Cardio and Weights - Muscle gain.

slay0r
slay0r Posts: 669 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've read a lot of conflicting information about Cardio and Muscle gains. Some sources seem to tell us that you can't do much cardio without burning away muscle, even when your protein intake is more than sufficient, some say it's detrimental to your training as it affects the intensity of a weights session.

Others seem to suggest it's beneficial..

Anyone got any real info/studies on it? What works best for you, is it best to do cardio on the same day or the next day and not get much rest across the week? What works for you guys?!

ALSO: Do people trying to gain I.e. a bulk eat back their calories after cardio?

Replies

  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    Cardio can facilitate active recovery by increasing bloodflow to sore muscles.
    Cardio can also burn nutrients needed by muscle for repair.

    no one is doing 4 plate squats and running a marathon after.

    Some days I ride my bike to the gym. Never on deadlift or squat day.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Cardio has a detrimental effect on both muscle and strength gains, period. Doesn't matter which days you do it on or how much protein you eat. You can take steps to limit the effects, but there are still effects.

    Is it a big deal? Maybe. It depends on your goals. For most MFP members, it's not really an issue.

    Now I'll get out the was so 40 people can come in here and say exactly the opposite and provide links to studies, even though they will be dead wrong.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I think some context needs to be applied here.

    Here's a good read on this:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/cardio-and-mass-gains.html

    And these are tangential but still relevant:
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/what-defines-cardio-in-terms-of-too-much-qa.html
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html


    I think the take home is that "some" cardio is fine and MAY be beneficial for partitioning and general fitness. Massive amounts of it at high intensity could be counterproductive.
  • Gunsentry
    Gunsentry Posts: 121 Member
    If you want to gain muscle mass you need to eat enough calories to fuel the muscle growth.

    Dieting and muscle building are almost opposites that said you can loose fat and gain muscle mass but your diet and routine needs to be spot on.

    Most Body-builders will "bulk" to a size larger than they are aiming for by eating and building muscle mass and then "Cut" diet down striping the fat away to show the muscle they have developed. In the "cut" some lean muscle mass will go also as well as the fat that's why they bulk over size they need.
  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    Cardio has a detrimental effect on both muscle and strength gains, period. Doesn't matter which days you do it on or how much protein you eat. You can take steps to limit the effects, but there are still effects.

    Is it a big deal? Maybe. It depends on your goals. For most MFP members, it's not really an issue.

    Now I'll get out the was so 40 people can come in here and say exactly the opposite and provide links to studies, even though they will be dead wrong.

    I know right! I hate all those idiots and their facts and evidence too.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    If strength or body composition is your focus, I'm a fan of adding cardio on an as-needed basis.
  • cedarghost
    cedarghost Posts: 621 Member

    Some days I ride my bike to the gym. Never on deadlift or squat day.
    Haha.....if you're like me, you're lucky to be able to walk back to the truck on that day......
  • cedarghost
    cedarghost Posts: 621 Member
    What are you trying to do?
  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member

    Some days I ride my bike to the gym. Never on deadlift or squat day.
    Haha.....if you're like me, you're lucky to be able to walk back to the truck on that day......

    I rode my bike once on squat day. Barely made it home.
  • scott091501
    scott091501 Posts: 1,260 Member
    Eat slightly over maintenance (500 cals or so), lift heavy, low impact steady state cardio (walking on treadmill at incline) = lean bulk.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    I'll just leave this here.

    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/kelly3.htm
  • Matt_Wild
    Matt_Wild Posts: 2,673 Member
    Essentially you are burning calories that will go towards muscle building. Why do something you don't need to do?
  • IronPlayground
    IronPlayground Posts: 1,594 Member
    SideSteel provided some really great links. Here is one I found the other day that I found interesting.

    http://www.crudefitness.com/training/why-you-should-be-doing-cardio/
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Cardio has a detrimental effect on both muscle and strength gains, period. Doesn't matter which days you do it on or how much protein you eat. You can take steps to limit the effects, but there are still effects.

    Is it a big deal? Maybe. It depends on your goals. For most MFP members, it's not really an issue.

    Now I'll get out the was so 40 people can come in here and say exactly the opposite and provide links to studies, even though they will be dead wrong.

    I know right! I hate all those idiots and their facts and evidence too.

    If they actually had facts and evidence it would great. Too bad it's usually a short term study using untrained subjects that self report. And the findings are written to support whatever the lead researcher wanted to prove before the tested began.
  • slay0r
    slay0r Posts: 669 Member
    What are you trying to do?

    I've been doing stronglifts since July and made some decent progress but I had a back injury and carried on eating in the same style, it means I've gone from 11 and a half stone to 13 stone, although some of it is muscle it can't ALL be muscle and I don't really like the way I'm looking at the minute. I'm more just trying to lean up a bit while I put on a bit of muscle if that's at all possible..
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member
    Several months ago I increased my weight lifting, decreased my running and increased my calories and over a couple of months gained a couple of pounds of muscle (and a few pounds of fat). I was running three days a week but not as far or fast as I was when I was concentrating on running. I was NOT trying to lean up a bit while putting on muscle during that period of time, I was just trying to add a little bit of muscle before I switched my focus back to running. It's just too damn much work to do both at the same time and it seems like if you can do it at all EVERYTHING has to be perfect.

    Cardio isn't necessarily going to make you lean. Calorie deficit makes you lean, cardio makes calorie deficit easier, strength training makes lean look better.

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