Should You Do Cardio When Building Muscle?
Many times people on a weightlifting program, especially hard gainers, ask themselves should you do cardio when building muscle or should you bypass this part of the workout? When we think of adding muscle mass the last thing we want to think of is getting on a treadmill to do a long run to burn that fat.
Although you will often hear conflicting statements that cardio is very important or that cardio can keep you from making muscle gains as it burns muscle.
Despite the negative things you may have heard about cardio it can be done and should be done to achieve a lean muscular appearance.
Cardio serves the purpose of burning excess fat.
It is necessary to do some cardiovascular activity in order to bring out the abs muscles you have been working hard to show off.
Another good reason to do cardio is the fact that it transports the necessary oxygen to the muscles that in turn helps in their repair and with carrying much needed nutrients.
As a rule of thumb you should not do long steady state cardio workouts such as long distance running, rowing, bicycle or other cardiovascular equipment.
Ideally you should do interval type training or short bursts of cardiovascular exercises.
Interval training can be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes doing things such as quick sprints.
Interval training will help with burning fat but keeping the muscle gains and even adding muscle to the lower body.
Conditioning training as part of a weight training is also recommended and will give you all the benefits that comes with cardio without having to get on a treadmill or other common cardio exercise.
Conditioning training can be done with weights or kettle bells and will give you the muscle gains you want.
As opposed to doing cardio everyday you want to do cardio only 2 or 3 times per week.
Hard gainers can do this 2 times per week and get the benefits without losing muscle.
It is very important to do cardiovascular as the long term benefits are huge and will give you not only the look you want but will keep health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and diabetes away.
Although you will often hear conflicting statements that cardio is very important or that cardio can keep you from making muscle gains as it burns muscle.
Despite the negative things you may have heard about cardio it can be done and should be done to achieve a lean muscular appearance.
Cardio serves the purpose of burning excess fat.
It is necessary to do some cardiovascular activity in order to bring out the abs muscles you have been working hard to show off.
Another good reason to do cardio is the fact that it transports the necessary oxygen to the muscles that in turn helps in their repair and with carrying much needed nutrients.
As a rule of thumb you should not do long steady state cardio workouts such as long distance running, rowing, bicycle or other cardiovascular equipment.
Ideally you should do interval type training or short bursts of cardiovascular exercises.
Interval training can be anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes doing things such as quick sprints.
Interval training will help with burning fat but keeping the muscle gains and even adding muscle to the lower body.
Conditioning training as part of a weight training is also recommended and will give you all the benefits that comes with cardio without having to get on a treadmill or other common cardio exercise.
Conditioning training can be done with weights or kettle bells and will give you the muscle gains you want.
As opposed to doing cardio everyday you want to do cardio only 2 or 3 times per week.
Hard gainers can do this 2 times per week and get the benefits without losing muscle.
It is very important to do cardiovascular as the long term benefits are huge and will give you not only the look you want but will keep health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure and diabetes away.