should i add gym cardio?

tnx4yourhelp · July 25th, 2006, 07:37 AM

i am currently cutting.everyday after work i go to the gym to lift weights for 30 min and dont ever really do cardio as i walk alot for my work.so today i decided to wear my pedometer to work and back and after my shift i had walked 8.94 miles or 18933 steps.is that enough cardio per day or do i have to add cardio at the gym??

**Cashews** · July 25th, 2006, 08:30 AM

Doing cardio is never a bad thing. I walk an hour a day to go to work and get back home, plus what I walk when I'm at work and I do cardio a couple times a week.

If you're cutting, even if you do walk a lot at work, you might want to do some extra cardio at the gym. When you decide to start bulking again you might want to reduce the amount of cardio you do, but right now it can only help.

Beside, your heart can never be too strong.

**cujo66** · July 25th, 2006, 08:52 AM

Yes, do cardio at the gym. I used to work construction, so I walked and lifted and climbed stairs and carried, but it's just short bursts, you don't reach your target heart rate, your moving so your burning calories, but your not going at the same pace for any length of time. You would think being in south Florida doing all that and hittiing the weights, I'd have been ripped, but didn't happen. I read a thing on fat loss, which would be cutting, that if you only have time to do weights or cardio, do cardio.

tnx4yourhelp · July 26th, 2006, 08:57 PM

ok thanks

johnptracy · July 26th, 2006, 10:48 PM

Just a few thoughts.
If you weigh 125 pounds- who the hell weighs that little, I know - the rule of thumb is that you burn 100 calories per mile. Run it or walk it, the same, a hundred calories. If you weigh, say, 190, you can figure out what you weigh with a calculator.
Take 190 or your actual weight, subtract 125.
For 190 it's 65. Divide 125 by 65 and you get right at .5
So anyway, you can figure out what you are burning walking. At roughly 9 miles a day, and 150 calories per mile, you are burning right around 1350 extra calories from walking. Walking is safe, comfortable, and not likely to over ramp your heart.
If you are doing that much walking every day, you are burning lots of calories. I'd think that as long as you don't let your calories drop down too much - no less that 1800 to 2000 really clean, good protein calories, that you are probably going to look cut as hell.
Just a few thoughts. Add itty bitty hand weights (say 2 or 3 pounders) for 2-3 of those miles, pump them as you walk, and you can burn - instead of say 150 calories per mile - about twice that many calories.
But again, if you overdo cardio and over ramp your heart, it screws with your sleeping patterns and HGH release.
Sounds like you probably ought to keep doing what you are doing.

dcx12871 · October 27th, 2006, 03:40 PM

[quote]Add itty bitty hand weights (say 2 or 3 pounders) for 2-3 of those miles, pump them as you walk, and you can burn - instead of say 150 calories per mile - about twice that many calories.[quote]

An MIT professor on a show said this was not true. Adding weights like that does much less than one might expect, according to him.