can you overtrain with cardio?

[BJJ PitBull]

Is the cardio system susceptible to overtraining ans the muscular system is? i mean i know you can fatigue yourself and lose lots of muscle if you dont keep your body fueled while training intense cardio, but my question is more along the lines of will your heart/lungs/cardio vascular system plateau much like your muscles will from overtraining?
Overtraining your muscles comes from not letting them recover, whether that be from not eating enough, or not getting enough rest, or working that same muscle group too often right? So the only muscle in your cardio system is the heart and does that need days off? I would think not since it never realy gets a day off anyways, and you are not trying to make it bigger like you do your muscles.
So what do you guys think? If im trying to become a cardio mad man, will the results come faster if i train eod, rather the ed? Or can i go balls to the wall twice a day as long as i keep my body nourished and get my z's?

[Shibby]

I think starting out you need to really listen to your body. You are still using muscle to exert that cardio force and your heart is working harder than usuall. You aren't trying to make it bigger but you are trying to increase indurance. I don't know that you would drop dead, but your may get sick as your body is so weak and the immune system drops, along with other things.

[Stonecold54]

you are confusing the two types of stress disorders the body goes through...there is LAS (Local adaptive syndrome) and GAS (general adaptive syndrome). Local is where if you worked your bicep out then your bicep muscle itself would need time to recover. General adaptive is the response of the bodys general response to any stressor whether major or minor. so whether you get stressed in traffic or squat at the gym your body has the same sequence of horomone response. Overtraining is mostly used in the general term. So in short yes...cardio can overtrain you. When training you must take all your life into account to understand if you are overtrained or not. a lot of people don't realize this fact.

why are you doing a lot of cardio?

[BJJ PitBull]

why are you doing a lot of cardio?

long story, short.....i got my ass kicked as a direct result of poor conditioning.

short story, long....dunno how familiar anyone is with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, but its best described as wrestleing with submission holds (chokes, arm/shoulder/leg/ankle/wrist locks). Basically you wrestle with someone and try to put them in a position where they are either forced to tap out/quit, or go unconsciouse from a choke or have a arm/shoulder dislocated or broken if they do not tap or quit, and they try to do the same to you, usually for a 5 minute round.
Last week i was rolling with this dude who was plain stronger, bigger, and more experienced then me so i didnt expect to beat him, but if my cardio had been better i could have at least stalled in a nuetral position or maybe even pull a few reversals, into a dominant position, but i was gassed and exhausted and he handled me like i hadnt been handled in months!
I can hold my own and be competitive against guys a little bigger and stronger then me and with guys who are more experienced but the same size as me, but this dude was like 6' 210 solid pounds, and im 5'8" 165 pounds, and i was forced to use all my strength, stamina just to try and survive.....and i couldnt even do that!
After my match with him i went on to roll with other guys who i usually do very well against but they all dominated me as well b/c i was already exhausted.
If my cardio was top notch, then i couldve stalled with the big guy and let him wear himself out and then attack at the end.

[Taylor]

if i was in your position i would go to a track, jog one lap just to warm up

and then I would run for 5 minutes, jogging the short part of the track and sprinting all the way out on the straight aways and do that 3 to 4 times a night 3 to 4 times a week


in between the 5 minute sets i would continue to jog one lap or if your getting killed you can just walk quickly, you need to keep your heart rate up.....because in a wrestling match like your talking about i'd imagine your heart rate is up there pretty high so that's how u need to train with your cardio

[BBAddict]

I've done a lot of hill training when I needed good cardio--sprint up a hill, jog down the hill. Really helps your recovery time, which is important for quick spurts of effort in the midst of extended exercise. There's a lot of techniques to train for cardio but it really depends what your goal is. I think cardio with hill training would do well. I also do martial arts and when training for sparring, I ran 1mile to warm up, 2miles of hills and 1 mile to cool down. On weekends I would just do extended runs with no hills to build the cardio endurance.

And yes, you can definitely overtrain on cardio and yes, I have! Make sure you take your days off-usually at least 2/wk. One day of cross-training is OK, but one day of nothing is needed for your body to recuperate. I know the desire to succeed and perform is strong but you have to rest to repair and increase performance.

[lxorl]

run 20 miles a day for a week and tell me if you feel overtrained.

[BJJ PitBull]

run 20 miles a day for a week and tell me if you feel overtrained.

ok dude this is like saying run a million miles a day for a week, as 20 miles a day is impossible for me at this point. But going off of your reply let me ask a more realistic question for myself and tell me your opinion of it....

the longest ive ever run i think was 5 miles, that was in boot camp in '98. Right now i could run that distance im sure, though it would probably take me twice as long.....my lungs/heart could handle that distance at a slow pace, but i couldnt do that for a week as i have extremely flat feet and my feet/knees would ache too much the next day to keep doing it. BUT after a few days rest and doing it again, i would eventually condition my feet to adapt to the stress.....so if i were to run 5 miles a day for a week, which is the longest ive ever run and more realistic then 20 miles, would that be over training?

Also let me tell you guys that i thought of this question 1. after getting beat and 2. after watching the movie coach carter. That dude ran his b-ball team to be cardio monsters!!! they were training mad cardio in the mornings, and at afternoon practice!!!

I like up hill sprint idea that someone mentioned and that is something i will do but my question above is still something im curiouse about.

[Taylor]

your question was "can you overtain with cardio" and we have all told you yes, you can overtain anything

[BJJ PitBull]

your question was "can you overtain with cardio" and we have all told you yes, you can overtain anything

wow! thanks for clearing that up for me.......i got the answer to my first question already and asked a different one in my last post.

[Mr I]

Improving your cardio means getting your heart rate up for an extended period, there are lots of ways, long runs dont have to be the choice, intermittent sprints like the other guy said, skipping, cross trainer is my favourite.

But your a fighter, and other fighting disciplines seem to use skipping and running mostly as well as practicing their moves

[BBAddict]

so if i were to run 5 miles a day for a week, which is the longest ive ever run and more realistic then 20 miles, would that be over training?

If 5 miles is about as far as you can run, then running that distance every day for a week would be overtraining. I would actually only do that distance once a week and do about 3miles the rest of the days--BUT STILL DO NOTHING ONE DAY. It is overtraining to not take rest days-your muscles and joints need the rest. Over time, the 3 miles and 5miles will get easier and those numbers will increase so that running 6miles during the week and 10-12 on the weekend won't be a big deal-then you can outlast those guys in your Jiu-Jitsu matches! Anyway, from my experience, I find running 5days a week to be plenty sufficient for most purposes.
Also, if you have flat feet I would suggest going to a true running store-not a sporting goods store-and having them analyze your feet and strike pattern to suggest the right shoe for you. I paid dearly for just buying a good shoe and then found it was wrong for my strike pattern--the correct shoe was actually way cheaper!

[BJJ PitBull]

thanks guys! all good info.

[Taylor]

wow! thanks for clearing that up for me.......

your welcome