I know the recommended exercise is at least 3 times a week

[Ovahk]

at 30 minutes each session. Is that solely cardio however or does weight training count as well? I know some people do a lot of cardio and no weight training, but since January I've been doing 3-4 days a week of 30-40 minutes of cardio, and 3-4 days of 1 - 1.5 hours of weight lifting..should I do be doing more cardio?

[ValidRouge]

Ovahk, there are different schools of thought on this. Body for Life says to do 1 hour intense weight training 3 days a week and 3 days of 20-30 minutes of cardio. However, they recommend High Intensity Interval Training cardiovascular workouts.

I personally like to weight train every other day and do cardio every other day. This allows a recuperation period for your muscles. You absolutely want to be doing both cardiovascular exercise and resistance (weights, strength training) exercises.

Cardio melts the fat off, weight/resistance exercises builds the musles. Muscle tissue is a metabollically active tissue--meaning that it BURNS calories just by existing. Fat does not.

[Ovahk]

I lift weights pretty hard, and I'm seeing the results. I just see people talking about 4-5 hours of cardio a week but I figured they didn't do as much weight training, so I figured it balanced out.

[Lyssie]

I do a lot of both... but my opinion sides on the balanced approach... I used to have like, 1hr weights, 30 min cardio/day or something like that... it was never very even... now it's a little more so, but if you're doing intense lifting, you can get your heart rate up and sweating and stuff, and 4 days of cardio is nothing to be ashamed of for sure.

[ValidRouge]

Awesome. Until I started running, I liked doing the High Intensity Interval Training for cardio. And still do at times. Do some research on that. If I were at my home computer I have some sites bookmarked that are pretty interesting. If I remember, I'll try to find them for you sometime this weekend.

[julirama723]

I think it depends on the person, but as a general rule, I'd favor the "balanced" approach. Strength training is DEFINITELY a beneficial thing to do! I've seen more definition and inches lost since I started doing weights. In fact, I'm wearing clothes that I was only able to wear when I was about 15 pounds LIGHTER because of strength training!

I seem to build muscle quite easily and when I was doing strength training 3-4 times a week I felt I was not doing exactly what I wanted for my body. I cut that down to 2 days and I feel much better and I'm seeing results that I like. However, I do lots of different stuff, like boot camp and kickboxing classes, running, long walks, and some biking. In boot camp, we also do lots of toning and weights, so I guess that counts as a potential 3rd day of strength training. On average, I do about 2 hours of strength training a week, and about 6 hours of what I'd consider cardio-based exercise.

[Maerow]

I HATE HATE HATE excersize. So I fought with myself and finally hit something I could keep doing permanantly.

I do weights every single day along with 30 minutes of brisk walking..BUT. I only do 20 reps each of about three different excercizes, and 20 situps and 20 legups. Might take about 5-10 mins tops. It's tiny but over time I started seeing toning and building muscle in my upper and lower body. AND its mild enough that I will keep doing it.

I enjoy the walking very much, and it's easy to do that daily. But I hate weight lifting, even though I know I need it. So I figured out something I could keep doing. I HAVE to do it daily, or I will start skipping days and finally stop doing it altogether. >.< Some people say...excersize and you will start enjoying and craving it. That happened to me for walking, but not for weight lifting and any excersize that involved stressing muscles and pain.

[Thumper1616]

OMG.........I am soooo not doing enough exercise.

[sadie147]

IMO any exercise is better than none at all. . I also do both weights and cardio. I usually only run about 20 mins (2 miles) ont he tread mill most days, and i'm still seeing the benefits. I do 10 mins rowing sometimes as well but not every day.

I am for 3 days a week for both cardio and strength training (you do have to be careful with the weights as too much is not a good thing), most weeks i get in 4 days, and it seems to work for me.

I don't try to aim for too high of a goal as I will just set myself up for failure, Like Maerow I don't enjoy exercising, so if i overdo it or commit myself to go too many, i know I will stop going (i've made this mistake in the past).