How much cardio each session?

[Fruitbat]

So what do you guys do as cardio workouts? How often? What kinds? In the gym, which machines? How long each one? How much cardio in total? Every day or how many times a week??? Do you do only cardio or do you other types of exercise and/or weight-lifting or weights machines?? What are your motivations? Fitness, weight-loss, training for a specific sport, pleasure....??????

[Fruitbat]

In reply to my own questions....

In a day I swim 30-60 mins, do 20-50mins pre-weights cardio and 45 mins post-weights cardio. Once a week I do a 45 mins spinning class. Weekends I do pure cardio in the gym followed by a swim usually total workout time 3 hours. I used to do more cardio... run, swim and gym every day but now that i swim more, do weights and cycle each evening i no longer run in the mornings (besides which it is dark and cold and wet and i swim in the mornings instead of noon now as I am busy during th day).

I do cardio because (1) its good for me and (2) i usually enjoy it - well the swiming and cycling anyway

[ultra_whippet]

I did about 8 hours cardio this week, only about half an hour of which was at the gym. I much prefer to run & cycle outside, even if it's dark/cold.
I find the occasional treadmill run useful if I'm doing intervals or a measured distance, but otherwise gym visits are mainly for resistance work, and I find I get a much more effective workout if I don't try to do lots of cardio as well.

[Dave Noisy]

I don't like to do cardio in the gym...so i marked less than 20mins. (I do ~6mins on the rower to warm up, per session.) Some excercises like squats get my heart rate up tho, so sometimes it's like interval training for me. ;)

However, i'm doing ~9hrs of cardio a week (three 3hr rides) and from Jan onwards this'll nearly double for most of the summer. =)

[tylerm]

I typically warm up before my three (sometimes 4) gym workouts each week by walking or jogging a half mile to a mile, so only about 5 minutes to 10 minutes usually. Lately I have taken up jogging afterwards, even if I am totally shot, just to get some extra cardio in.

I do get four one hour JKD classes a week, which for the mostpart I would consider cardio. We typically trade off with a partner, one holding pads, one hitting for 3 minute rounds, and even holding is a tough job. I always sweat tons, and am often nice and winded.

I used to mainly run, with light weights, but have changed my focus. I like to jog to get my blood flowing and for some active recovery. Also, adding cardio at the ends of my workouts seems to make weightloss pretty easy when desired.

[scenthound]

I voted 2-4 hours because my most recent workout was a three hour 12 mile run. Yesterday. That was proceeded by a 12 minute ellipitical machine warmup. This was excessive, a two hour run being more in line with my abilities, but it was a round trip so once we (me and my dog) got to the far point, we had to get back. I feel good today. There never seems to be a problem with pushing the envelope with cardio. Can't say the same for lifting. Have to watch out there for overtraining or I get injured.

[fredrikw]

more. at the moment, I give one 55, two 75 and one 120 minute spinning class a week, so... during the spring and summer, these indoor activites are replaced with outdoor rides of hopfully, on a good week, two-three times that.

[fredrikw]

oops, I just saw at the time... I voted for each week, sorry about that... screws up the statistics

[Tarz]

These days my runs are around 52-54 mins. Ideally I like to run five times a week, and weight train for the other two days. Lately however I've only been getting in two or three runs a week for various reasons.

Obviously I go for shorter and longer distances as well. I used to run mostly for between 30-40 minutes but I have not long moved house and it now takes me longer to get to the green-belt I like to run over where as it used to be right on my doorstep. In the winter I will run less miles simply because I can't run over the trails in the dark. Well I could in theory, but I don't fancy tripping over things and running into stuff. I get more bored road running. I can still get off road in the winter at weekends and usually come back covered in mud.

I never do cardio before or after a weights session. I like to keep them separate. Never took to treadmills. I like to run outdoors.

[runner]

at the moment all my cardio is outside

should i count bike rides to cardio? it's in the city and not at high speed..
but 6/ 7 hours a week

running
5/ 6 hours a week

swim
at the moment not
in the past/ future 45/ 60 minutes a week

[surfvegan]

right now I run probably 4 hours a week, and I bike for another...hour and a half or so. Pretty soon the running will be up to...gosh...at least 8 I suspect (and the biking will be up more when I get back into school - I ride there - and I'll keep that up as long as I can, that is until my muscles are too fatigued with both running and cycling and I think i'll throw some swimming in possibly) I only workout outdoors, I tried running on a treadmill to train and almost fell down with boredom my 2nd week, so now: outside rain or shine (and always in the morning or POSSIBLY early afternoon)

[andyO]

I run 5-6 times a week, usually adding up to about 30-40 miles per week, including track/trail and road sessions.

Generally speaking all my cardio is outside, because a) I like getting outside and b) running on treadmills bores me... although I like being able to listen to music while running on the treadmill. I do try to fit in a couple of swims each week (1 mile) which is certainly inside (woah no outside swimming for me in frigid lakes or bogs ). Swimming also constitutes my nod in the direction of strength training. I have cycles of thinking I should do strength training every now and then where I enthusiastically do 3 sessions of it a week, but it never lasts for than a week or two, as I rapidly get bored by it. Leading me on to:

I do cardio because I enjoy it - absolutely love getting outside and running, especially running cross open country on a summers afternoon! Also love the feel of battling against the elements on a lousy winters evening.

Training up for some fell/road races over the spring/summer.

[veganmom]

So what do you guys do as cardio workouts? Treadmill, 30 min, 3-4x a week.

Do you do only cardio or do you other types of exercise and/or weight-lifting or weights machines??

At the moment, only treamdill at home. Toddler is still small and I'm not comfortable leaving her in gym daycare. I also do weights at home. Trying for 3x a week. My reality isn't always the same as my ideal though.

I'm just trying to workout PERIOD. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be with a little kid running around refusing to nap.

In the past when I did go to gym, I also did water aerobics, swimming laps, elliptical, bike, etc.

What are your motivations? Fitness, weight-loss, training for a specific sport

Fitness and post-baby weight loss.

VeganMom

[scaught]

i do pretty intense cardio for 12-15 minutes before doing my workout. i usually use a treadmill and set the level at 8 out of 10 and do a fat burn or interval training routine. this keeps the incline varying from 7 to 13.5 (out of 15). im not training for long distance running, i just want to get my heart rate up for a decent amount of time. a trainer i was working with (before he got fired from my gym) told me this was better than plodding along on a treadmill for 40 minutes if i wasnt looking to be a distance runner. im assuming i burn more calories this way too.

[tempehmomma]

Cardio:
Box Jumps 3x20 1 min breaks on lifting days 3x/week.
It takes like 5 minutes.

2-3 days a week heavy bag work five 3 minute rounds on non-lifting days

Heavy bag work has given me uncomfortable abrasions on my elbows and knees, so I will do 5x400 meter wind sprints, 5 min light jog warm-up, 5 min light jog cool down instead of heavy bag work sometimes.