsible for anaerobic metabolism are increased. For competitors it is good to know your anaerobic threshold as many fit athletes can compete at or about their anaerobic threshold. Fats are 15% of food energy burned in this zone.

90% - 100% of MaxHR (VO2 Max) - You will only be able to train in this zone for short periods of time. You should not train at this level unless you are very fit. In this zone lactic acid develops very quickly as you are operating with oxygen debt to the muscles The value of training in this zone is you can increase your fast twitch muscle fibers which increase speed. You will not be able to stay at this level very long and should be used in intervals or sprinting work at the track.

[Ufa]

doby 48 -congrats on post 1,000. When you mention 65% ect. Do you use
the forumla ----220 minus your age times 65%. Or do you mean 220
times 65%. just curious cause you sound like you know what you are
talking about.

[doby48]

doby 48 -congrats on post 1,000.

Thanks!

When you mention 65% ect. Do you use
the forumla ----220 minus your age times 65%. Or do you mean 220
times 65%. just curious cause you sound like you know what you are
talking about.

That is a ballpark way of calculating it and can be used if you want. It is actually more accurate to use the calcuate based on:
Males: 214-(0.8*age). Females: 209-(0.7*age) and use the Karvonen formula for the training zones. ((Max HR-Resting HR)*%X/100)+Resting HR. (where %X =%MAX, e.g. 60) This takes into consideration your actual resting heartrate as well making it more accurate for the individual. There is a good online calculator for this at the link below if interseted.
http://www.bodyforlife2.com/max_heart_rate.htm