Some argue that cardio harms mass gain. Yet, who said that cardio and weight training were incompatible?
How could boosting your cardiovascular activity harm your muscle gain?
How to reconcile cardio and weight training?
The cardio and weight training, there’s a contentious topic! Some will tell you that you should definitely not do cardio if you want to build muscle; others will assert the opposite…
And then, is it necessary to favor and/or oppose cardio and strength training?
I’m going to try to get everyone to agree by discussing the combination of cardio and strength training in this article.
If the subject interests you, you’ll learn even more in my book My Bodybuilding Coach.
What does too much cardio mean?
Firstly, it’s crucial to understand what “too much cardio” means? Is it doing a 30-minute jog per week, playing soccer for 1h30, attending 3 45-minute body attack classes, swimming 5 times a week?
In weight training, to achieve your goals, you need to define them clearly. This will allow you to steer your diet and your workouts. Indeed, it’s rare to find weight training practitioners (whose main goal is to gain muscle) running cardio workouts for several hours and several times a week.
If you meet someone who’s working out multiple hours per week in cardio (running, swimming, cycling, etc) intensely, it’s certain that their goal is to prepare for marathons, trails or even Iron Mans.
In this case, weight training is an adjunct to their main activity. It is used for their physical preparation, for example, to improve their stride efficiency and not solely to “build muscle”.
That’s why it is crucial to clearly define your goal: based on this, doing “too much cardio” will not mean the same thing.
The usefulness of cardio in gaining mass
However, be careful, this does not mean that you should not do cardio when you are in mass gain. On the contrary, cardio is important for your physical condition, your recovery, and your ability to carry out intense sessions with a high number of sets.
In addition, it has been shown that the number of sets is a significant factor in muscle mass gain. Thus, you can do from 1 to 3 cardio sessions in addition to your weight training workouts depending on their duration and intensity (continuous, HIIT, circuit, etc).
Cardio, before or after weight training?
For men who want to combine cardio and weight training, another question often comes up: should you do your cardio BEFORE or AFTER your weight session?
It is customary to say that it is better to build muscle first. But it seems almost simpler to explain why you should definitely not start with cardio!
Indeed, many of you still confuse cardio (10 minutes of running, for example) and warming up. However, by acting in this way, you are likely to begin your weight training session while being tired (at least a little) and risk more getting injured.
Furthermore, your weightlifting exercises will also contribute to tiring you out. And thus, depleting your reserves of carbohydrates. By following these repetitions with a cardio session, you can not only eliminate these sugars, but also start to use your excess lipids, burn fat. In other words: lose weight! In short, another good reason to do your cardio AFTER your weight training.
Always a matter of nutrition
Let’s get back to our biceps now. Even with a lot of cardio and as long as your diet is balanced and adequate, it has been proven that cardio will not destroy your muscles. Your body will only use circulating amino acids.
However, the more significant your calorie restriction, the more your muscle mass will decrease; that’s why your diet needs to be perfectly adapted to your efforts.
So take out your calculators and make sure you are consuming enough calories during your mass gain if you are doing cardio AND weight training.
And to go further…
Order the book by David Costa on bodybuilding, titled “My Bodybuilding Coach” published on May 2, 2018 by Amphora editions. 288 pages of advice for effective training and improving your cardio and weightlifting performance!