Traditionally, a significant amount of bodybuilders has deprecated cardiovascular training, concentrating only on building muscle mass. Nevertheless, bodybuilding’s goal is not only being huge, but also lean and defined. Although proper dieting is the main (and mandatory) instrument to achieve muscle definition, cardiovascular training can strongly contribute in this process. For this reason, this post goes through the basic guidelines for incorporating cardiovascular training into a bodybuilding program.
Regular cardiovascular training has three main benefits for the bodybuilder, namely enhancing overall health (especially the cardiovascular system), improving endurance for exercising, and burning calories in the form of body fat. The latter makes it a prime component in all fat loss programs. However, cardiovascular training must be carefully incorporated in your program, in order to reduce its negative impact on muscle growth. Remember that the more cardiovascular exercise you do, the more muscle tissue your body starts to use for energy after it becomes depleted of glycogen.
The most important aspects to be considered for successfully incorporating cardiovascular training to your bodybuilding program are the intensity of the sessions, their duration and frequency, and their timing in your daily routine.
The intensity of cardiovascular training is typically measured with respect to the target heart rate. Optimal fat burn is achieved in the 60-70% heart rate zone. Lower intensity (50-60%) burns more percentage of fat calories, but the total amount is not very high. Higher intensity (70-85%) improves endurance and burns more fat calories indeed, but muscle protein wasted is also higher. According to this, stay in the zone more convenient for your interests. Additionally, you can also use ‘interval training’, which consists of varying the training intensity during the exercise by moving between the different heart rate zones. This has demonstrated to be very effective for losing fat.
Duration and frequency of cardiovascular training depends on your goals. During the bulking phases, where the main goal is building muscle, you should do cardio sparingly. When losing fat, the key for deciding the duration and frequency of cardiovascular sessions is maximizing the number of burned calories while avoiding muscle breakdown. Best results use to be obtained with sessions of 30-40 minutes, 3-4 times a week.
It is commonly stated that the most effective moment to do cardio is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. In this point, you have been without food for many hours, and this will force your body to burn body fat as energy source, since your carbohydrate stores are empty. However, this also applies to your protein stores, and cardiovascular exercise in these conditions can induce muscle breakdown. Having a protein shake before the cardiovascular session can overcome this problem.
Some people locate their cardiovascular sessions directly before/after their weight training workout. However, this is not recommended. Doing cardio before the workout depletes glycogen stores. This leaves you with less energy to lift weights, making the workout ineffective. Cardio after the workout might help you to burn some additional body fat, but high cortisol levels in this situation will put you in a catabolic state, inducing muscle breakdown and hindering growth. A sensible advice is to keep your cardiovascular training on your days off. If this is not possible, keep it separated from the workout at least 8 hours.
You can find further advice on how to incorporate cardiovascular training to your bodybuilding program in the article “Don't Just Do Cardio, Do It Right!” by James Cipriani, the article “Not All Cardio Is Created Equal” by Mike Hajoway, and the “Cardio” section of Muscle 101 site.
Regular cardiovascular training has three main benefits for the bodybuilder, namely enhancing overall health (especially the cardiovascular system), improving endurance for exercising, and burning calories in the form of body fat. The latter makes it a prime component in all fat loss programs. However, cardiovascular training must be carefully incorporated in your program, in order to reduce its negative impact on muscle growth. Remember that the more cardiovascular exercise you do, the more muscle tissue your body starts to use for energy after it becomes depleted of glycogen.
The most important aspects to be considered for successfully incorporating cardiovascular training to your bodybuilding program are the intensity of the sessions, their duration and frequency, and their timing in your daily routine.
The intensity of cardiovascular training is typically measured with respect to the target heart rate. Optimal fat burn is achieved in the 60-70% heart rate zone. Lower intensity (50-60%) burns more percentage of fat calories, but the total amount is not very high. Higher intensity (70-85%) improves endurance and burns more fat calories indeed, but muscle protein wasted is also higher. According to this, stay in the zone more convenient for your interests. Additionally, you can also use ‘interval training’, which consists of varying the training intensity during the exercise by moving between the different heart rate zones. This has demonstrated to be very effective for losing fat.
Duration and frequency of cardiovascular training depends on your goals. During the bulking phases, where the main goal is building muscle, you should do cardio sparingly. When losing fat, the key for deciding the duration and frequency of cardiovascular sessions is maximizing the number of burned calories while avoiding muscle breakdown. Best results use to be obtained with sessions of 30-40 minutes, 3-4 times a week.
It is commonly stated that the most effective moment to do cardio is first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. In this point, you have been without food for many hours, and this will force your body to burn body fat as energy source, since your carbohydrate stores are empty. However, this also applies to your protein stores, and cardiovascular exercise in these conditions can induce muscle breakdown. Having a protein shake before the cardiovascular session can overcome this problem.
Some people locate their cardiovascular sessions directly before/after their weight training workout. However, this is not recommended. Doing cardio before the workout depletes glycogen stores. This leaves you with less energy to lift weights, making the workout ineffective. Cardio after the workout might help you to burn some additional body fat, but high cortisol levels in this situation will put you in a catabolic state, inducing muscle breakdown and hindering growth. A sensible advice is to keep your cardiovascular training on your days off. If this is not possible, keep it separated from the workout at least 8 hours.
You can find further advice on how to incorporate cardiovascular training to your bodybuilding program in the article “Don't Just Do Cardio, Do It Right!” by James Cipriani, the article “Not All Cardio Is Created Equal” by Mike Hajoway, and the “Cardio” section of Muscle 101 site.
Posts
