I have started exercising 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, which equates to 1200 calories burned per workout, according to my treadmill’s computer. My question is whether I would burn more calories or otherwise get a better result exercising 2 hours without stopping versus taking a 5 -10 minute break after the first hour.
My guess is that it doesn’t matter which way I do it, but anecdotally I seem to be a more fatigued at the end if I don’t take the break in the middle. So does it matter?
It doesn’t make any difference. Energy used is mass x distance. You can do it in a few hundred 1-minute sessions with a break in between each and you’ll still ahev moved the same mass the same distance.
I gotta say, though - 2 hours a day 6 days a week is* really *good going! I’m quite hot on my exercise routine, but I’m not even close to that! Good on you! Be careful you don’t overdo it and stop - it’s sometimes better to take things a little more easy to stop it becoming a real chore.
That really is quite a feat. As someone who’s just recently decided to get his ass into a gym, I must say that it’ll be a long time before I could do that.
My problem is, I’m not feeling as good as I was told I would (by doctors, peers, friends, etc.). I don’t feel any relief of stress, and sometimes I get a bad tension headache. One of the big things I hate–and I know there’s no getting around it–is feeling hot and sweaty. I’ve always hated feeling sweaty, as long as I can remember. It’s just the worst feeling for me.
Anyway, congrats on doing what I can’t yet dream of doing.
Thanks guys. Keep up the good work!
It’s taken me 3 months to work up to this, and so far my legs and feet seem to be holding out. The key for me was to put a flat screen TV and DVD player in front of the treadmill. I have tons of DVDs and watching them makes the time fly by. I also have a small fan that blows fresh air into my face and some ice water for when I get thirsty. As long as I don’t get too hot and sweaty I can power walk for hours. I don’t jog or run since that takes too great a toll on my knees.
Now that regular exercise is part of my life it seems strange when I take a day off to take the wife out for dinner or to catch a movie.
If I can keep this pace up I should be able to reach my BMI=25 weight goal in about two months. We’ll see what happens.
Wow, statsman! I thought I was the only one who felt like that! What’s up with that?
(Sorry for the hijack…)
May I briefly continue the hijack? I can? Thanks. I also hate, hate, HATE the necessary exercise. My doctor asked me don’t I feel better afterwards, and I say no, a thousand times no. I just feel hot, sweaty and tired. UGggh.
More related to the OP: Does it make any difference if one does, say 10 minutes, then a rest, and then another 10, or are you getting more cardio benefit doing it all in one 20-minute stretch? On the one hand, one might actually expend more calories during the second ten minutes after a break, since you have a little more energy for the extertion afterwards. On the other hand, if one benefit is supposed to be greater endurance and cardo fitness, perhaps one gets more out of it doing 20 minutes straight even if you go slower. Which is it?
I would guess that if you’re exercising for weight loss only, breaking the exercise up won’t matter. You will still burn the same amount of calories.
If you are exercising for endurance or cardio improvement, however, taking breaks might hinder your efforts (unless it’s part of a strategic overall training plan).
For instance, someone who is training for a marathon wouldn’t break up a 10 mile run, they’d do it all at once, to work on training the body for longer runs. But, if someone has a goal of burning 500 extra calories a day in order to lose a pound a week, doing that through various activities through the day is still going to end up burning that 500 calories.
Continuing off the hijack - I used to hate to exercise too, back when I started getting serious about it 10 years ago. I hated the sweaty feeling, I hated being tired afterwards, etc. I kept at it, and after about 6 or 8 months, I started to like it. Now I LOVE having a sheen of sweat on my arms. I LOVE working hard enough that sweat is getting into my eyes and dripping off my nose. I also feel fantastic after a good workout - though I do sometimes feel like crap after an exercise where I’ve really exerted myself (such as a 10 mile run!).
Since I seem to have started something in the hijack department, I think I’m going to create a thread about it.
You might do a search on Jeff Galloway His training method for marathons includes walk breaks.