Foundation Supplements for the Natural Bodybuilder: Essential Fatty Acids

As discussed in my post entitled “Macronutrients Guide: Fat”, the 15-25% of your total amount of calories should come from fat, since it is essential for many body functions. It is an important building block for all cell membranes, it is needed for the absorption and transport of the fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K), it is used for hormone production (e.g. testosterone), it may be of assistance in the metabolism of body fat, and it helps to the digestion and use of protein. In addition, fat can be also used as a long-term energy source (fat yields 9 calories per gram).

Fat includes Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s), which are polyunsaturated fats that cannot be synthesized by the body on its own, and thus they must be ingested in the diet. However, during fat loss periods (which are often driven by extremely low fat diets), getting the needed amount of EFA’s through diet can be hard. In these situations, supplementing with EFA’s can make sense. According to this, this post ends up the series related to the foundation supplements for the bodybuilder providing information about good sources of EFA’s and some useful pointers for their supplementation.

There are two types of EFA’s: Linoleic Acid (Omega-6) and Alpha-Linolenic Acid (Omega-3). The best sources for Linoleic Acid are safflower oil, sunflower seed oil, flax seeds and flax seed oil, canola oil, corn oil, hemp oil, olive oil, soybean and soybean oil, fresh deepwater fish (especially salmon, tuna, and trout) and fish oils, nuts (especially peanuts and walnuts), pumpkin seeds, and avocados. Most of them are also rich in monounsaturated fats. Some of them (i.e. fresh deepwater fish, flax seeds and flax seed oil, hemp oil, canola oil, soybean oil, walnuts, and pumpkin seeds) are also sources of Alpha-Linolenic Acid, especially flax seeds and flax seed oil, which have a good balance of both EFA’s.

Adding some of these sources to your diet should be enough to get all the required EFA’s. As a rule of thumb, 5-6 grams of Linoleic Acid and 2-3 grams of Alpha-Linolenic Acid are recommended per day. As Linoleic Acid is more usual in food sources than Alpha-Linolenic Acid, additional supplements are typically not needed when following a proper nutrition. Supplementing Alpha-Linolenic Acid can be needed during fat loss periods. Using a fresh source of EFA’s is highly recommended. Go for capsules or pills only if you cannot tolerate the taste of liquid forms. An indicative measure is using two tablespoons three times a day with food. For instance, you can add them to salad dressings or protein shakes.

Finally, it is not recommended to use these oils for cooking, since EFA’s are delicate substances, and exposing them to heat disrupts their structure, thus eliminating their benefits, and even worse, generating trans-fatty acids. If one must be used, olive oil and sunflower seed oil are the best options.

More information about EFA’s and their supplementation can be found in the article “Top 10 Supplements For Bulking” by Big Cat, the article “The Lowdown On EFA's!” by Mike Hajoway, and in the “Supplements” section of Muscle 101 site.

Foundation Supplements for the Natural Bodybuilder: Protein Powders

As described in my post entitled “Macronutrients Guide: Protein”, getting enough high quality protein is mandatory for bodybuilders, since its amino acids constitute the basic material for muscle building. According to this, bodybuilders need about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Nevertheless, getting this amount of protein through regular food alone is sometimes difficult and unpractical. Protein supplements (a.k.a. protein powders) come into play to alleviate this problem. This post follows up the series related to the foundation supplements that must be the basis of the natural bodybuilder’s supplementation regime by going further on these protein supplements.

When considering the presentation of the protein supplements, the most common form is a simple powder that you mix with water or milk in a shaker or blender. In addition to this, you can also find pre-made drinks and protein-rich bars.

When considering the composition of the protein supplements, three different forms can be usually found: mass gainers, pure protein powders and meal replacement powders. Mass gainers provide a considerable amount of carbohydrates along with the protein, typically in 1 to 1 up to 2 to 1 ratio, and some fat. Combining protein with carbohydrates has been shown to improve protein absorption. Mass gainers are very caloric and intended for ectomorphic people who have problems to gain weight, or for bulking phases (especially as a post-workout supplement). Meal replacement powders present a relatively balanced content of protein and carbohydrates, having a moderate amount of calories. As the name says, this product can be an option when you need to eat but don't have time to prepare a real meal. The trouble with these is they are pre-packaged, so they don't allow you to choose your doses and amounts. Pure protein powders are mainly composed of protein (typically up to 90%). They provide a relatively low amount of calories while getting a noticeable quantity of protein. For this reason, they are mainly intended for meso/endomorphic people, or for dieting phases.

Protein supplements are commonly based on whey and casein proteins (though egg and soy protein can play also a role). Both are high quality protein sources with high PDCAAS and BV scores but with different rate of digestion and absorption into the body. Casein takes longer to get to the blood stream than whey, but it also remains there longer. According to this, protein sources can be categorized into two groups: slow-digested (e.g. casein) and fast-digested proteins (e.g. whey).

Several timeframes are the most adequate for having a protein powder. Having a fast-digested protein powder with carbohydrates first thing in the morning can rapidly contribute to stop the catabolic process after 8 hours without nutrients. Having a slow-digested protein powder with some low GI carbohydrates one hour before training can provide your body with protein that will be readily available in the blood stream for initiating recovery just after training. Having a fast-digested protein powder mixed with high GI carbohydrates immediately after training can provide the basic materials needed to refill glycogen stores and stimulate muscle growing. Finally, having a slow-digested protein powder (preferably with none or few low GI carbohydrates) immediately before bed can contribute to delay the catabolic process as late as possible. In addition, protein powders can also be taken as part of a snack during the day when it is hard to prepare a meal (e.g. midmorning or mid-afternoon).

To conclude, just a final word about protein powders. It is true that they are absorbed quicker and easier, and have better amino acid profiles than many foods. Furthermore, they usually come with extra vitamins and minerals. Regardless of this, it is important not to get into the habit of skipping meals in favor of powders. The basis of your nutrition should always be good, healthy food. Supplements should be only a complement.

You can find further information about the usage of protein supplements in the article “The Protein Bible” by John Berardi, in the article “Beginner's Bodybuilding Program!” by Matt Danielsson, and in the “In the Kitchen” section of Muscle 101 site.

Foundation Supplements for the Natural Bodybuilder: Multivitamin/Mineral

As I have already stated in previous posts, supplements can be a great aid for making your progress easier and quicker, acting as a complement for ensuring that you get enough of all needed nutrients, and for optimizing physiological processes, such as muscle growth, fat loss and recovery. However, one must not forget that supplements can never fully compensate bad eating habits or inadequate training. The basic supplements for the bodybuilder (a.k.a. foundation supplements) are those that provide substances that are mandatory for proper body functioning such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, protein and essential fatty acids (EFAs). If you could follow a perfect diet, you would obtain the needed amount these substances from food alone. However, in reality this is often difficult to accomplish. Foundation supplements come into play to alleviate this problem, and should always be the basis of your supplementation regime. This post initiates a series discussing the supplements falling in this category. This first post is dedicated to the multivitamin/mineral supplement.

This supplement is probably one of the most important ones. Many body functions require vitamins and minerals to be accomplished. In fact, levels of these substances must be kept above a certain level for optimal functioning of the body. These levels are higher for bodybuilders, since intense training increases the need of these substances. For this reason, bodybuilders are susceptible to have deficiency in vitamins and minerals if their diet is not totally balanced. Such a deficiency can impair optimum functioning of the body and consequently hinder your growth. Supplementing with a multivitamin/mineral can prevent this deficiency.

There are great amounts of brands that offer multivitamin/mineral. Typically, they differ somewhat in their composition and provide the vitamins/minerals using different shapes, such as pills, tablets, powder-filled capsules or even in liquid form. The important thing to look for is that you get at least 100 percent of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) (formerly Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)) for all or most of the vital minerals and minerals. The DRI provides the daily dietary intake level of a nutrient considered sufficient to meet the requirements of nearly all healthy individuals in each life-stage and gender group. When choosing your multivitamin/mineral, it is also important to assure that the pill/tablet/capsule can fully dissolve in your stomach. A dose (containing the aforementioned DRI of each of the vital vitamins and minerals) of the multivitamin/mineral supplement should be taken daily, preferably in the morning with your breakfast.

In addition, there are some substances, known as antioxidants, which help to neutralize harmful toxins and free radicals. Antioxidants also help control inflammation, muscle fiber damage, and fatigue. They also help to build muscle and improve the immune system. Intense exercise increases the number of free radicals in the body, making even more necessary to maintain a good level of antioxidants. Supplementation can help to accomplish this. Some vitamins and minerals are also antioxidants, for instance vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium. According to this, it is typical to supplement extra vitamin C in divided doses over the day. Vitamin C is water-soluble and passes through your system quickly. For this reason, several smaller doses are better than one big dose.

Further details about multivitamin/mineral supplementation can be found in the article “Top 10 Supplements For Bulking” by Big Cat and in the article “Beginner's Bodybuilding Program!” by Matt Danielsson. In addition, deeper information about vitamins and minerals can be found in the article “Water-Soluble Vitamins For Bodybuilders” and in the article “Fat-Soluble Vitamins, Minerals and Trace Elements”, both by Big Cat.

The Basics of Bodybuilding Competition: Mandatory Poses

This post finishes (for now) the competition series, which tries to provide the newbie bodybuilder with the basics of competition. In particular, this post provides a brief description of the General Mandatory Poses used to drive the Muscularity Round in a bodybuilding contest.

1. Front Double Biceps Pose

Stand facing forward (toward the judges) with heels almost touching, toes pointed slightly out and knees slight bend. Expand the chest up and spread out your lats. Then, have your arms out to the sides flexing both biceps with the thumbs tucked in a tight fist.

2. Front Lat Spread Pose

Leg stance is the same as in the Front Double Biceps pose. Put your hands into your sides with the thumb and fingers placed into each side of the pelvic bone and flared out elbows, keep the chest up and spread out the lats. The anterior delts should be a little forward. Keep the triceps flexed to show more depth and hardness in the arms.

3. Side Chest Pose

Take a quarter turn to the side, so judges can see your profile. Bend your knees slightly and flex the calf closest to the judges (by raising the heel from the ground). The toes of that calf should be right in the middle of the back foot. Put the front arm to your side with your elbow at a 90 degree angle and then bring the back arm across the front of the torso to grab the front hand (or wrist). Keep the chest raised and flexed.

4. Side Triceps Pose

Basic position is the same as in the Side Chest pose, except that the forward arm is now flexed straight down showing off the triceps (which is squeezed against the lat) while the back arm is stretched across the lower back to grab the forward hand (or wrist).

5. Rear Double Biceps Pose

Stand facing the rear of the stage, bring one leg a half step back and flex that calf. Put both arms out to the sides with biceps flexed. Make sure to squeeze all of your back muscles, posterior delts, hamstrings, calves and glutes, while keeping your chest up. A variation consists of extending the arms straight up in the air instead of putting them out to the sides.

6. Rear Lat Spread Pose

Basic position is the same as in the Rear Double Biceps pose, but now the arms are placed into your sides (above the pelvic bone), the elbows are pulled out and the lats are flared outward while keeping the chest up, trying to show your back as width as possible. A tip is bringing first the arms back closely to each side until the upper back is extremely tight and then placing the arms into the sides and spreading the lats out.

7. Abdominal and Thigh Pose

Stand facing forward, extend one leg in front of the other while flexing it and put both arms up over your head. Then flex your abdominal and oblique muscles. Optionally, you can bend or turn to the side to show off your oblique muscles more.

8. Most Muscular Pose

This pose has some variations. For the first one, stand facing forward, put one leg in front of the other flexing both of them and bend your upper torso slightly over your legs. Then bring your arms together in front of your body with your elbows angled out, hold in your stomach, and flex every muscle in the front part of the body. Another variation includes placing the hands on the hip area with the thumbs forward and fingers pointed down or back. Finally, another variation includes keeping both legs together and flexed and bringing your arms together in front of you with hands touching. In all cases, try to keep the pose very tight and compact.

Additional details of these mandatory poses (including explicative pictures and videos) can be found in the article “Pointers to Posing” by Scott Duncan, in the article “Posing: Video & Text Guides” by Mark Tilden, and in the “Posing Advice” section from Bodybuilding.com site.

The Basics of Bodybuilding Competition: Judging Procedure

This post continues the competition series, which tries to provide the newbie bodybuilder with the basics of competition. In particular, this post covers the judging procedure in a bodybuilding contest and the basic criteria used to evaluate the competitors.

The participants in a bodybuilding contest are evaluated by a panel of judges, which includes one head judge and a number of regular judges. All judges’ scores are weighted equally, yet the head judge, which is usually the most qualified and experienced person on the judging panel, is also responsible of driving the prejudging, by calling out the different poses and changes of position. In addition, he can consider additional comparisons or poses resulting from requests of the regular judges.

Typically, contests are evaluated by nine judges (one head and eight regular). Each judge provides a list per weight class ranking each competitor. This list orders the competitors according to the judge’s feeling on the position the competitor should place. The competitor’s position in the list determines a number of points that he receives. For instance, a competitor placed in the second position obtains two points from that judge. Following this procedure, at the end each competitor obtains a series including his scores from all the judges. For instance, a participant may obtain a series like the following: 3, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 2 (assuming 9 judges). According to this, a perfect score in bodybuilding is to receive all 1’s.

At this point, each competitor must throw out his two higher and two lower scores in order to obtain a more unbiased score. For instance, in the previous example, two 3’s and two 1’s will be thrown out, resulting in the following series for that competitor: 1, 2, 2, 2, 2. By adding up these values, the final score for that participant is obtained. In the example, this final score will be 9. This process is repeated for all the competitors, and the one with the lowest score wins.

Sometimes, contest can be evaluated by seven or five judges. In the former case, only one high and low score can be thrown out for each competitor. If only five judges are present, then their five scores must be used (no scores can be thrown out).

In order to score the different competitors, the judges evaluate different criteria that contribute to the overall quality of the competitors’ muscular development. These criteria include Mass, Definition, Proportion, Symmetry, and Stage Presence, being all of them equally important. Mass refers to the perception of muscular size. Definition indicates the degree of muscularity brought about by the absence of subcutaneous body fat. Defined muscularity is necessary to fully display the development of the physique. Proportion implies an even balance of muscular development in comparison to each muscle group. Theoretically, having a ‘stronger’ body-part can be just as detrimental as a having a ‘weaker’ body-part. Bodybuilders must strive for equal development between all muscle groups. Symmetry denotes equal development of muscularity on both right and left sides of the physique. There is a common misconception with this term, which is often used to refer Proportion. Finally, Stage Presence includes posing performance and other factors influencing general appearance such as skin tone, grooming, charisma, and poise. Effective stage presentation is essential to display the physique to its maximum potential.

Further details about judging procedure can be found in the “Judging Criteria” section of ExRx.net site and in the article “Bodybuilding Competition FAQ” by Steve Kidwell.

The Basics of Bodybuilding Competition: Contest Structure

The ultimate goal of an amateur bodybuilder is being able to participate in a competition. This is not easy at all, and probably most of us will never accomplish this goal. However, in order to stay prepared, this post initiates a series providing useful information for the newbie competitor. In this first post, I will focus on the contest structure.

A bodybuilding contest is typically structured in two different phases, namely the prejudging and the evening show. In the prejudging phase, the competitors are evaluated in three rounds. Each round is used to evaluate specific competences in the participants. These rounds are described below, though they do not always occur in this specific order.

The first round of the prejudging is the Symmetry Round. In this round, proportion and symmetry are closely evaluated, focusing on the relationships between the muscle groups. The more evenly developed the competitor is, the higher he will be placed. There is no direct flexing in this round. Instead of this, competitors stay in the Standing Relaxed position. This position consists of standing with heels together, toes pointing out at a 45-degree angle, and lats semi-flared. While standing in this position, the competitors are viewed from the front, both sides, and the rear. Despite being a “relaxed” position, it is in reality semi-flexed, since every muscle should be tight on stage.

The second round of the prejudging is the Muscularity Round (also known as Comparison Round). This is where the real flexing begins. In this round, mass and definition are closely evaluated, by comparing the level of muscular development and definition each competitor has acquired in relation to the other competitors. The comparison is driven by a series of General Mandatory Poses, though the judges can additionally request other poses (a.k.a. Optional Mandatory Poses). General Mandatory Poses include Front Double Biceps, Front Lat Spread, Side Chest, Side Triceps, Rear Double Biceps, Rear Lat Spread, Abdominal & Tight, and Most Muscular poses. I will describe in detail these poses in a later post. Examples of Optional Mandatory poses are Front Victory, Rear Victory, Serratus Intercostals Twisted Crunch, Flexing Calves from the Rear, Flex Thigh and Twist and Rotate, Crab Most Muscular, Hands on Hips Most Muscular, Hands Behind Back Most Muscular, and Flex Hamstrings.

The final round of the prejudging is the Free Posing Round, where competitors are allowed to freely express their muscularity by going through their individual poses routines. Depending on the organizing association, this round can be accompanied by music or not. All components including stage presentation are evaluated during this round, providing an overall impression of the competitor.

The evening show allows the competitors to show the audience what competitive bodybuilding is all about, by free posing with music of their choice. Notice that after the prejudging phase, all participants have already been placed except for the overall winners from each weight class. The winners from each weight class and the overall winner are decided in the evening show after the posedown.

You can find further information about bodybuilding contest structure in the “Competition” section of ExRx.net site and in the article “Bodybuilding Competition FAQ” by Steve Kidwell.

Training Styles for Ensuring Continued Muscle Growth

In previous posts, I have already described the basic principles for adequately stimulate your muscles and induce them growing. However, even these basic principles become useless if you repeat them each and every day. This occurs because of muscle adaptation, which makes unnecessary adding new muscle for handling the same workload. For this reason, I have already pointed to the need of periodically changing your routine, by modifying parameters such as the number of sets, the number of reps per set, the exercises, etc. This is one part of the equation. In addition, you need an overall strategy to be used as a reference for the changes you do in the routine. This post describes some well-known training styles that can be used to implement this strategy, contributing to avoid stagnation, break plateaus and maintain constant progress.

Probably the most important training style for ensuring continued muscle growth is periodization (a.k.a. cycle training). The basic idea is splitting up your training into chapters, where each successive chapter is sufficiently different from the last to elicit more muscle growth. This difference is accomplished by changing some routine variables from one chapter to the next. These variables include the number of reps per set, the number of sets per exercise, the number of exercises per muscle, the exercise selection per muscle, the tempo, the rest between sets, etc. Notice that the number of chapters you can design is almost unlimited, though probably the two most common chapters are “Heavy” (i.e. low reps, heavy weight) and “Light” (i.e. high reps, light weight). The reason for this is two-fold. First, since heavy training puts a lot of strain on the muscular as well as the nervous system, alternating it with light training gives your body a chance to recover and prevents overtraining. Second, while heavy training hits more fast-twitch muscle fibers, light training focus more on slow-twitch fibers. Alternating both, you can fully work all your muscles fibers. Typically, each chapter lasts from 3 to 6 weeks, enough time to determine whether it worked or not, but not too much time to halt your progress again.

Second training style comes from a common situation: After sticking with an exercise for some weeks, one surely would be able to increase the weight and do the same number of reps, or increase the number of reps while using the same weight. This results from muscle adaptation. Obviously, if you decide not to increase the number of reps or the weight, you are not taking your muscles to the maximum, and therefore, you are not forcing them to grow. In order to maintain a constant challenge to the body, progressive overload training style aims for increasing at least one training variable every workout. This can be achieved in a variety of forms such as increasing the reps per set, slowing down the tempo, increasing the weight, decreasing rest time between sets, etc. Unfortunately, it can occur that in some workouts you are not able to increase any variable. Factors causing this include inadequate nutrition and/or rest during the previous days, sickness, injury, mental barriers or overtraining. Identify what are the causes in your case, and respond appropriately.

Traditional training style involves going for the heaviest weight for the desired number of reps for a working set just after having warmed up properly. However, continually training in this way will let you soon or later to a strength plateau. A good way to break/avoid this plateau is introducing periodically pyramiding training style in your routine. With pyramiding, each successive set is done with heavier weight and less repetitions. For instance, if you are performing 3 sets for an exercise, use light weight to get 12 reps on the first set, then increase the weight in the second set so you can get 10 reps, and in the third set increase the weight again in order to reach only 8 reps. Additionally, you can also use reverse pyramiding. In this style, each successive set is done with lighter weight and more repetitions, which allows you lifting maximum poundage before being excessively fatigued.

Further information on these training styles can be found in the “Training Principles” section of Muscle 101 site, while the article “Periodization: The Key To Continuous Gains!” by Matt Danielsson goes deeper into periodization.

Playing with Intensity for Profitable Cardiovascular Sessions

The intensity of cardiovascular training is one of the most important parameters for obtaining the maximum profit of your sessions. Different intensity settings allow focusing on burning fat or improving the endurance. This post details the different goals that can be achieved by adequately setting your intensity and provides pointers for being able to set this intensity easily.

The intensity of cardiovascular training is typically measured with respect to the target heart rate. Traditionally, several training zones have been distinguished. Anything above 85% is considered anaerobic training. Low intensity zone (50-60%) is intended for warming-up or burning calories without stressing the body, though burning a significant amount of calories requires a lot of time. This zone is also a good choice for people just getting started with cardiovascular training or returning from an injury.

The 60-70% heart rate zone is commonly referred as the fat-burning zone, because here the higher percentage of burned calories comes from fat: over 65% according to performed studies. For this reason, this zone is a great option for burning fat with minimal muscle breakdown. Notice that this does not mean that this is the necessary zone for burning fat. In fact, you can burn fat in other zones, as described later.

Aerobic zone (70-85%) is mainly intended for improving endurance, but can be also used for burning fat. In fact, though only the 45% of burned calories will come from fat, this zone can burn a higher amount of fat calories than the fat-burning zone, due to the increased intensity. However, this must be approached with caution, since muscle protein wasted in this zone is also higher. For this reason, it is important to maintain also your effort on weight training to avoid losing muscle. An added benefit of cardiovascular training, especially noticeable when training in the aerobic zone, is that it maintains your metabolism elevated for some hours after ending training, which improves your capability for burning fat during these hours.

Calculating your target heart rate (THR) requires knowing first your maximum heart rate (MHR). The MHR can be theoretically defined as the most times that your heart can safely beat in the span of one minute. There are several methods for calculating your MHR. In the simplest one, the MHR results from subtracting 220 minus your age. This method works quite well, but if you want a more accurate value of the MHR, you can use the Tanaka method, where the MHR results from the following formula: 208 - 0.7 x age. Once you have the MHR, you can obtain the target heart rate by multiplying the MHR by the percentage in which you want to stay (e.g. MHR x 0.65).

It has been speculated that the above methods for determining the MHR are not very accurate, since they only depend on the age. Of course, individuals with the same age can have different sized hearts, stroke volume, blood pressure, resting heart rates, etc. which will contribute to different MHR among them. According to this, some improvements of the formula for calculating the THR have been proposed. One of them is known as the adjusted heart rate or Karvonnen formula. This method takes also into account the resting heart rate by removing it from the MHR before applying the percentage.

Let’s see an example comparing all the discussed methods. Suppose a 25 years old person, who has a resting heart rate of 60, and wants to stay at the 80% of his maximum. His target heart rate using the traditional method will be (220 – 25) x 0.8 = 156. Using the Tanaka method, it will be (208 – 0.7 x 25) x 0.8 = 152.4. Using the Karvonnen formula, it will be (((220 – 25) – 60) x 0.8) + 60 = 168.

You can find further information about the importance of intensity in cardiovascular training in the article “Priming the Cardio System” by Matt Danielsson, and the article “Heart Matters: Are You Training Your Heart?” by Jeremy Likness.

Contribution of Cardiovascular Training in a Successful Bodybuilding Program

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.