As long as you have the energy for it, you can do some light cardio on rest days without problems. For example, if you're giving your upper body a rest after lifting weights, nothing is stopping you from getting your feet moving with a light jog.
If your primary goal is to build a lot of muscle and you don't mind being bulky, you do not need to do cardio on your rest days. However, if you want to stay as lean as possible, you may well need to incorporate rest day cardio workouts into your weekly routine.
In fact, newer studies have shown quite the opposite could be true: cardio doesn't inhibit muscle gain and may even help it. “In recent years, the body of research evidence indicates that doing concurrent training does not interfere with hypertrophy following resistance training,” Rosenkranz says.
Thus, cardio can help your body repair muscle damage quicker because it increases blood flow. This helps your body build the muscle back up quicker and remove the waste, which results in an all-around quicker recovery.
Rest days don't have to be spent zoning out with a boxset. Active recovery - that's very gentle, low-impact exercise - can be beneficial, too. Walking the dog, playing with your kids in the park, stretching and self-massage with a tool like a foam roller can all get the blood flowing and help you relax.
According to Gam, you can—and should—do light cardio, like walking, every day; however, engaging in moderate-to-high intensity cardio seven days a week is not advised. “I would recommend everyone, even the fittest athletes, be taking at least one rest day per week for recovery,” says Gam.
The answer is no in nearly all cases. Cardio will not kill, or even hurt, your muscle gains. In fact, cardio is a key component to any health and fitness foundation. Cardio adds a ton of health benefits to your overall wellness, and we'll cover those in a bit.
Incorporating HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training) on rest days can be beneficial as it promotes calorie burn and cardiovascular health without overtaxing muscles. Effective HIIT exercises include sprints, burpees, jump squats, and kettlebell swings.
"Working out when sore is okay as long as it isn't affecting your movement to the point where it's causing you to compensate and do something in a way that's unsafe," says Dr. Hedt. "Muscle soreness can be a deterrent to exercising, but it's temporary and the more you exercise, the less you should feel it.
Try to plan one recovery day for every 2 to 3 days of training. Except after a competition or a very intense effort, it is ideal to avoid choosing 2 consecutive rest days.
A study found that doing cardio and strength training in the same workout didn't impair muscle growth or strength. So the benefits of separating cardio and weight lifting depends on your goals. You might want to consider separate sessions if you have sports-specific training goals.
If you're trying to lose weight, you should aim for doing cardio at least five days per week for a total of at least 250 minutes (4 hours, 10 minutes) each week. Contrary to what many believe, you can do aerobic exercise seven days per week. If this goal seems daunting for you, start slow.
“That time when you allow yourself to do nothing is when your body's adapting, particularly if you have done a lot of training and exercise,” says nutritionist and women's health expert Renee McGregor. “A full day of rest is an opportunity for your body to recalibrate.
Rest days are a perfect opportunity for LISS cardio, or low-intensity steady-state cardio. This is a form of cardio where you maintain the same low-intensity pace for a set period of time. Typically it calls for a minimum of 30 minutes, but when it comes to doing it on rest days, 20-30 minutes is a perfect goal.
Whether or not this is doable for you would largely depend on other factors, such as your schedule and exercise preferences. Perhaps the most suitable option may be to do strength training and cardio workouts on alternate days.
For example, if you have been lifting weights, you should focus on light cardiovascular exercise on your rest day. If you are doing lots of running and training for a 10k or Marathon for example, your active rest day should not consist of any running.
When you overdo it on cardio, your body can also start to use its lean muscle as fuel, which decreases overall strength and muscle mass. Meaning you could be losing muscle in addition to body fat.
While doing cardio exercises that focus on the abdominal core will help build and strengthen your muscle, you need to follow a good nutrition plan for them to be visible. For most, this will mean eating at a caloric deficit and consuming enough protein to get those strong, visible abs.
It really depends. It can be a good addition, but is not required for building muscle and losing fat. Adding cardio doesn't mean that it will guarantee results. The 20 minutes of cardio will help to burn 50 - 100kcal (if low-intensity) and 100 - 200kcal (if high intensity), so you can do it if you enjoy it.
By exercising, you'll likely maintain a healthy weight and improve your cardiovascular functioning, which has positive effects on your testosterone. However, working out alone won't cause a long-term increase in testosterone levels, Dr. El-Zawahry says.
To burn off visceral fat, your first step is to include at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise or cardio into your daily routine. Studies show that aerobic exercises for belly fat help reduce belly fat and liver fat. Some great cardio of aerobic exercises for belly fat include: Walking, especially at a quick pace.