How Often Should You Do Cardio?

This is an extremely common question and the answer really depends on a variety of factors.  

First off, it depends on what your primary fitness goal is.  If your current goal is to lose maximum amounts of fat ASAP, then a higher quantity and frequency of cardio can be greatly beneficial if done correctly.  On the other hand if your goal is to gain maximum amounts of muscle then you will need to be very cautious about doing too much cardio and causing your body to burn too many calories for it to be able to have the energy and resources available to build new muscle tissue. 

So, for arguments sake, let's assume that your goal is to lose fat.  If that is the case then, frequent cardio is very good thing.  In general, doing your cardio for 40-90 minutes is ideal and doing this 1-3 times a day will only increase your progress.  Bodybuilders and fitness models have been cutting fat before their competitions and photo shoots using this simple approach for decades and it works like a charm (when performed in conjunction with a good fat loss diet as well of course).

On the other hand, not everybody has 40-90 minutes everyday, let alone 40-90 minutes multiple times a day! :)  

So, the reality is when it comes to doing cardio for the purpose of fat loss, the main focus for most people should be on getting enough cardio, because getting too much is almost impossible for the vast majority of us because of our busy schedules.

That being said, the risk of overdoing cardio actually has more to do with doing the cardio incorrectly to begin with, rather than from doing it too frequently.  And that is exactly what we'll talk about in our next blog post.