Cardio and Muscle Mass

[SmooveMooves]

Does cardio negate "gains" made in the gym.

If you belive so, or not, please briefly tell me why. I have done a little research but would like to hear from 'real guys' I know who are doing the 'real thing.'

 

[Armourhead]

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/cardio-and-mass-gains.html/

 

[AttackFormation]

If you do cardio to the point that it harms your physiology, or you exhaust yourself with cardio and then immediately go to lift, or you don't eat enough to do both cardio and lift, it will negate gains.

If you don't do cardio to the point that your body goes into a resting state of catabolism, you eat enough to do both cardio and lift and you take the rest you need in between the two things if you do something like a combined cardio+lifting workout, it will not negate gains.

A constant you have to keep in mind is the workload you're putting the body under. Cardio + lifting is a higher workload than either of the two alone, assuming duration and such is unchanged. So you will need to be on point with your sleeping, eating and stress level.

 

[Armourhead]

Yeah, try and keep them both on the same day, that way your rest days are for actual rest. Cardio is fine just don't go overboard with very long runs or intense ones.

 

[Colossus]

Depends.

The short answer (and scientific consensus) is that anything more than twice weekly, 30 minute sessions of LISS (low-intensity steady state) cardio will probably impede muscle gains. HIIT is actually superior at lipid oxidation, and takes less time, thus sparing more muscle. Two HIIT sessions a week are probably better if muscle gain is your goal. Or if pure size is your goal, no cardio at all.

The main thing to understand is that cardio and strength or hypertrophy training are competing interests for the body. Muscle mass is a metabolic liability from a cardio standpoint, so your body will start to make changes the more your oxygen demand increases over time. Hypertrophy is an anabolic process, meaning you need a stimulus (hard training) and an excess of substrate (food) to facilitate this process.

Mass has to come from somewhere. There has to be an excess of substrate to produce new mass, this is a law of thermodynamics. If you are going on a couple 5k runs each week, sure you can still be in great overall shape, you just aren't going to be gaining much new muscle mass. Not only do you burn several thousand calories in doing so, but running and lifting for size are metabolically competitive processes.

 

[Tictac]

Cardio training and muscle mass building will eventually conflict. But that happens at so high a fitness level for each exercise form that most guys never need even think about it.

 

[Tenacity]

Does cardio negate "gains" made in the gym.

If you belive so, or not, please briefly tell me why. I have done a little research but would like to hear from 'real guys' I know who are doing the 'real thing.'

Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask my boy Marmel, he will say never EVER do cardio.

If you ask Tenacity, I say your level of cardio should align with your current fat levels using the following:

- Overweight: These are people who are overweight and just trying to get back in the game. I would do a solid HITT cardio program for 4 days a week to get the metabolism back to where it needs to be. I would only do cardio during this time and go for about 30 days.

- Average: These are people who aren't as overweight or just completed the above stage, now I would add in weight lifting for 3 days a week and take cardio down to 3 times a week.

- Good BF Percentage: These are guys who completed the above, just shift it now to doing cardio 0 - 2 times a week and weightlifting about 4 times a week. Stay here forever just to basically maintain everything you have while still adding more layers of muscle.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Does cardio negate "gains" made in the gym.

Precisely define the words cardio and gains. That will get you closer to your answer.

 

[marmel75]

Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask my boy Marmel, he will say never EVER do cardio.

If you ask Tenacity, I say your level of cardio should align with your current fat levels using the following:

- Overweight: These are people who are overweight and just trying to get back in the game. I would do a solid HITT cardio program for 4 days a week to get the metabolism back to where it needs to be. I would only do cardio during this time and go for about 30 days.

- Average: These are people who aren't as overweight or just completed the above stage, now I would add in weight lifting for 3 days a week and take cardio down to 3 times a week.

- Good BF Percentage: These are guys who completed the above, just shift it now to doing cardio 0 - 2 times a week and weightlifting about 4 times a week. Stay here forever just to basically maintain everything you have while still adding more layers of muscle.

I wouldn't say never do cardio. It depends on what your goal is. If your goal is to try and simply increase heart health and gain some health benefits then cardio is great.

In terms of fat burning ability, cardio is simply inferior. Unless it's HIIT. Except the problem is most people think they are doing HIIT but really aren't because they don't push themselves hard enough on the sprint portion.

 

[Who Dares Win]

I've been doing mma 3 times a week, my weight is the same (I upped calories) but my progress with weights is much slower than it was before.

Also despite my muscles perform as good as before in terms of strenght and much more in terms of endurance, they are not as full and swole.

So to answer your question it depends what you're lokking for, if you added cardio to get a six pack decreasing body fat its one thing which involves a planned diet, if you added cardio just because you like to do it as long as you add the extra calories burned and recover day by day the loss in terms of progress should be minimal.

In my case the mma traning alone burns the **** out of my body, probably even more than the actual sparring.

 

[AttackFormation]

In my case the mma traning alone burns the **** out of my body, probably even more than the actual sparring.

Tell me about it... jesus fvcking christ, nothing is cardio like constant takedowns and defense against takedowns while pressed up against a wall. You press and push and lift until one of you goes down, and when he does, you get right back up and do it again and again and again. That's what all the cardio bunnies in the gym should be doing, not jogging on those bands.

 

[Who Dares Win]

Tell me about it... jesus fvcking christ, nothing is cardio like constant takedowns and defense against takedowns while pressed up against a wall. You press and push and lift until one of you goes down, and when he does, you get right back up and do it again and again and again. That's what all the cardio bunnies in the gym should be doing, not jogging on those bands.

In my case my teacher wants to condition us to war I guess, the warming up is a non stop blood bath (that exercise you talked about too), while we fight at least we manage to breath a couple of seconds while we hold a chocke or a triangle.

Dont get me wrong Im not complaining, my conditioning has never been better but honestly before starting my lessons I feel some psychological discomfort that goes away only after its over, even sparring with bigger guys doesnt bother me anymore since its surely not as painful.

Did you do also that nonstop dumbell punching while moving in circle supersetted with the iron bar up your head and in front of your chest?

 

[AttackFormation]

In my case my teacher wants to condition us to war I guess, the warming up is a non stop blood bath (that exercise you talked about too), while we fight at least we manage to breath a couple of seconds while we hold a chocke or a triangle.

Dont get me wrong Im not complaining, my conditioning has never been better but honestly before starting my lessons I feel some psychological discomfort that goes away only after its over, even sparring with bigger guys doesnt bother me anymore since its surely not as painful.

Did you do also that nonstop dumbell punching while moving in circle supersetted with the iron bar up your head and in front of your chest?

Nope, that sounds like it'd fit right in our muay thai sessions though... but at least it's not against an opponent. Non-stop takedowns is probably the most exhaustive kind of training I've experienced. Where are you at by the way?

 

[Who Dares Win]

Nope, that sounds like it'd fit right in our muay thai sessions though... but at least it's not against an opponent. Non-stop takedowns is probably the most exhaustive kind of training I've experienced. Where are you at by the way?

What do you mean where I am? you mean in terms of techinques knowledge or conditioning?

 

[AttackFormation]

What do you mean where I am? you mean in terms of techinques knowledge or conditioning?

Haha no, I mean location. Although I guess maybe there's a reason why you haven't posted it, so nevermind in that case.

 

[Who Dares Win]

Haha no, I mean location. Although I guess maybe there's a reason why you haven't posted it, so nevermind in that case.

Ahaha well currently in south Europe, dont know for how long since I usually move every 4-5 yrs, my staying in eastern europe in my mid 20s is one of the reason I decided to train MMA...a matter of survival

 

[Sho-No-Luv]

Ahaha well currently in south Europe, dont know for how long since I usually move every 4-5 yrs, my staying in eastern europe in my mid 20s is one of the reason I decided to train MMA...a matter of survival

Wow, I've heard it was bad there, but is it that bad?

 

[EyeBRollin]

Lifting heavy weights is cardio.

Go through a squat workout and monitor your heart rate and sweat. Also, the resting heart rate of powerlifter is often comparable to an endurance athlete.

 

[mrgoodstuff]

Does cardio negate "gains" made in the gym.

If you belive so, or not, please briefly tell me why. I have done a little research but would like to hear from 'real guys' I know who are doing the 'real thing.'

Not unless you over do it. Heart health is important for sports too... 20-30 minutes 3 days a week is not too much. You can always walk or do stairs.

Also instead of overdoing cardio you can under-eat instead, on under-eat days just make sure you have enough protein and cut carbs and some fat.

 

[marmel75]

No, unless you do a lot of it...like 45 minutes or more at a time