Does Cardio Kill Gains & Destroy Muscle Growth? Legion

At one level or one other, most gymgoers surprise: Does cardio kill positive aspects?

Right here’s the way it often goes: You’re coaching exhausting, consuming properly, and getting sufficient sleep to realize muscle. However to remain match, you are feeling you must also do some cardio, even when it’s only for an hour or two every week.

The concern is that whereas cardio is nice to your well being, it may also diminish your muscle and energy positive aspects.

However is that actually true?

Does cardio make you lose muscle mass?

Or have the “muscle-burning results” of cardio been exaggerated by on-line health “gurus?”

On this article, you’ll study the reply. You’ll additionally uncover the errors individuals make that may improve your odds of cardio burning muscle, find out how to mix cardio and weightlifting appropriately, and extra. 

Does Cardio “Destroy” Features?

Mistake #1: Doing cardio as a substitute of lifting weights.

1. Many endurance athletes don’t elevate weight, or in the event that they do, they prepare with gentle weights and sometimes.
2. Prime-level endurance athletes prepare rather more intensely than the typical individual attempting to remain match. For instance, champion marathoners run as much as 160 miles per week—over 20 miles day by day!
3. These athletes typically have an unhealthy obsession with maintaining their weight as little as attainable to enhance efficiency, which may embrace considerably limiting their calorie consumption.
4. Sprinters typically prepare with heavy weights and will use steroids to improve their efficiency, which isn’t widespread for endurance athletes.

Principally, the one factor these comparability photos show is that operating marathons, severely limiting your calorie consumption, and never lifting weights is a recipe for staying small. 

However what if an endurance athlete begins consuming extra and lifting weights?

After retiring from elite-level marathoning, Ryan Corridor did simply that. Right here’s how his physique modified:

The lesson? 

Doing a lot of cardio on the expense of correct weightlifting can burn muscle, however that is a straightforward mistake to keep away from, offered you elevate weights and eat sufficient energy and protein.

Mistake #2: Doing cardio as a part of a crash food plan.

Many individuals who do a lot of cardio additionally comply with a crash diet to shed extra pounds as quick as attainable. 

And this works extraordinarily properly. 

The issue is, this additionally results in vital muscle loss, which implies these individuals wind up wanting skinny fat.

And when this occurs, they blame cardio.

The reality is, any type of extreme calorie restriction—whether or not from consuming much less, doing a lot of cardio, or each—results in muscle loss, particularly for those who’re not lifting weights.

However the reckless calorie restriction is at fault—not cardio

Mistake #3: Working an excessive amount of.

Working causes extra muscle injury than different types of cardio, like biking, rowing, and rucking, which interferes with muscle achieve in two methods: 

1. It considerably will increase muscle protein breakdown throughout and after runs, making it tougher to your physique to construct new muscle proteins.
2. It causes disproportionately extra fatigue than different kinds of train, which may intrude along with your energy coaching exercises. 

Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply operating will all the time hinder your muscle-building efforts.

To avoid any points, merely restrict your operating to not more than 2-to-3 hours of operating per week, and be sure you do your operating and lower-body weightlifting on separate days. 

Mistake #4: Doing an excessive amount of whole cardio.

Research exhibits that as long as you’re following a correct food plan and strength training program, you’ll be able to achieve muscle simply as successfully doing a number of hours of cardio per week as you’ll be able to when solely lifting weights.

To make sure you don’t do an excessive amount of cardio, listed below are some tips that work for most individuals:

• Restrict the time you spend doing cardio to not more than half the time you spend weightlifting. As an illustration, for those who elevate weights for 4 hours per week, don’t do greater than 2 hours of cardio.
• Maintain most of your cardio exercises to 45 minutes or much less.
• Don’t do a couple of HIIT cardio exercise per week.

Mistake #5: Doing an excessive amount of cardio at one time.

Research means that to keep away from the damaging results of cardio on muscle development, it’s greatest to maintain most of your cardio exercises shorter than an hour. Going past an hour doesn’t imply you’ll robotically begin shedding muscle, however it does improve the possibility of negatively affecting muscle development.

Additional help for this comes from studies of pure bodybuilders, who typically do a number of 30-to-40-minute cardio exercises per week with out shedding vital muscle.

Thus, as long as you retain most of your cardio exercises beneath an hour, you don’t want to fret about burning muscle. 

Mistake #6: Doing exhausting cardio instantly earlier than, throughout, or after lifting weights.

Some individuals run for half-hour earlier than or after lifting weights, or combine in cardio with weightlifting, like in CrossFit or circuit coaching. 

Nevertheless, these approaches usually are not excellent for maximizing muscle development.

Doing cardio instantly and even a number of hours earlier than lifting weights makes it difficult to carry out at your greatest within the gymnasium, which often ends in much less muscle development over time. 

Doing cardio instantly after lifting weights is much less detrimental, however may also interfere with muscle development by dampening a number of the “muscle-building” indicators from energy coaching. 

Thus, it’s usually higher to keep away from cardio instantly after lifting weights to permit your physique to totally profit from the energy coaching.

That mentioned, if the one time you are able to do cardio is true after lifting, don’t sweat it. So long as your post-lifting cardio exercises are pretty brief and low-intensity, they shouldn’t get in the way in which of muscle constructing. 

It’s additionally price noting that not all types of cardio have the identical impression. Strolling 10-to-20 minutes to the gymnasium gained’t damage your positive aspects. Doing an intense 30-minute HIIT exercise after which clomping from the treadmill to the squat rack will.

The Proper Approach to Mix Cardio and Energy Coaching

[Read More: Concurrent Training: The Right Way to Combine Cardio and Strength Training]

Does Cardio Kill Features?: FAQs

FAQ #1: Does fasted cardio burn muscle?

Whereas fasted cardio increases fats burning throughout your exercise, it causes two issues: 

1. You burn less fat throughout the remainder of the day, which implies you lose the identical quantity of whole physique fats over a 24-hour interval as you do after fed cardio.
2. Your danger of muscle loss rises.

The principle motive fasted cardio could cause muscle loss is that it rapidly depletes muscle glycogen ranges, prompting your physique to interrupt down protein (muscle) for power. 

Nevertheless, you usually need to do a good quantity of cardio—a minimum of 60 minutes or extra—to deplete glycogen ranges. So, the danger of muscle loss from a brief, ~30-minute fasted cardio session is low.

To study extra in regards to the professionals and cons of fasted cardio, take a look at this text: 

What Is Fasted Cardio and Can It Help You Lose Weight?

FAQ #2: Does high-intensity cardio burn muscle? 

Whereas some individuals declare that high-intensity cardio is much less prone to burn muscle, the evidence for that is inconsistent.

There’s motive to imagine high-intensity cardio is barely extra prone to intrude with muscle development than low-intensity cardio. It is because it typically results in extra muscle damage and fatigue, which may negatively impression your energy coaching and muscle positive aspects over time.

Thus, you may need to lean in direction of low-intensity cardio more often than not for those who’re specializing in constructing muscle.

FAQ #3: How can I do cardio with out shedding muscle?

• Restrict the time you spend doing cardio to not more than half the time you spend weightlifting. As an illustration, for those who elevate weights for 4 hours per week, don’t do greater than 2 hours of cardio.
• Maintain most of your cardio exercises to 30-to-45 minutes.
• Don’t do a couple of HIIT cardio exercise per week.