In most cases, cardio shouldn't prevent hypertrophy (muscle growth) nor cause you to lose the muscle you have.
For some reason, the myth persists that cardio leads to muscle loss. But the truth is that cardio can be a crucial part of a well-rounded muscle-building programme, helping to boost mass as well as offering plenty more benefits to athletic performance and overall health.
Yes, you can do cardio every day and still build muscle, but it requires careful planning and consideration of several factors: Type of Cardio: Low to moderate-intensity cardio (like walking or light cycling) is less likely to interfere with muscle gain compared to high-intensity or long-duration cardio sessions.
No. Your body will not burn muscle. All it would do is strengthen your heart, allowing it to pump more efficiently and get oxygen to your other muscles faster.
Go high-intensity.
“Sprint or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), for example, can lead to muscle hypertrophy,” Rosenkranz says, so higher-intensity training may be better than longer, slower endurance training for maximizing gains.
While excessive cardio can interfere with muscle gain, moderate amounts of cardio, when combined with strength training and proper nutrition, can complement your fitness goals. For those focused on weight loss, cardio helps burn calories, while strength training preserves muscle mass.
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.
High intensity cardio burns far too many calories to incorporate into your bulk. This means that you need to stick to low intensity exercise that promotes cardiovascular health without burning too many calories. Walking, jogging, cycling and elliptical machines are all good options for this.
There's no exact answer for how much cardio is too much. But if you're not a distance runner, anything over 60-70 minutes per day is likely counterproductive—especially if you aren't consuming enough protein or calories to support the daily caloric expenditure.
Cardio exercise can potentially hinder muscle strength and size gains if it's overdone or not properly balanced with strength training. This is because excessive cardio can lead to a state of catabolism, where muscle tissue is broken down for energy, especially if the body is in a caloric deficit.
Cardio should be seen as a tool used to enhance overall fitness or to facilitate fat loss in the form of caloric expenditure. Running long distance and jogging will most likely chip away at the muscle if you go overboard and the overall caloric intake is not matched.
Cardio can interfere with muscle growth, but only under some circumstances. Even if you can manage to eat enough calories to gain weight, you can run into something called the interference effect, where the cardio stimulus competes with the muscle-building stimulus.
"Utilizing sprints is basically a 'cardio' workout that can help preserve muscle mass," Holder says. Look at elite sprinters—they're jacked for a reason.
1 to 2 Weeks: You may start noticing a slight loss of strength. This is due to the decreased demand on the muscles, which causes them to begin breaking down. 3 to 4 Weeks: Inactivity has led to a significant decrease in muscle strength and size decrease.
If your goal is better endurance, do cardio before weights. If your goal is burning fat and losing weight, do cardio after weights. If you want to get stronger, do cardio after weights. On upper-body strength training days, you can do either first.
While cardio is god for your heart, it can also burn more calories to lose weight. If you're already skinny, you'll have to avoid long cardio sessions, which can result in more weight loss. Rather than long jogs, try to perform brief 30-minute sessions which are of moderate to intense.
Muscle is denser (meaning a lot less fluffy) than fat, says Dr. Calabrese. Put another way, 10 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less space than 10 pounds of fat. So, as you start working out regularly and building strength, the new muscle you build may eventually weigh more than the fat you've burnt off.
If you're thinking about incorporating daily cardio into your strength routine, you're probably wondering if it will negatively impact your ability to build or retain muscle and strength. If your goal is maximal muscle growth, strength, and power, then daily cardio may limit your overall progress.
As little as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per week may aid weight loss, reduce fat. A new analysis of 116 randomized clinical trials reaffirms existing recommendations for achieving the optimal health benefits from exercise.
The Science of Fat Loss
Think of it like a balloon losing air—it deflates, but doesn't disappear immediately. Over time, your body adjusts, but the jiggly feeling can be a temporary step along the way.
Aerobic exercise includes any activity that raises your heart rate such as walking, dancing, running or swimming. This can also include doing housework, gardening and playing with your children. Other types of exercise such as strength training, Pilates and yoga can also help you lose belly fat.
There's scientific evidence to support this: A 2022 meta-analysis found that “concurrent aerobic and strength training does not compromise muscle hypertrophy and maximal strength development (1).” In other words, decent training volumes don't appear to blunt your ability to build muscle—even when cardio and strength ...
Good news: You can. There are plenty of exercises that will give you a cardio burn and an abs workout at the same time.