Hey what's up guys, Sean Nalewanyj here of SeanNal.com and BodyTransformationTruth.com
and in this video I want to answer the very common question of how to perform cardio while
bulking.
Now this is a topic that is surrounded by a ton of confusion and conflicting advice
and I will say up front that there is no absolute guideline that can be applied to every single
person across the board.
The exact approach that you use is going to depend on things like your body type, your
activity level outside the gym, your appetite and how your weight training routine is structured.
However, instead of just rambling on and on giving jumbled advice that leaves you just
as confused at the end as you were when you started, and this is what most of the typical
advice on this particular topic seems to do, I'll just aim to condense it down into a simple
set of guidelines that will work very well for the majority of people in the majority
of situations.
So first off, is cardio even necessary in the first place if all you really care about
right now is packing on overall size and strength?
Can you skip those sessions on the treadmill altogether and still carry out a successful
mass gaining phase with minimal gains in fat?
Well, it’s certainly possible to achieve significant lean gains without doing any cardio
at all, assuming that your diet is properly controlled, but if we’re talking about what
is optimal in the overall picture, then yes, I would recommend that you include some cardiovascular
exercise in your plan.
And here are 4 reasons why.
The first is Metabolic Conditioning.
So, aside from your aesthetic desire for a big chest and lean abs, let’s not forget
about the basic benefits of simply maintaining sound overall cardiovascular conditioning.
If you are employing a typical muscle building style routine that involves low to moderate
repetitions and longer rest intervals in between sets, then you’re really not getting much
in the way of effective cardiovascular work, and it won’t be long before you start to
feel winded just walking up a flight of stairs.
So a few points for you to consider here on the issue of improving your overall metabolic
conditioning.
First, it will have direct carry over to certain exercises that you're performing in the gym.
For example, having decent cardio conditioning and overall work capacity is going to benefit
you on big compound lifts when they’re taken into slightly higher rep ranges, as well as
helping you recover faster in between sets.
Secondly, if you perform little to no cardio during your bulking phase, then it’s going
to be a very painful process shifting into regular cardio once you decide to cut.
Excessive periods without any cardio at all will cause your overall conditioning to decrease
very quickly, and you’ll then have to build it back up right from scratch.
And thirdly, poor cardiovascular conditioning is also going to potentially negatively impact
you in other areas of your life.
For example, if you’ve been neglecting your cardio altogether and then you go to head
out to play a game of basketball with your buddies, it's not going to be long before
your lungs start catching fire and the experience is no longer enjoyable for you.
The second benefit to performing cardio while bullking is calorie partitioning, and this
basically refers to where calories and nutrients are stored on your body and where they are
burned from during periods of a caloric surplus or deficit.
So in combination with weight training, regular cardio may improve your overall calorie and
nutrient partitioning by encouraging the body to shuttle nutrients into skeletal muscle
tissue and away from fat stores.
The third benefit is active recovery.
Lower intensity forms of cardio can actually improve your recovery in between workouts
by increasing blood flow and nutrient uptake into your muscles.
For example, if you were to perform an intense leg workout and you were feeling particularly
beat up and sore in the days that followed, a low to moderate intensity walk on the treadmill
could help out.
And for upper body you could use the rowing machine or you could even do very light body
weight movements as well.
And the fourth benefit is body fat minimization.
Controlling your overall calorie and macronutrient intake is definitely going to be the most
important factor when it comes to minimizing fat gains during a bulk, but a bit of extra
cardio can help out as well.
Now I always recommend that you bulk in a slow, gradual fashion by maintaining only
a small calorie surplus, and cardio can be used as a tool to ensure that you don’t
go overboard.
Or, if you have a very large appetite and you simply want to eat more food during your
bulking phase than your calorie surplus allows for, including extra cardio can allow you
to increase your overall food intake while still keeping your total calories in the proper
range.
However, this point is admittedly a little tricky, since low intensity cardio can actually
have the reverse effect by stimulating your appetite further, which in turn may cause
you to eat more.
And the solution here is to keep your cardio sessions limited which I’ll talk about in
just a second and to use a mix of higher intensity and lower intensity forms because high intensity
cardio forms do not have the same appetite-stimulating effect, and may actually even decrease your
overall appetite.
Now is cardio going to negatively affect your muscle gains?
Well as the saying goes, “the devil is in the dosage”.
So in other words, it really just depends how you go about it.
Yes, performing an excessive amount of cardio throughout the week is certainly not recommended
during a bulking phase, as it definitely can impede overall muscle recovery and growth
if you go too far.
However, this would likely require more cardio than most people think, and most trainees
can recover just fine without any adverse effect on their muscle gains as long as the
frequency and the intensity and the duration is moderated and your diet is properly structured.
So here are some practical cardio guidelines for you to follow.
Now, as I said before, the specific amount of cardio that you include in your program
is going to depend on a variety of individual factors.
For most people though, 2-4 sessions per week is a good guideline to follow.
Go with 1-2 higher intensity interval-based sessions in the 8-20 minute range, and 1-2
lower intensity sessions in the 40-60 minute range.
You should ideally aim to space these sessions at least 8 hours away from your weight training
workouts, or just perform them on your off days from the gym.
Now whether you go with the lower end of 2 sessions or the higher end of 4 sessions or
somewhere in between depends on a few things.
Number 1, your body type.
So if you’re a typical hardgainer who doesn't gain fat easily, keep it on the lowest end
or if you tend to gain fat more easily, perform more.
The second is your activity level.
So if you work a desk job then obviously you'd benefit from more cardio, whereas a more active
job would allow you to get away with less.
And as a side note, if you work a very strenuous job such as construction, then you can probably
get away without performing any traditional cardio at all.
Number 3 is your appetite.
So if traditional cardio makes you very hungry, and this is not something that you want then
perform a bit less or perform less aerobic cardio in comparison to high intensity cardio,
or, if the increase in appetite is actually helping you hit your calorie needs more easily
than you would have otherwise been able to then go ahead and perform more.
And number 4 is your weight training schedule.
So if you’re performing 5 full weight training sessions per week then you can probably only
perform a limited amount of cardio before you start to run the risk of overtraining.
Or, you can simply stick primarily to low intensity aerobic forms of cardo in that case.
And if you’re only performing 3 weight training sessions per week then overtraining becomes
much less of an issue.
So, to conclude here.
Yes, I would recommend that you perform cardio even if your primary goal is to gain muscle,
because it's going to, number 1, increase your metabolic conditioning, number 2, improve
nutrient partitioning, number 3, it's going to optimize recovery, and number 4, it's going
to help keep your body fat levels under control.
Go with 2-4 cardio sessions per week from a mix of low duration high intensity cardio
and longer duration lower intensity cardio spaced 8 hours away from your weight training
sessions if possible.
And the specific amount and breakdown of your cardio is going to be influenced by your body
type, your activity level, your appetite and your specific weight training schedule.
So thanks for watching this video lesson.
I hope you found the information useful here today.
If you did enjoy the video, as always, please make sure to hit the LIKE button, leave a
comment and subscribe to stay up-to-date on future videos.
Also make sure to check out my complete fully structured muscle building and fat loss programs
over at BodyTransformationTruth.com.
The link for that is in the description box below and make sure to join the Facebook page
for daily tips and updates.
The link for that is also in the description box.
Talk to you again soon.