How Long For Cardio?

As a trainer I here the question all the time. "How long should I do cardio for?".

Its a multipart question. How long you do cardio for depends on the type of cardio your doing, and the level of fitness your at.

There are two basic types of cardio.
1) High intensity cardio
2) Slow steady state cardio

High intensity cardio

High intensity cardio is defined as working at about 75 to 85% or more of your maximum heart rate. This is usually done for short periods of time, say 20-30 minutes and done in intervals. You can learn more about "how long" and "how hard" in the article Interval Training Cardio.

Slow Steady State Cardio

Low-intensity cardio is defined as working at a heart rate of about 60% to 65% of your maximum heart rate. Learn more about finding your maximum heart rate. Low intensity cardio is generally done for 30+ minutes. To the average gym buff asking "how long", the answer is anywhere from 30-60 minutes. The real answer to how long depends mostly on the amount of calories your need to burn. If your into losing 1 pound a week, thats 3500 calories. See how many cardio sessions your doing, and the "how long" comes down to a little math. The number of calories you need to burn per week divided by how many sessions you are doing tells you how many calories you need to burn per cardio workout. This is YOUR answer to how long to do your cardio. There is also the diet factor, but thats another article.

Using Your Fitness Level To Decide How Long For Cardio

How long is long enough for your fitness level? As long as you can go, or as long as you want to go. I know thats a vague answer, but there is no definate time to stay on there. I can tell you this; it takes 16 minutes before your body will burn through the sugars in your system and start burning fat.It takes no time if you did your weight training first.

Here's some more cardio "how long" guidelines.

If you are just starting out you can guage how long to stay on for your cardio by when you start to feel tired at 60% of your max heart rate. Once you are used to that, bump it up to 70% and see how long you can stay on. So on and so forth. More isnt always better and like I said earlier, 30-60 minutes is fairly "normal" for how long to do your cardio at a low intensity.

For more info on how long for cardio is optimal, check out Burn The Fat



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Ray Burton is a 15 year veteran weight loss coach who specializes in helping busy moms and parents maximize their results.