Cardio exercises are effective in fighting excess weight, but it is believed that they slow down the growth of muscle mass. Find out if you can gain mass with cardio? The hallmark of bodybuilders, without a doubt, is the large volumes of muscles and their clearly traced relief. To solve these problems, standard methods are used: strength training for mass and cardio to burn excess fat.
The effect of cardio on the bodybuilder's body
The effectiveness of their use has been proven by scientists in the course of numerous experiments. However, at the stage of "simultaneous training", where these two types of training intersect, the situation is no longer so unambiguous. So, according to a study in France, ten weeks of strength training combined with cardio exercise led to a loss of muscle mass. This shows that the combination of strength and cardio exercises slows down the growth of mass and does it quite significantly. This raises a fair question as to why cardio does not have a positive effect when gaining mass.
There can be several explanations:
- Cardio is essentially an additional exercise that slows down recovery from strength training.
- The process of adaptation of the body to cardio is the opposite of that after strength training. The main task of the body in this case is to restore the cardiovascular system, which reduces all efforts of strength training to zero.
Athletes who are aware of this fact during the drying period behave very carefully so as not to lose the gained mass. However, the question of how you can achieve maximum efficiency from cardio while gaining mass and at the same time eliminate all negative aspects has been investigated, and a positive answer was given to it - this is quite possible. It is important to choose the right type of cardio load and its volume.
Choose a cardio exercise bike
Studies were carried out on the influence of various cardio loads and their intensity on the growth of muscle tissue mass. Also, strength and cardio trainings were divided in time. The main goal of all these experiments was to find out which aerobic activity has the greatest negative effect on weight gain.
So, when comparing running and cycling, it was found that after running, the growth processes slowed down much more. This finding can be compared with earlier research in which it was shown that walking uphill also has a negative effect on muscle growth.
Scientists have put forward two hypotheses for this fact:
- All running movements have strong biomechanical differences from power movements, the same squats. This is what leads to a decrease in the results of strength training. When training on a bicycle, the knee joints and hips are actively involved in the work.
- Cycling is based on concentric movements that do not cause serious injury to muscle tissue, which is not the case with running. As a result, the body as a whole and muscles in particular after cycling are able to recover faster than after walking or running.
Cardio intensity
In the studies already mentioned above, it was found that the intensity of cardio while gaining mass has an even greater effect on reducing muscle fiber growth. We can also say that in the long term, excess weight loss is less pronounced with prolonged cardio-type loads. The most intense fat burning occurs with short, high-intensity cardio workouts. In addition, it became clear that long-term cardio exercises inhibit the growth of muscle tissues to a greater extent than short ones, lasting about 20 minutes.
In this regard, we can recall an earlier study, when the opposite was found - fats are burned more efficiently with prolonged exposure to aerobic loads. Dr. Romijn at the time argued that cardio exercises lasting about 60 minutes were effective for burning fat at an intensity not exceeding 65% of the maximum heart rate.
Shortly after the publication of these studies, a special weight loss program was created, which is subsequently used on most cardio equipment. But there is one point in these results that turned out to be very important. All processes that occur in the body at the time of training will not necessarily be correlated with the future consequences of training. This is a very important fact.
In a recent study of the effects of cardio on weight gain, long-term aerobic exercise (about one hour) and short sessions of 4-10 sprint runs were compared. Thus, a more significant negative effect on muscle tissue growth was confirmed by prolonged aerobic exercise. Moreover, no matter how strange it may sound in the light of everything written above, but the sprint contributed to the growth of the mass. This makes it possible to assert that running for short distances raises the anabolic background and at the same time accelerates the processes of fat burning, and, therefore, has a positive effect on the process of giving the muscles a relief.
Conclusion
Summarizing all of the above, it should be noted that an athlete needs to optimize his training program so as to achieve the assigned tasks as quickly as possible. Such a solution may be the inclusion of high-intensity sprint races in the training. This kind of cardio activity speeds up the fat burning process and promotes the growth of muscle fibers.
Of course, in this case, too, the correct approach is required. Athletes who need to get rid of excess fat cells should do 4-10 races at the fastest speed possible for 10 to 30 seconds. By maximum speed, we should mean that after the race they should feel that they have given all their strength to it. But at the same time, it is still necessary to start at a lower intensity, gradually increasing it.
It should also be noted that it is advisable to separate the training of the muscles of the legs and sprint races in time for at least one day. Studies have shown that less than a day elapsing between leg strength training and aerobic exercise can negatively impact weight gain. On the benefits of cardio workouts and the possibility of combining them with strength training in this video:
