What’s going on, guys?
Sean Nalewanyj, www.SeanNal.com and in today’s video I want to talk about a bit about the
subject of cardio and whether or not you should avoid cardio because it’s going to interfere
with muscle growth and decrease you gains.
This is something that you’ll hear pretty often with people saying that cardio interferes
with weight training adaptations and that it has no benefits beyond lifting weight whatsoever
and it’s a complete waste of time.
But like most things it’s really not a black and white issue of cardio either being good
or bad, and that you should either do tons of cardio or avoid it altogether.
And instead the answer lies, sort of, on a bell curve where performing some cardio is
fine and will give you certain benefits, but if you start performing too much then you’ll
likely start seeing negative effects on muscle growth and strength gains.
So if you go overboard on cardio while you’re trying to focus on building muscle the main
downside is the simple fact that you’re just introducing another stress to your body,
particularly if you’re doing higher intensity interval style training.
Remember that muscle growth happens while you’re out of the gym resting and that the
more effectively you can recover in between workouts the more volume and the more frequency
you can apply to a given muscle and the faster you’ll make gains overall, but if you’re
performing a lot of additional cardio during the week then you’re creating more muscle
damage that’s going to require more time and recovery resources to repair.
You’re also creating more central nervous system stress, again, particularly with the
high intensity interval style and you’re also putting your joints under more stress
as well.
And then aside from the recovery aspect after weight training you could also be impacting
actual weight training performance if you’re doing a lot of cardio during the week in close
proximity to your workouts.
So something like treadmill sprints or a long duration session on a stair master that could
affect performance on your leg workouts, or if you were doing a bag work that could affect
upper body pushing movements.
Rowing cardio exercises could affect your back movements or if you’re doing things
like barbell complex or cattle bell work that could have an impact as well.
And then the last thing is just the fact that a cardio itself burns calories.
Which can be beneficial during a bulk for some people if you’re a big eater and that
helps you to control the size of calorie surplus and make leaner gains, but if you’re doing
lots of cardio and burning lots of extra calories throughout the week and you’re not properly
compensating for it then it could become a real problem because you might end up significantly
reducing a size of your calorie surplus or even erasing it altogether, which is obviously
going to slow down your muscle building progress or even cause you to stall out altogether.
Now all that said, if it’s not necessarily your goal to fully maximize muscle growth
and you’re going for a leaner, more athletic look, or you just like doing cardio because
you enjoy it or because improving your conditioning is an actual fitness goal of yours, or maybe
you play a sport and so cardio conditioning is obviously an important part of that, then
that’s fine.
And if you want to go ahead and do five or six days of cardio a week knowing that it
might reduce your muscle building results slightly then obviously go for it.
It really depends on your goals whether it’s purely bodybuilding or more bodybuilding/overall
fitness.
But if it is your main goal is to build muscle and gain strength as effectively as possible
then those are the downsides that you’ll be looking at when it comes to excessive cardio.
Now what would actually be considered as excessive cardio?
Again, assuming you’re wanting to maximize muscle growth and your nutrition and your
sleep is on point, and you’re spacing your cardio out intelligently during the week,
so you’re not doing sprints before a leg workout or going indoor climbing for two hours
and then training back, and you’re laying out your cardio so that the overlap is minimized,
I would say that two to three sessions per week is not going to be an issue.
And most people can probably get away with four if for some reason they’re wanting
to do that much.
But I would cap it at four.
And I think that two to three sessions during a muscle building phase is totally fine, and
I’d recommend using a mix of both higher and lower intensity type.
I wouldn’t advise doing three or four high intensity cardio sessions only because it
is more stressful to the body in comparison to lower intensity steadier set cardio.
And I would say that not only is including some cardio during the week fine, but it is
actually a good idea in general for most people.
Cardio isn’t mandatory in terms of actual growth or fat loss but it can have some specific
benefits there.
That’s because a controlled amount of cardio, specifically the lower intensity types, that
can actually improve muscle recovery in between workouts by improving blood flow and removing
waste products.
And then on top of that cardio itself can also increase insulin sensitivity for better
overall nutrient partitioning.
And it can improve sleep quality as well, which is obviously important for recovery
and workout performance.
But beyond just basic muscle growth and fat loss doing cardio is just something that will
probably improve your life in general, especially if you live in otherwise mostly set interior
lifestyle aside from weight training.
People will say that weight training on its own is enough and gave the same benefits,
but if you compare how you feel in general between a typical hypertrophy style workout
that uses moderate rep ranges and longer rest periods, and you compare that with an actual
cardio session where you’re sweating and your heart rate is elevated and you’re breathing
more rapidly, there’s clearly a difference in how those two types of exercise affect
the body both during and after it’s over.
So even if you’re not using cardio as a way of improving body composition, I would
recommend including at least a couple sessions per week just for the overall physical and
mental health benefits that it will give you.
Cardio improves cognitive function, it does that by arising levels of BDNF, which is the
protein that the growth of neurons.
Weight training does that as well but not quite to the same degree.
Cardio increases serotonin and norepinephrine levels, which are two of the key feel good
neurotransmitters, and so that can have a definite impact on lowering levels of depression
and anxiety overtime.
It can help to decrease the risk of certain diseases, and it also improves your actual
cardiovascular conditioning and that has practical day-to-day benefit so that you don’t end
up as a bloated bodybuilder who can’t even climb a flight of stairs without getting winded.
And those benefits are good enough in and off themselves but also keep in mind that
they also have direct carry over to other aspects of your life as well because when
your brain is sharper and you just feel better physically and mentally when you’re just
more in-state throughout the day, you’ll just be more effective in general.
When it comes to things like your fitness program, your work, your social life, and
I’ve always notice for myself that when I’m doing cardio regularly over the course
of several weeks and months, I currently doing it three times a week, I feel better, I sleep
better, I get more done in less time, my work quality is higher, my social life is better,
mu life is just better in general.
And the effects will vary person to person but that’s been my experience particularly
because I work off of my laptop so during my work day I don’t get a lot of movement
in.
So the caviat here is that if you do live a generally more active lifestyle.
So maybe you have a more physical type of job, or you play sports regularly, or you
just do general outdoor stuff, or even just go for regular brisk walk or things like that,
then traditional cardio might not be necessary since you can probably derived most of the
benefits from those things.
But if you’re like a lot of people out there who sit at a desk for most of the day and
then just do three or four weight training sessions per week, and then are fairly immobile
beyond that, I’d highly recommend that you do some cardio at least two sessions a week,
ideally three, because our body’s evolved to move.
Being stationary all day is not natural for our physiology and beyond some of the benefits
that I outline in terms of improving muscle recovery, nutrient portioning and sleep.
It’s just something that’s good for your physical and mental health, period.
And as long as you keep it under control, no more than four sessions per week spaced
away from weight training if possible, it’s not going to negatively impact your muscle
growth or your strength gains as long as your nutrition is on point.
And if you are someone who does zero cardio and not much other activity besides weight
training, go ahead and give it a try for a few weeks and let me know how it makes you
feel.
So, I hope this was helpful.
If you do want to grab a complete step-by-step plan that lays out a good balance between
both weight training and cardio, along with nutrition plans, supplement guides and twelve
weeks of one-on-one email coaching, then you can check out my Body Transformation Blueprint
over at www.BodyTransformationTruth.com or by clicking here.
The link is also in the description box.
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Thanks for watching, guys.
And I’ll see you in the next video.