Can a day of hiking once a week be the extent of my cardio exercise?

[Anonymous]

Don't much cardio exercise such as running, treadmills, elliptical, but I love hiking in the mountains. I can do it all day, with an elevated heart rate in the target range about half the time I'm going.

Can I get away doing all my cardio at once one day a week?

[Anonymous]

I don't think so. Can you do 20 mins 4 days each week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think so. Can you do 20 mins 4 days each week?

I can but would rather not. If that's what I need to do, I will.

[Anonymous]

Are you doing any strength/weight lifting? If you are doing that regularly, you can probably get away with less cardio.

Bottom line is less cardio is better than no cardio.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. That's not enough cardio. Wouldn't be enough cardio even if you were doing more strenuous exercise. Also agree the best is to add some strength training in (although I'm not great at that myself).

[Anonymous]

Could you find a way to put some walking into your daily routine on the other days? I work in DC and walk to a further metro stop in the evenings partly for the extra exercise. Maybe you could take a 20 minute walk around lunchtime?

[Anonymous]

You can do whatever you want to do, OP. You are a grown up. I would imagine that if you can hike all day with your heart rate elevated for much of that time your heart is in good shape. Your muscles probably are, too. And if it makes you happy and feeds your soul...why not? If you have health issues that the hikes aren't meeting, though, then you'd need to reassess.