“Is It Bad to Do Cardio Everyday?”

*photo credit: the Rock, sportster.com*

 

I got asked this by one of my clients.

My short answer to the question is, “it depends,” as whether or not doing cardio every day is “good” or “bad” depends 100% on context.

My long answer to the question, however, involves changing it slightly.

Instead of asking…

 

“Is it bad to do cardio every day?”

 

… A better question would be…

 

“Is doing cardio every day ideal based on my current goals?”

 

If it is, keep doing daily cardio.

If it’s not, stop doing daily cardio.

 

 

Three Questions to Ask Yourself When Looking at Training Frequency

When deciding how frequently to perform a specific activity or form of exercise, it’s important to ask yourself three basic questions:

 

1. Is performing the activity at its current frequency getting me closer to my goals?

2. Is performing the activity at its current frequency NOT causing me pain or injury?

3. Is performing the activity at its current frequency sustainable?

 

If you answered “yes” to all three questions, you’re probably fine to start performing _______ activity at whatever frequency you’ve chosen (whether that’s once per week or 7x per week).

If you answered “no” to any of the questions, you may want to re-evaluate.

At the end of the day, nothing in fitness is ever black or white (so it’s hard to make a blanket statement that something is either “good” or “bad”).

Everything depends on context.

So figure out the context (this changes over time).

Then, and only then, can you figure out what’s “ideal” from a training standpoint.