• FreeTrainers.com Forums
• General Fitness & Exercise
• Cardio and burning muscle

Group: General Fitness & Exercise

Cardio and burning muscle

Nicco Posts: 5 Joined: 2004/05/23	2004/06/10, 08:27 PM I'm still not quite clear on wether its ok to do cardio while weight training. From what I understand doing a decent amount of cardio will burn muscle along with fat. I have a decent amount of fat on my body. Is it ok to do say, 40 minutes of cardio every other day until i get to my goal weight? Or will I burn a significant amount of muscle in the process? (something i definately do not want to do). I usually workout mid-day and would do cardio at night at about 10 pm. Thanks for reading my post! :big_smile:
Vedakathryn Posts: 1,585 Joined: 2004/05/28	2004/06/10, 09:41 PM Check other posts, there is a lot of information there, but to give you the "skinny", what I am understanding is do your weight training FIRST, then do the cardio after or later in the day. Weight training will encourage the muscle growth and muscle burns more calories (a continual burn so to speak) while cardio is burning while you are working out. Cardio will look for the fat first if there is sufficient supply, it will go for that, AS LONG as you keep your heart rate within your limits - know them, for example a baseline is 220 minus your age (220-age) but that is your MAXIMUM heart rate, which you should not attempt, as even very active individuals should stay within 80-90% of their MAXIMUM heart rate. Beginners should stay within 50-60% and moderate is 60-70%. If you go over, your body will freak out and want that muscle and all your sweat and fast heart beats will be for nothing except exhaustion and often a build up of lactic acids which will make you sore! For example: If you are a beginner with the goal of improving overall fitness, losing weight or reducing stress, exercise in the healthy heart zone which is 50-60 percent of your maximum heart rate. If you already exercise regularly but are aiming to lose body fat, exercise in the weight management zone which is 60-70 percent of maximum heart rate. Build up to a work out of an hours continuous exercise. If your goal is to improve aerobic capacity or athletic performance, exercise in the aerobic zone which is 70-80 percent of maximum heart rate. Competitive athletes may need to add interval training sessions during the week in the anaerobic threshold heart rate zone, which is 80-90 percent of maximum. This high intensity exercise helps train muscles to handle lactic acid. However, train sparingly at these upper limits. Exercising regularly at a heart rate intensity that is too high does not produce additional aerobic benefits and increases the possibility of an athletic injury. Interval training and anaerobic threshold workouts require a high degree of fitness, and is not necessary for general fitness training. -------------- Veda MISERY IS OPTIONAL HAVE A GREAT DAY!
princesslodgey Posts: 1,748 Joined: 2004/02/21	2004/06/11, 07:15 AM The only thing I would add is that you will burn more fat working in the 70-80% bracket than in the 60-70% as although the proportion of fat burned at this level is less, because the total calorie burn is higher, you actually end up burning off more fat. as an example (and I have completely made these figures up!) Say you burn 400cals working at 60-70% of max heart rate and 75% of these cals are from fat = 300 fat cals burned You burn 650cals working at 70-80% of max heart rate and 50% of these cals are from fat = 325 fat cals burned Although the proportion in the second example is smaller, the total is greater. The other important thing to protect muscle is to make sure you don't workout on an empty stomach and eat as soon as possible afterwards