Many people are interested in the question of whether cardio exercises are needed when gaining weight, and what benefits they will have in this case. The answer is clear - cardio training is beneficial.
The answer is clear - cardio training is beneficial. But sometimes, this type of body training can slow down the growth of muscle mass.
All the pros and cons
There are many theories that have been repeatedly tested in practice. Let's look at them in more detail. For example, many newcomers to bodybuilding are chasing two birds with one stone. They are trying to build muscle mass, and at the same time, they exhaust themselves with cardo training.
Why can't this be done? Because the combination must be correct and justified. Don't try to lose weight by building muscle mass. For this purpose, you need to use cardio training. First, prepare your body. Do cardio for a month or two, and then move on to strength training. This approach will be more rational.
One more nuance. During cardio, a person sweats intensely. With sweat, fluid and moisture leave the body, and this is necessary for the elasticity of a bodybuilder’s muscles. Therefore, if immediately after such a workout you switch to strength training equipment, the danger of damaging your muscles increases several times.
And as a side note, you should remember that there are many types of cardio workouts. For example, riding an exercise bike or running on a treadmill significantly slows down muscle growth. But, at the same time, squats or working on the abs give the opposite effect.
But other than that, it all depends on many factors. This includes the constitution of a person’s physique, his height, and the volume of already developed muscles.
Best days for cardio workouts
If you are serious about strength training, the following information will be extremely helpful to you.
So, a few years ago, scientists began to conduct experiments. Their goal was to understand how cardio affects an athlete’s muscle mass, and how these different types of exercises can be combined.
It is worth remembering the following: it is completely pointless and even harmful to do cardio on the days when you are training on a strength training program. The best time is days off from exercise equipment. Choose times when you can go for a swim in the pool, but it's best to forget about the exercise bike and treadmill. They have been proven to help reduce muscle mass.
The most useful thing is to start with cardio training in the morning of your free day. You will tone your muscles and remove unnecessary and harmful toxins from their fibers. That’s when cardio training produces benefits and not harm.
Thus, you can simply do 20 minutes of crossover exercises that are included in the cardio program.
Intensity matters
Everyone knows what exactly cardio exercises mean. This is intense, or not very intense movement, over a period of time of your choice. Thus, a person whose goal is to burn fat tissue chooses a higher intensity.
For a bodybuilder, this approach makes no sense at all. If you want to do a cardio workout, but at the same time do weight training, the best option for you would be a gentle speed, in other words, a not too intense mode.
If you perform exercises at an average speed, then it will not cause you harm, but rather the opposite - you will benefit, prepare your muscles for high power loads, and maintain their tone and elasticity. So the answer is obvious - you can do cardio while gaining weight, but you should do it wisely.
A little about running
Let's imagine a situation that might happen. The bodybuilder was injured, and during a break in exercises with strength equipment, he gained excess weight. How can I get rid of it? Of course, cardio training will help. We have already said many times that its main task is to reduce body fat mass.
The most important thing is to choose the best option. Let's take a treadmill as an example. During strength days, it is not recommended. But if you need to quickly lose weight, this is an option. In addition, when losing weight, you should pay attention to such a safe and effective sports supplement as l-carnitine.
So, let's develop a system according to which it is worth exercising so that the extra pounds go away.
Advice one. Perform several short sessions, alternating them with walking. This is just a great way that will bring you back to normal within a month. What needs to be done? Everything is extremely simple. Do sprints for 10-30 seconds at maximum speed. What is the maximum speed? You need to run so that the wind whistles in your ears.
Do several of these sets. Start with 5, and gradually increase the number of executions to 10. Don't forget to alternate them with walking, which will restore your breathing after the race.
Of course, this method does not suit everyone equally well, but still, in most cases it works flawlessly.
Proper cardio while gaining weight
We have already discussed the point that proper cardio training will only be considered as such if you use maximum effort and perform it at a very fast pace. This rule applies to everyone. The goal of cardio is to burn fat cells. This is why tempo plays a role here.
There are muscles in our body of two colors - red and white. The red ones are the ones we use during cardio; they need increased blood supply, because the rate at which fats leave the body will depend on their enrichment with oxygen.
The work of white muscles is aimed at increasing mass - something that is necessary when doing bodybuilding. It follows from this that for different muscles, the load and type of exercise are different. This is the key from which we need to start when we work out the cardio system while simultaneously building muscle mass.
It is best to choose the right cardio system not on your own, but with an experienced person who knows what will be the best option for you. Everything else is up to you. If you take everything seriously and draw conclusions from what you read, then you will not be in trouble, and you will only benefit from each lesson.
There is a lot of disagreement about the compatibility of strength and aerobic exercise. There are athletes who are of the opinion that it is simply impossible to do cardio without compromising strength training. This theory has many opponents who believe that sports without cardio cease to be complete. To dispel doubts regarding the inclusion of running in a bodybuilder’s training program, it is necessary to analyze the effect of aerobic exercise on the process of muscle growth.
The main condition for weight gain is consuming more calories than you expend. If this is followed, even regular daily jogging will not prevent your muscles from growing. During a training period aimed solely at gaining mass, it is, of course, not worth doing cardio every day. Otherwise, excessive loads will lead to overtraining, which should be strictly avoided.
The effect of cardio on muscle gain
Scientific studies have proven the positive effect of running on muscle growth. Aerobic exercise stimulates protein production and increases testosterone, the main anabolic hormone. Cardio does not interfere, but, on the contrary, promotes muscle growth.
Running during the period of mass gain is useful because cardio:
- trains the heart muscle and has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system;
- improves endurance and helps diversify your training program;
- stimulates the burning of subcutaneous fat and makes the muscle relief more pronounced;
- accelerates metabolic processes, which leads to increased appetite, and, therefore, allows you to gain weight faster.
Aerobic exercise provides many benefits during weight gain. But, of course, only when certain rules are followed.
How to do cardio while gaining muscle mass
Experienced athletes recommend long runs at a slow pace to increase endurance and improve the condition of the heart muscle. You need to run for at least 40 minutes. Be sure to keep the pace slow. Otherwise, there is every chance of starting to lose muscle mass. Only a few athletes practice short-distance sprints at maximum speed, most of whom do not engage in bodybuilding at a professional level.
Along with the duration and pace of running, the frequency of aerobic exercise is also crucial. During the period of muscle building, it is recommended to include cardio in the training program twice a week, doing low-intensity jogging for 40-60 minutes. This kind of cardio speeds up your metabolism and improves endurance without compromising muscle building. When there is not enough time, you can reduce the amount of aerobic exercise to one workout per week, but increase the duration, running from 60 to 80 minutes.
Athletes involved in strength sports often neglect aerobic exercise, which negatively affects heart health. High-quality cardio training, performed at least once or twice a week to increase endurance and improve health, allows you to avoid adverse consequences.
Running and amateur bodybuilding
Strength training, aimed solely at maintaining good physical shape, and not for the purpose of performing at various bodybuilding competitions, must be supplemented with cardio. Many owners of impressive weight, pumped up and sculpted muscles visit the gym solely for one sole purpose - to look good with a beautiful body. When pumping up muscles only at an amateur level, and not at a professional level, you should definitely run to be more resilient and fit, since cardio helps you lose excess subcutaneous fat.
The content of the article:
Aerobic training is primarily aimed at combating excess weight; it also allows you to stay fit and strengthen the cardiovascular system. Of course, proper strength training also helps improve heart function, but weight training alone is not enough to strengthen the heart muscle. For this reason, you have to resort to cardio training.
The main goal of bodybuilding is to gain quality mass, which involves mainly using strength exercises. Very often, athletes do not have time for cardio exercise. The main reason for this is the reluctance to lose weight. So athletes are interested in all the pros and cons of cardio when gaining muscle mass. It is safe to say that aerobic exercise is necessary, since a healthy heart is much more important than muscles, but everything must be done according to the rules, which is what we will talk about now.
Aerobic exercise during mass gain
Perhaps someone does not know what is called aerobic exercise. Before moving on to using cardio in bodybuilding, you should understand what it is. Cardio is a long-term exercise that uses oxygen as a source of fuel to keep the body active. To put it simply, during the main loads, which last for 10–30 seconds, energy sources are glucose, ATP and other substances that support the athlete’s body.
During this period, splitting reactions of all kinds of substances occur without the participation of oxygen. This load is called anaerobic. But the load, the duration of impact on the body exceeds one minute, say, running or other cardio exercise that uses oxygen, is called aerobic exercise.
The Need for Cardio in Bodybuilding
When the body is exposed to long-term stress, for example, running, the processes of fat burning are significantly accelerated, metabolism is accelerated, and the heart acquires additional volume. This helps improve the functioning of the cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of developing diabetes and all heart diseases. Of course, cardio exercises have many positive aspects, but one of them is worth highlighting.
It has already been said above that the main goal of bodybuilding is to increase the mass of muscle tissue. For this reason, the blood volume also increases, because there are more tissues and they need to be nourished. As an example, let's take an athlete who has quite a lot of training experience. Let's say that during his entire visit to the gym he was able to increase his weight from 75 kilograms to 110, but there was no room for cardio exercise in his training program. Since body weight has increased quite significantly, the amount of blood has increased.
However, his heart has the same volume as it did when he weighed 70 kilograms. Just imagine the load that will now fall on the heart in order to pump a new amount of blood. Of course, this will entail serious problems with the cardiovascular system. To avoid these problems, cardio training is necessary. That is, if we talk about all the pros and cons of cardio when gaining muscle mass, then, of course, there will be more positive aspects from this type of load.
Cardio and mass gain
It doesn’t matter whether your training goal is to gain mass or you lose weight, but cardio exercise is necessary. Another thing is how much time should be allocated for aerobic training, and what intensity to do it at. If you are losing weight at this stage, then everything is very simple: you need to pay more attention to cardio and increase its intensity. You can even set aside a whole day for running.
At the same time, when gaining weight, it is necessary to reduce the intensity of cardio training and its duration. During this period, it will be quite enough to spend from 5 to 15 minutes on the treadmill to warm up at the beginning of the training session and the same time at the end of the training to cool down.
You should also know that there is interval aerobic exercise, which also helps increase muscle mass. At the same time, you should pay special attention to your nutrition program.
It is worth noting that interval cardio exercises are very effective in burning fat cells. Moreover, if you combine interval aerobic exercise with strength training in one training program, you can achieve good results in gaining pure mass, devoid of fat.
When performing cardio exercises, the main focus should be on your heart rate. It is at a certain heart rate that aerobic exercise can have different effects. Let's say at a heart rate of 50 to 60 percent of your maximum, you can burn the most calories with virtually no damage to muscle mass. This load is considered moderate.
For weight loss, a load that is between 80 and 90 percent of the maximum heart rate is more suitable. To put it simply, with an increase in the intensity of aerobic exercise, the rate of fat burning processes increases. To gain mass, use an intensity of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate for the time specified above.
When determining the intensity of cardio exercise, you should also pay attention to your body type. As many people know, there are three types: endomorph, ectomorph and mesomorph. They are completely different from each other.
- Ectomorphs are naturally thin, have long limbs, and most often do not have the best genetics. For such athletes, cardio exercise for 10 minutes is sufficient as a warm-up.
- Endomorphs have constant problems with excess weight. For these athletes, cardio training should be more intense and special attention should be paid to the nutrition program.
- Mesomorphs are ideal athletes for bodybuilding. They can equally easily gain muscle mass and lose excess weight.
You can learn more about the pros and cons of cardio exercises when gaining muscle mass in this video:
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Genus. 1984 Trained since 1999 Trained since 2007. Candidate of Masters in powerlifting. Champion of Russia and South Russia according to AWPC. Champion of the Krasnodar region according to IPF. 1st category in weightlifting. 2-time winner of the Krasnodar Territory championship in t/a. Author of more than 700 articles on fitness and amateur athletics. Author and co-author of 5 books.
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Date of: 2014-08-23 Views: 23 697 Grade: 5.0
Everyone knows that cardio is needed for weight loss. Many people are also sure that it is not needed at all. Is it so? Personally, I don't think so. I believe that moderate cardio in small doses helps build muscle. And now I will try to prove it.
1. Everyone knows that aerobics (aerobic or cardio exercise) helps. And the higher your metabolism, the faster and better they will be. And the better they recover, the faster they will grow. This is a direct dependence of muscle growth on metabolic rate. 2. Also, accelerating metabolism contributes to the gain of dry mass without fat. This is also a direct correlation. The higher a person’s metabolism, the less subcutaneous fat he has (all other things being equal). Fat simply does not have time to be deposited, as it is constantly spent on the needs of the body. 3. Cardio exercise (that's why it's called that) trains the heart. And this contributes not only to its strengthening, but also to the development of general and strength endurance. And it can even be very useful in strength training. And the load on the heart increases with increasing weight. Therefore, strengthening it will be a plus for you for life.What should be the volume of cardio load?
But this is a good and very correct question. Go too far a little, and instead of gaining muscle, you will end up burning it. Physiology and practice show us (more precisely, it shows me, and I tell you) that the total volume of aerobics per week should not exceed 60 minutes in total. This is specifically about weight gain. Personally, I recommend doing cardio twice a week for 15 to 20 minutes. And this is on days free from basic training. Why is more undesirable for weight gain? Yes, it's very simple. Aerobics is a fairly energy-intensive activity. Let's say running for 60 minutes with a weight of 100 kg will cost you 900 - 1000 kcal. And these are quite large energy costs. And instead of growing your muscles, your body will have a long and tedious process of restoring muscle glycogen stores. Until he restores them, he will not increase muscles. A slow run for 15 minutes will cost you only 200 kcal (for the same weight). But this is also a waste of energy! - you say. Yes, but the increased metabolic rate will soon cover these losses. And the body will reach the level of muscle growth faster (eventually) than if we were lying on the couch. What kind of aerobics to use is not important. This could be running, a treadmill, a bicycle, etc. You can even jump rope. The main thing is that the average heart rate is about 130 - 150 beats per minute.
You can safely grow weight without aerobic exercise. It is a fact. But if you also connect them (within reasonable limits), you can grow muscles a little faster and better than usual. Therefore, do not be lazy and sometimes go for small runs for 15 - 20 minutes. Good luck!
Expert opinion
Alesya Nikolaevna- trainer of the VIKING gym (Minsk).
I agree with the author that aerobic exercise can and should be included when gaining muscle mass, as this will not only make it possible to improve the growth of your muscles, but will also keep your heart healthy. And I want to describe this moment in more detail. With an anaerobic type of load, acidification occurs in the heart muscle, like in any other muscle in the body. This leads to hypertrophy (thickening) of the walls of the heart muscle. During aerobic exercise (cardio exercise), the muscles contract and pump blood into our heart. In this regard, our heart increases in volume (stretching of the heart muscle occurs). The larger our heart, the more blood it can pump out in one beat. In turn, the thicker the wall of the heart muscle, the harder it is for blood to penetrate inside; the heart experiences a lack of oxygen. By combining anaerobic and aerobic types of exercise, our heart grows evenly, i.e. The thickening of the walls of the heart muscle is compensated by an increase in its volume. If you regularly give your heart only strength training, excluding cardio, this can ultimately lead to weakening of the heart muscle. As a result, this can lead to more serious consequences (microinfarction, heart attack). So take care of your heart, gain muscle mass and be healthy.
By the way, you can order yourself
Completely opposite opinions about the benefits of cardio training in bodybuilding can confuse not only beginners. This forces a novice athlete, if of course he is serious about his chosen sport, to look for a clear answer to the question whether they are needed or not, to do or, better yet, not to do cardio.
Some people talk about their necessity and benefits, others that they are superfluous in bodybuilding. In general, what is cardio training, bodybuilding in combination with them, slows down progress or enhances it? I propose to look into this issue.
Why do you need cardio training?
To begin with, you need to understand what is special about such exercises, their fundamental difference from the rest of the training. So, the word cardio (kardia) translated from Greek means “heart”. Looking ahead, let's say that, as the name suggests, this type of load trains, first of all, the heart. Cardio training is also called aerobic training; in essence, it is the same thing. Their differences from the main training are as follows:
- During cardio exercise, the maximum number of muscles work.
- Such training is characterized by continuous load.
- Their implementation provokes increased work of the lungs and heart.
The most popular cardio or aerobic activities include running (jogging outdoors or on a treadmill), brisk walking, cycling (an exercise bike) and swimming. Cardio is performed differently during bulking and cutting. They differ in duration and intensity. What's the use of them? In fact, it is huge, pronounced, characteristic of this particular type of load. Namely, this:
- Training the heart and the entire circulatory system.
- General healing effect of the body.
- Significant increase in endurance.
- Fat burning effect.
Such exercises not only train the heart, but also increase its volume. This means that for the same number of beats, a heart trained in this way pumps a larger volume of blood than an untrained one.
bodybuilder body
increases, the heart requires more effort to pump blood through all tissues, and for a trained heart this is much easier to do. Largely due to this, endurance increases.
Next, let's take a closer look at cardio training in the context of bodybuilding. In particular, we’ll talk about how to combine cardio and strength training in bodybuilding, and whether they are compatible in principle.
Cardio for gaining muscle mass
Novice bodybuilders, in particular, are interested in the following question: should they do cardio when gaining weight? In addition, the use of cardio during this period causes the most controversy among bodybuilders. Opponents argue that aerobic training prevents weight gain by causing catabolic processes - burning muscles. Supporters see only benefits in them. And they don’t just recommend cardio, but consider such training mandatory and necessary.
The fact is that cardio training, depending on the goal, can be different. Gentle cardio, for example, a 10-minute warm-up on a treadmill before lifting weights, is necessary for everyone, regardless of whether the athlete is preparing for a competition or is training in the off-season. This will prepare the heart, “accelerate” the blood, and warm up the muscles before the main workout. Such cardio training will not hurt at all in gaining muscle mass. At the same time, catabolic processes will not occur.
Is cardio necessary when gaining weight? Definitely yes. But, as we said, a short duration - 10 minutes of running at the beginning of the workout is enough. It is better to avoid a greater presence of cardio, as this can interfere with muscle growth.
Cutting and cardio training
Cardio for cutting is longer and is especially important for endomorphs (athletes prone to gaining excess weight). At this stage, a bodybuilder needs to burn excess fat. But, there is a difficulty that plagues many bodybuilders: what and how much cardio to do while cutting to effectively lose fat, and, at the same time, not lose precious muscle mass.
For this you can use classic cardio. This type of training is monotonous and long (30 minutes or more). It is very important that it proceeds in a moderate rhythm, in which energy is obtained through the breakdown of fats, and catabolic processes are minimized. It is important to maintain the optimal heart rate - it is 65% of the maximum value and is calculated using the following formula:
(220 - age) × 0.65 = optimal heart rate for fat burning.
For example, if you are 30, then (220-30)×0.65=123.5. This means that your optimal heart rate should be between 120 and 130 beats per minute.
Also, many believe that the best option during cutting is interval cardio. Unlike the classic one, the load or intensity alternates. Sprint running is often used for this: the athlete runs a certain distance with high intensity, then the run is replaced by a walk, during which the heart calms down, after which acceleration follows again and this is repeated several times.
This workout increases your metabolic rate and effectively eliminates excess weight. It's also a great way to increase muscle endurance, improve health, and maintain muscle mass at the same time.
But doing cardio correctly while cutting is not enough. Equally important is a competent change in diet, which reduces its calorie content. This moment can be called key. Therefore, cardio training alone is not a panacea for getting rid of fat.. As proof, let us cite the following fact: people who engage in aerobics to lose weight, without changing their diet, do not achieve their goal, but, on the contrary, get the opposite effect. This is explained by the fact that such training really effectively burns fat, but at the same time, it increases appetite to the same, or even greater extent. As a result, the person gains even more weight.
Thus, for effective cardio and drying of the body, you can and should use moderate classical cardio or interval cardio.
But you should remember
that an optimally adjusted diet and strict adherence to it is also an important (if not more important) condition for obtaining the desired result when cutting.
From all that has been said, it is clear that proper drying, bodybuilding, cardio exercise, weight gain and nutritional habits at these stages are all closely interconnected. In conclusion, it is necessary to mention one more important point that proves the need for cardio training. The bottom line is that strength training in bodybuilding is not entirely natural. What is meant? All natural body movements in nature, performed by both humans and animals, relate specifically to cardio or aerobic types of exercise.. A wolf running after a hare, a bird flying, a bear climbing a tree, and, if you like, monkeys moving along vines - all this refers to cardio exercise.
This is really true, because no one has ever observed how the same bear, for example, monotonously pulls himself up on the same branch, up and down, up and down, or, in the same manner, works with a log, and choosing it heavier . Yes, it would look, at least, funny. Why is this said? Besides, strength exercises and cardio are quite different from each other. The first ones load the muscles well, but do not train the heart enough. The latter are more harmonious in this regard.
Therefore, without cardio, we can get developed muscles, but at the same time the heart lags behind it.
It is the insufficient amount of aerobic exercise that explains the quite common problems associated with the heart in bodybuilders, which can sometimes lead to unpleasant and sad consequences. Therefore, remember that the heart is a complex and important organ that works for us day and night, with a powerful muscle that also needs pumping, especially if you are involved in bodybuilding.
That's all for now. Do cardio and don't forget about natural vitamins.