Is Your Cardio A Waste of Time?

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

Now, how long to cardio for fat burning can be interpreted in two different ways:

For how many weeks or months (I believe you are not thinking days!!) do I have to do cardio to get in a good shape? Or how long in duration a cardio session should be for effective fat loss.

I’d answer the first question like that: You will do cardio for as long as it takes. You will do it till you reach your goal. It might be 3 months, or it might be 2 years. It all depends on your current shape and your desired final destination. But keep in mind you should be losing not more than 2lb a week. 1lb is ideal. And it should all come from fat and not muscle tissue.

In order to be effective at doing cardio you need to know these basic rules:

You are better off doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach or any time during the day, after the workout with weights. The reason being only then your glycogen stores (your own carbohydrate stores) will be depleted or at least very low. In this situation your body will resort to using fat for energy.