Does cardio kill gains? Does cardio burn muscle? Should I do cardio while bulking? These are some of the common questions people often ask me about cardio.
In this article, all your doubts get cleared and you’ll learn about three muscle-burning cardio mistakes that you might be doing.
So let’s get started.
#1 Too much Cardio Can Kill Gains
Doing cardio while bulking can be beneficial for you if you do it smartly. It’s an excellent way to improve your health.
However, doing cardio improperly can kill your gains.
Doing too much cardio is the common mistake that people do while fat loss or cutting. Cardio is an easy way to burn more calories, but it’s not the only way.
You can reduce fat and get ripped even without doing any cardio. Cardio is good but if you do it up to a certain limit. Hours and hours of cardio burn muscle and can kill your gains.
As your goal is to lose fat while retaining or ideally building muscle. So keep training as you are trying to building muscle.
Add some cardio in your training routine and take a calorie deficit diet with high protein intake. Here’s a step by step guide to set your macros for a cutting diet.
Read more: How To Calculate Macros for Cutting Diet
How much Cardio should you do?
An analysis of 21 studies done to examine the interference of aerobic and resistance training shows that “the more frequently and more longer your cardio sessions are, the harder will be to maintain and build muscle mass and strength.”
According to this research, you should not do more than 3 sessions of cardio per week. And each cardio session should not exceed 30 minutes while bulking.
However, there is no one size fits all. Your total cardio duration depends on how your body responds to it.
Make sure that your protein intake is high during cutting. A high protein diet is very crucial to maintain muscle mass while cutting.
However, if your primary goal is to gain muscle and strength, then performing additional cardio can definitely interfere with your gains.
#2 Doing Cardio at the Wrong Time
Now this point is very important. The impact of cardio depends on when you do it.
Most people do cardio when they are in the gym, which is around their weight training session.
Now if you are doing cardio before weights, then it will be your worst mistake whether your goal is cutting or bulking.
If you are doing cardio and weight training in the same session, then make sure to do cardio after weights. Doing cardio first can hamper your weight training performance.
As your energy levels are dropped by doing cardio first, you won’t be able to give your 100% during weight training. Your strength can be reduced and you’ll feel fatigued faster.
A 2016 study shows that people who performed a 20-minute cardio session before lifting weights experienced a significant decrease in their workout performance.
Those people were tested on main compound exercises like dead-lift, squat, and bench press.
Results…
Doing cardio prior to weight training resulted in 9-18% fewer performed reps. The average power was also significantly reduced for the first three exercises.
Some other studies also showed similar results.
Do cardio before weight training only if your primary goal is to increase stamina and cardiovascular abilities.
Best Time To Do Cardio
If you are compelled to do cardio and weight training in the same session then do cardio after weights only. Otherwise,
The best way is to do cardio and weight training in different sessions.
In 2017, a study published in the Journal of Sports Science Medicine shows that “people who did a 20-minute cardio session 24 hours after biceps workout, instead of immediately after, experienced an almost two times increase in muscle hypertrophy.“
They concluded that this was most probably due to the muscle damage caused by performing cardio after the workout.
These results are sufficient to suggest that it is best to perform cardio and weight training in separate sessions.
So if you don’t want that cardio to burn your muscle, then separate your cardio and weight training sessions by at least 6 hours.
Note: These studies were done with the individuals performing moderate-intensity cardio for slightly longer durations. They may not apply to short and less intense forms of steady-state cardio.
Read more: Best Time To Do Cardio Exercises
#3 Doing Wrong Type of Cardio
On the name of cardio, most people do only running. Doing a lot of running can cause a significant amount of muscle damage in the lower body, which requires enough time to recover.
When you do it around your leg workout, then it can impact negatively on your lower body muscles.
Hence to minimize the interference of cardio with your gains, do most of your cardio with low impact exercises like cycling, incline walking, elliptical, brisk walking, etc.
This doesn’t mean that you should avoid doing high impact cardio exercises. But if you do them, then give your body enough time to recover.
Does Cardio Kill Gains – Summary
Does cardio kill gains or burn muscle? NO, if you do it smartly.
Here are the points you should consider while doing cardio:
1. Avoid doing too much cardio while bulking or maintaining muscle mass. Be on the sweet spot – 3 sessions of around 20 minutes are enough.
2. For minimum interference of cardio with your gains, separate your cardio and weight training sessions by at least 6 hours. Or at least, do cardio after weights but never prior to the weight training.
3. Avoid doing a lot of high impact cardio exercises. And if you are doing then at least give your body enough time to recover.
Thank you for reading this far. I hope you enjoyed and learned something from this article. For any query, feel free to leave a comment.
