How do I bulk up?

caseylowe19

Do i just cut out cardio completely and eat more? or can I still do cardio because i don’t want to lose the little endurance i’ve gained?

MikePfirrman

You do not have to cut cardio to bulk. You just have to lift more and eat more. I'm 58. Honestly, I made a really strong effort this year to put on some more muscle and get more definition. I've seriously upped the reps that I do (only twice a week, full body workouts) and seriously increased my protein load.

Now, I do 6 days a week of cardio (mostly rower, but also Assault Bike, Treadmill (incline), Stairmaster and LateralX (lateral elliptical, stepper). I do an hour a day, two days a week hard intervals. So when I say that I lift twice a week, all of my cardio involves some sort of muscle development. If your cardio is running, that's not the best cardio to do to keep bulk. Unless you're sprinting or doing hills, running doesn't really keep your legs strong looking. Huge difference in the type of cardio you do. Have you ever seen cyclists that have huge legs and tiny, tiny arms? Not attractive. I've seen rowers with huge back muscles, biceps and no chest (also not attractive). I don't spend time lifting for my back much. The rowing takes care of that. Same with biceps. Waste of time for me. Pick your battles with parts that don't get enough attention, depending on what cardio you do.

I honestly didn't think I could add much muscle at my age. I'm likely the strongest (looking at least, because muscle is NOT strength) I've been ever right now. And I'd stack my cardio against 98% of the population my age as well. Someone would have to be a very serious endurance athlete to be in better cardio shape than I am currently.

I'm not a huge fan of CrossFit, because there's too much of AMRAP (as many reps as possible) and some boxes aren't safe, but CrossFit works on both strength and endurance -- fitness. One without the other isn't fitness.

AnnPT77

Mostly, what Mike said.

You can keep doing cardio, even fairly high volume, as long as you fuel it (and then some). Avoid doing so much cardio volume, or including so much high intensity, that you compromise overall recovery. "How much, how hard" in that context is individual, depending on your current fitness level.