Cardio Questions

[Epson Exile]

I am needing your thoughts on my cardio work. I am starting to think my cardio is tearing muscle fibers and therefore I should either change it or make some sort of adjustment to it.

For cardio I use a Schwinn Airdyne AD4. My secession's usually last from 40-50 mins depending on how I feel that day. They all have one thing in common the warm up and cool down. First 5 mins I pedal at 45 rpm, then go up to 50 for the next 5 mins. So there is my warm up and the cool down is the same thing in reverse. For the 20-30 mins between I stay around 55-60 rpm.

My issue is muscle soreness. If you don't know how this piece of equipment works. The faster you pedal the faster the fan blade spins though the air and it increases the resistance. My thoughts are that I am crossing some sort of line between cardio and workout here. Because if my muscles are getting sore. Then it is safe to say I am tearing fibers correct? And if I am tearing fibers I should give them time to rebuild yes? As of now I just keep getting on the bike every morning and doing it again and my muscles are just hurting more and more. I don't mind the tearing of muscle to me that's a good thing. But if it is happening and I don't give them rest to rebuild I am only going to hurt myself. Am I correct with my thought process here?

If I am correct then what should I do to fix it? I don't want to only be able to do cardio once every 3 days that's for sure. One thing I think might work is to do my current workout once every 3 days and the days in between keep the rpms lower for more cardio and less workout? I guess I need to also get a heart rate monitor and see were it even is for this type of cardio. For all I know at 45-50 rpms I could be at 80% and jumping into the 55-60 is to much. I am just not sure.

 

[cmb5017]

Ur overtraining without adequate time for rest and recovery. And im willing to bet your not getting the proper amount of protein and nutrients to recover and in a decent time frame

 

[RickRock]

Re: RE: Cardio Questions

I am needing your thoughts on my cardio work. I am starting to think my cardio is tearing muscle fibers and therefore I should either change it or make some sort of adjustment to it.

For cardio I use a Schwinn Airdyne AD4. My secession's usually last from 40-50 mins depending on how I feel that day. They all have one thing in common the warm up and cool down. First 5 mins I pedal at 45 rpm, then go up to 50 for the next 5 mins. So there is my warm up and the cool down is the same thing in reverse. For the 20-30 mins between I stay around 55-60 rpm.

My issue is muscle soreness. If you don't know how this piece of equipment works. The faster you pedal the faster the fan blade spins though the air and it increases the resistance. My thoughts are that I am crossing some sort of line between cardio and workout here. Because if my muscles are getting sore. Then it is safe to say I am tearing fibers correct? And if I am tearing fibers I should give them time to rebuild yes? As of now I just keep getting on the bike every morning and doing it again and my muscles are just hurting more and more. I don't mind the tearing of muscle to me that's a good thing. But if it is happening and I don't give them rest to rebuild I am only going to hurt myself. Am I correct with my thought process here?

If I am correct then what should I do to fix it? I don't want to only be able to do cardio once every 3 days that's for sure. One thing I think might work is to do my current workout once every 3 days and the days in between keep the rpms lower for more cardio and less workout? I guess I need to also get a heart rate monitor and see were it even is for this type of cardio. For all I know at 45-50 rpms I could be at 80% and jumping into the 55-60 is to much. I am just not sure.

It sounds to me like you need to either reduce the intensity of your cardio or the duration of your sessions. For the amount of workload you are doing, its too much time. That's why high intensity sessions (HIIT) are meant to be shorter at 15-20 minutes with steady state cardio (LISS) being longer sessions of 30-45 minutes or even longer.

You are having trouble recovering as a result, and its too much stress on your CNS

 

[Epson Exile]

Okay I had planned to take a few days off the bike. But I did buy a HRM today. So I will see where I am at as far as HR goes. To be honest though I didn't think I was going that hard. I had read one way to measure the intensity of your cardio workout was to try to talk. And you should be where you can just say a few words at a time before you have to take in air. I didn't ever seam to be at that point. But regardless with the HRM I can see when and at what intensity I hit 150 BPM and go from there.

As far as my diet goes. I am taking in about 170 grams of protein a day. I did try to take in more on Saturday based off the 1g per pound. I ended up taking in 210 that day and I felt like crap. The last time I felt that full and miserable was when I decided to eat a whole box of mixed uncooked jiffy corn bread. Cause to be honest I love raw corn bread mix! lol Needless to say that was many many years ago and I have never done it again.

 

[DylanGemelli]

I am needing your thoughts on my cardio work. I am starting to think my cardio is tearing muscle fibers and therefore I should either change it or make some sort of adjustment to it.

For cardio I use a Schwinn Airdyne AD4. My secession's usually last from 40-50 mins depending on how I feel that day. They all have one thing in common the warm up and cool down. First 5 mins I pedal at 45 rpm, then go up to 50 for the next 5 mins. So there is my warm up and the cool down is the same thing in reverse. For the 20-30 mins between I stay around 55-60 rpm.

My issue is muscle soreness. If you don't know how this piece of equipment works. The faster you pedal the faster the fan blade spins though the air and it increases the resistance. My thoughts are that I am crossing some sort of line between cardio and workout here. Because if my muscles are getting sore. Then it is safe to say I am tearing fibers correct? And if I am tearing fibers I should give them time to rebuild yes? As of now I just keep getting on the bike every morning and doing it again and my muscles are just hurting more and more. I don't mind the tearing of muscle to me that's a good thing. But if it is happening and I don't give them rest to rebuild I am only going to hurt myself. Am I correct with my thought process here?

If I am correct then what should I do to fix it? I don't want to only be able to do cardio once every 3 days that's for sure. One thing I think might work is to do my current workout once every 3 days and the days in between keep the rpms lower for more cardio and less workout? I guess I need to also get a heart rate monitor and see were it even is for this type of cardio. For all I know at 45-50 rpms I could be at 80% and jumping into the 55-60 is to much. I am just not sure.

you need to implement other forms of cardio as well.. try the elliptical and the stair climber for instance... you should also do some HIIT as opposed to just doing steady state... you need to constantly change and tweak what your doing for multiple reasons, this obviously being one of them with the soreness...

 

[Epson Exile]

Well as you all already knew. I was doing way to much. After a few days off the bike. I got on it this morning. Legs still a bit sore but I figured if I took it easy....

So with HR Monitor:
Mins 0-5 @ 45 RPM end of 5 mins HR=145
Mins 5-10 @ 50 RPM end of 10 mins. HR=152
Mins 10-15 @ 50 RPM end of 15 mins. HR=154
Mins 15-20 @ 50 RPM end of 20 mins. HR=154
Mins 20-25 @ 50 RPM end of 25 mins. HR=154
Mins. 25-30 @ 45 RPM end of 30 mins. HR=147

30 mins burned 247 calories
With my age 150 HR is were I have read I should be for the "Zone".

So when you look at what I was doing 40-45 mins cardio at much higher RPM burning 430-500 calories a secession. It is safe to say I was going way to hard way to often.

I can't say I like the calorie burn at HR 150 though. Think I will work my way into HIIT and see how that looks.

 

[RickRock]

Well as you all already knew. I was doing way to much. After a few days off the bike. I got on it this morning. Legs still a bit sore but I figured if I took it easy....

So with HR Monitor:
Mins 0-5 @ 45 RPM end of 5 mins HR=145
Mins 5-10 @ 50 RPM end of 10 mins. HR=152
Mins 10-15 @ 50 RPM end of 15 mins. HR=154
Mins 15-20 @ 50 RPM end of 20 mins. HR=154
Mins 20-25 @ 50 RPM end of 25 mins. HR=154
Mins. 25-30 @ 45 RPM end of 30 mins. HR=147

30 mins burned 247 calories
With my age 150 HR is were I have read I should be for the "Zone".

So when you look at what I was doing 40-45 mins cardio at much higher RPM burning 430-500 calories a secession. It is safe to say I was going way to hard way to often.

I can't say I like the calorie burn at HR 150 though. Think I will work my way into HIIT and see how that looks.

HIIT is a great form of cardio. Just don't overdo it. Keep your sessions to 15-20 minutes 2-3 times per week when you do it, and do the LISS steady state cardio on other days

 

[DylanGemelli]

Well as you all already knew. I was doing way to much. After a few days off the bike. I got on it this morning. Legs still a bit sore but I figured if I took it easy....

So with HR Monitor:
Mins 0-5 @ 45 RPM end of 5 mins HR=145
Mins 5-10 @ 50 RPM end of 10 mins. HR=152
Mins 10-15 @ 50 RPM end of 15 mins. HR=154
Mins 15-20 @ 50 RPM end of 20 mins. HR=154
Mins 20-25 @ 50 RPM end of 25 mins. HR=154
Mins. 25-30 @ 45 RPM end of 30 mins. HR=147

30 mins burned 247 calories
With my age 150 HR is were I have read I should be for the "Zone".

So when you look at what I was doing 40-45 mins cardio at much higher RPM burning 430-500 calories a secession. It is safe to say I was going way to hard way to often.

I can't say I like the calorie burn at HR 150 though. Think I will work my way into HIIT and see how that looks.

the bike is a great form of cardio but it does not burn nearly the amount of calories as the elliptical, stairclimber and of course the treadmill... its nice to mix in there for sure but to really start burning calories you need to look at other forms as well...