Cardio overtraining of muscle

**wolfstriked** · 05-11-2006, 04:11 PM

Didnt know how to word the title,hope its close.Anyway I was wondering how does excess cardio cause overtraining.Does it just overtrain the legs if you do a stationary bike?

I ask this cause my job has me walking and climbing stairs all day.I eat about 120gms carbs per day and notice that my upper body muscles look full but my legs seem flat.

Also when you are taking in your PWO shake and your body is primed to accept carbs,is it a total body acceptance or just the muscles that were just worked?

**jp_blois** · 05-14-2006, 01:23 AM

Generally when endurance (cardio) athletes (such as cyclists) speak of overtraining, they are referring to the overload of stress on the immune system and CNS. It would be very unlikely that you have overtrained the legs per se by riding a bike. Overtraining can also relate to diet especially if your caloric intake is chronically short of output. Hope this helps (???)

**tank198124** · 05-14-2006, 03:29 AM

the thing you need to watch with overdoing cardio why on low carbs is the carbs are your NRG sourse so when your body runs out of carbs for fuel during long sessions of cardio it starts breaking down muscle for fuel instead

**sooners04** · 05-14-2006, 04:44 AM

Originally Posted by tank198124

the thing you need to watch with overdoing cardio why on low carbs is the carbs are your NRG sourse so when your body runs out of carbs for fuel during long sessions of cardio it starts breaking down muscle for fuel instead

If your doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach you won't have to worry about burning muscle if you keep the intensity low and in your THR.

**wolfstriked** · 05-14-2006, 07:32 AM

Great replies guys.Ok so its worse than I thought.Right now I do weights on mon/wed/fri and HIIT for 15 minutes on tues/thur.Do you feel that I will lose muscle with just two HIIT sessions per week??

**tank198124** · 05-14-2006, 02:57 PM

as long as u dont do more then 3 to 4 30min sessions or cardio a week i would'nt worry about loseing muscle but be careful with your carbs if you dont want to lose your size

**wolfstriked** · 05-14-2006, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by tank198124

as long as u dont do more then 3 to 4 30min sessions or cardio a week i would'nt worry about loseing muscle but be careful with your carbs if you dont want to lose your size

Gotcha thanks.Ill stick with two HIIT sessions and see how it goes.I dont really want to use cardio for fatloss since I walk all day long for work.I just instead want to increase my cardio conditioning.