At one level or one other, most gymgoers surprise: Does cardio kill positive aspects?
Right here’s the way it normally goes: You’re coaching arduous, consuming properly, and getting sufficient sleep to achieve muscle. However to remain match, you’re feeling you must also do some cardio, even when it’s only for an hour or two every week.
The concern is that whereas cardio is sweet in your well being, it may additionally diminish your muscle and energy positive aspects.
However is that actually true?
Does cardio make you lose muscle mass?
Or have the “muscle-burning results” of cardio been exaggerated by on-line health “gurus?”
On this article, you’ll study the reply. You’ll additionally uncover the errors folks make that may enhance your odds of cardio burning muscle, methods to mix cardio and weightlifting appropriately, and extra.
Does Cardio “Destroy” Positive aspects?
When folks ask, “Does cardio lose muscle mass?”, what they actually imply is “Does cardio break down the contractile proteins that make up your muscle groups?”
And the reply is it may possibly should you do virtually every part flawed together with your weight loss plan and coaching.
In different phrases, cardio received’t hamper your positive aspects should you eat and prepare correctly. In reality, it can probably enhance your well being and health in quite a few methods.
Let’s focus on the six most typical errors folks make that enhance the chances cardio burns muscle.
Mistake #1: Doing cardio as a substitute of lifting weights.
Though many individuals blame cardio train for burning muscle, an absence of weightlifting is extra typically the issue.
Health influencers typically make deceptive comparisons between marathon runners, who’re usually very lean, and sprinters, who’re normally muscular. They recommend that doing plenty of slow-paced, steady-state cardio will make you skinny, whereas specializing in weightlifting with out a lot cardio will make you appear like a bodybuilder.
This line of reasoning is the way you get photos like these:
After all, this argument ignores a number of information:
- Many endurance athletes don’t raise weight, or in the event that they do, they prepare with gentle weights and sometimes.
- Prime-level endurance athletes prepare rather more intensely than the typical individual attempting to remain match. For instance, champion marathoners run as much as 160 miles per week—over 20 miles each day!
- These athletes typically have an unhealthy obsession with preserving their weight as little as doable to enhance efficiency, which may embrace considerably limiting their calorie consumption.
- Sprinters typically prepare with heavy weights and should use steroids to enhance their efficiency, which isn’t frequent for endurance athletes.
Mainly, the one factor these comparability photos show is that operating marathons, severely proscribing your calorie consumption, and never lifting weights is a recipe for staying small.
However what if an endurance athlete begins consuming extra and lifting weights?
After retiring from elite-level marathoning, Ryan Corridor did simply that. Right here’s how his physique modified:
The lesson?
Doing plenty of cardio on the expense of correct weightlifting can burn muscle, however that is a straightforward mistake to keep away from, offered you raise weights and eat sufficient energy and protein.
Mistake #2: Doing cardio as a part of a crash weight loss plan.
Many individuals who do plenty of cardio additionally observe a crash weight loss plan to drop a few pounds as quick as doable.
And this works extraordinarily properly.
The issue is, this additionally results in important muscle loss, which suggests these folks wind up trying skinny fats.
And when this occurs, they blame cardio.
The reality is, any type of excessive calorie restriction—whether or not from consuming much less, doing plenty of cardio, or each—results in muscle loss, particularly should you’re not lifting weights.
However the reckless calorie restriction is at fault—not cardio
Mistake #3: Working an excessive amount of.
Does operating burn muscle?
Type of.
Working causes extra muscle injury than different types of cardio, like biking, rowing, and rucking, which interferes with muscle acquire in two methods:
- It considerably will increase muscle protein breakdown throughout and after runs, making it tougher in your physique to construct new muscle proteins.
- It causes disproportionately extra fatigue than different kinds of train, which may intrude together with your energy coaching exercises.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t imply operating will all the time hinder your muscle-building efforts.
To keep away from any points, merely restrict your operating to not more than 2-to-3 hours of operating per week, and ensure you do your operating and lower-body weightlifting on separate days.
Mistake #4: Doing an excessive amount of complete cardio.
Your physique has a restricted capability to get well from coaching, and should you’re already lifting weights 3-to-5 instances weekly, piling on a number of hours of cardio may be an excessive amount of.
Once more, nevertheless, the difficulty isn’t cardio itself however how a lot you do.
Analysis reveals that as long as you’re following a correct weight loss plan and energy coaching program, you may acquire muscle simply as successfully doing a number of hours of cardio per week as you may when solely lifting weights.
To make sure you don’t do an excessive amount of cardio, listed here are some pointers that work for most individuals:
- Restrict the time you spend doing cardio to not more than half the time you spend weightlifting. As an illustration, should you raise weights for 4 hours per week, don’t do greater than 2 hours of cardio.
- Maintain most of your cardio exercises to 45 minutes or much less.
- Don’t do multiple HIIT cardio exercise per week.
Mistake #5: Doing an excessive amount of cardio at one time.
The overall quantity of cardio you do every week isn’t the one issue that may impression muscle development; the size of every cardio session issues, too.
Analysis means that to keep away from the damaging results of cardio on muscle development, it’s greatest to maintain most of your cardio exercises shorter than an hour. Going past an hour doesn’t imply you’ll routinely begin shedding muscle, however it does enhance the possibility of negatively affecting muscle development.
Additional assist for this comes from research of pure bodybuilders, who typically do a number of 30-to-40-minute cardio exercises per week with out shedding important muscle.
Thus, as long as you retain most of your cardio exercises beneath an hour, you don’t want to fret about burning muscle.
Mistake #6: Doing exhausting cardio instantly earlier than, throughout, or after lifting weights.
A typical mistake when combining weightlifting and cardio is to do each in the identical exercise.
Some folks run for half-hour earlier than or after lifting weights, or combine in cardio with weightlifting, like in CrossFit or circuit coaching.
Nevertheless, these approaches should not superb for maximizing muscle development.
Doing cardio instantly and even a number of hours earlier than lifting weights makes it tough to carry out at your greatest within the fitness center, which normally ends in much less muscle development over time.
Doing cardio instantly after lifting weights is much less detrimental, however may also intrude with muscle development by dampening a number of the “muscle-building” indicators from energy coaching.
Thus, it’s typically higher to keep away from cardio instantly after lifting weights to permit your physique to completely profit from the energy coaching.
That mentioned, if the one time you are able to do cardio is correct after lifting, don’t sweat it. So long as your post-lifting cardio exercises are pretty quick and low-intensity, they shouldn’t get in the way in which of muscle constructing.
It’s additionally price noting that not all types of cardio have the identical impression. Strolling 10-to-20 minutes to the fitness center received’t harm your positive aspects. Doing an intense 30-minute HIIT exercise after which clomping from the treadmill to the squat rack will.
The Proper Option to Mix Cardio and Power Coaching
So, does cardio burn muscle?
No.
If you happen to do cardio incorrectly, it may possibly sluggish your price of muscle development, however it received’t make you lose muscle should you sidestep the commonest blunders.
Right here’s how to do this:
- Prioritize low-impact types of cardio like biking, rowing, and rucking.
- Restrict the quantity and period of your cardio exercises to not more than 30-to-45 minutes per cardio exercise and two-to-three hours of complete cardio per week.
- Do cardio and weightlifting on separate days. If that isn’t doable, raise weights first and attempt to separate the 2 exercises by at the least 6 hours.
[Read More: Concurrent Training: The Right Way to Combine Cardio and Strength Training]
Does Cardio Kill Positive aspects?: FAQs
FAQ #1: Does fasted cardio burn muscle?
“Fasted cardio” is cardio accomplished after your physique has absolutely digested your final meal (normally 5-to-6 hours after consuming).
Whereas fasted cardio will increase fats burning throughout your exercise, it causes two issues:
- You burn much less fats throughout the remainder of the day, which suggests you lose the identical quantity of complete physique fats over a 24-hour interval as you do after fed cardio.
- Your danger of muscle loss rises.
The primary cause fasted cardio could cause muscle loss is that it shortly depletes muscle glycogen ranges, prompting your physique to interrupt down protein (muscle) for power.
Nevertheless, you typically must do a good quantity of cardio—at the least 60 minutes or extra—to deplete glycogen ranges. So, the danger of muscle loss from a brief, ~30-minute fasted cardio session is low.
To study extra in regards to the execs and cons of fasted cardio, try this text:
What Is Fasted Cardio and Can It Assist You Lose Weight?
FAQ #2: Does high-intensity cardio burn muscle?
No, high-intensity cardio doesn’t burn muscle any greater than conventional cardio does, so long as you keep away from the errors above.
Whereas some folks declare that high-intensity cardio is much less prone to burn muscle, the proof for that is inconsistent.
There’s cause to imagine high-intensity cardio is barely extra prone to intrude with muscle development than low-intensity cardio. It is because it typically results in extra muscle injury and fatigue, which may negatively impression your energy coaching and muscle positive aspects over time.
Thus, you may need to lean in direction of low-intensity cardio more often than not should you’re specializing in constructing muscle.
FAQ #3: How can I do cardio with out shedding muscle?
One of the simplest ways to mix cardio and weightlifting with out shedding muscle is to observe these pointers:
- Restrict the time you spend doing cardio to not more than half the time you spend weightlifting. As an illustration, should you raise weights for 4 hours per week, don’t do greater than 2 hours of cardio.
- Maintain most of your cardio exercises to 30-to-45 minutes.
- Don’t do multiple HIIT cardio exercise per week.
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