   Cardio Questions...
  Hey all,I know we have a few health nuts here and I have a couple questions about cardio work-outs.1) What time of the day is best?  I've heard conflicting thoughts on the issue.  Some argue an hour or two before bed, some say you should do it first thing in the morning before you eat breakfast.  Which one is best?  Does it really matter?2) Should you do it daily?  Is there a reason to not do it daily?I guess that's it - thanks guys and gals.   
  1. I found that exercising less than a couple of hours before I went to bed made it difficult to fall asleep. (In contrast, exercising about six hours before does wonders for insomnia.) In terms of what maximizes your heart health, I doubt it matters that much.2. Yeah, do it daily. You do get into diminishing returns to some extent, but doing it daily makes it a lot easier to get up if you do it in the morning. If you find that you're still tired on Tuesday from Monday's run, you're pushing yourself too hard (at least, harder than is required for cardiovascular health).   ;  Well, I go training at about 8pm, and finish at abou 10pm. I find that a pretty good time, though I also used to go regularly in the mornings (at about 6:30-7am).As for doing it daily? That all depends on what you wanted to do. I go about 4 times a week (this is swimming training now), and I find that plenty enough. It gives me progression of my fitness, which is good enough to get me back onto form.[Edited by - python_regious on May 29, 2006 7:14:27 AM];  1. I'd argue that training prior to eating in the morning (in terms of cardio anyway) could be worse... My (probably skewed and uneducated) line of thought is that you would probably be a little lower on energy than you would be if you trained later in the day. I know professional boxers like to run early in the morning, but then they do their more intense boxing training later in the day.Of course training too late (close to bed-time) could make it hard to sleep for a while (coz I know I tend to stay 'hyped' for a couple of hours after training... even if I'm exhausted). And since Sneftel has the same issue, then it's not just some freak problem I have :>2. The only reason I can think of for why not to do it daily (other than over-exertion like was mentioned by a previous post) is if your cardio workout is high impact. I know if I run too often, I tend to get pains in my legs (and that's even taking into account I try to run on grass to reduce the impact). I now switch between running and my usual boxing training days (hehehe, so one day mainly my lower body is stressed and the next is focused mostly on my upper body). But if you do low-impact stuff like swimming, then I don't think you'd have any problems like this really.   