So, I heard cardio can make you flabby?

Options
stormynytes4ever
stormynytes4ever Posts: 60 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've heard that more than 40 straight minutes of cardio can actually destroy muscle mass if you don't weight train along with it. So, question one: is this really true? Question two: if it's true, is it better to do your cardio in small spurts so breakdown doesn't happen? I live nowhere near a gym and have very little room in my house for weight equipment other than small dumbbells. My 'weight training' is usually just against my own body weight. So, suggestions? Comments?
«1

Replies

  • Jo2926
    Jo2926 Posts: 489 Member
    Options
    Personally I would not worry about it too much. Eat well. Do some cardio. Do some weights. It will be fine and your body will soon be looking great. I think there is some truth in what you say, but I don't think it burns up enough muscle to out weigh the benefits of cardio when you have weight left to lose.

    And you can do lots with body weight exercises. The key is to make them harder as they get easier (so squats become prisioner squats, become pistol squats and so on). Dumbells are great, or a kettlebell takes very little space. Or you can just pick heavy stuff up from around the house! This is my favourite workout for at home:
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

    Its amazing how far you can get with your bodyweight.

    Good luck!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    Options
    I've heard that more than 40 straight minutes of cardio can actually destroy muscle mass if you don't weight train along with it. So, question one: is this really true?

    Absolutely not true. Otherwise any sportsman doing a cardio intense, long duration sport like soccer, tennis, rugby, distance running, cycling would be flabby.
  • stormynytes4ever
    stormynytes4ever Posts: 60 Member
    Options
    Personally I would not worry about it too much. Eat well. Do some cardio. Do some weights. It will be fine and your body will soon be looking great. I think there is some truth in what you say, but I don't think it burns up enough muscle to out weigh the benefits of cardio when you have weight left to lose.

    And you can do lots with body weight exercises. The key is to make them harder as they get easier (so squats become prisioner squats, become pistol squats and so on). Dumbells are great, or a kettlebell takes very little space. Or you can just pick heavy stuff up from around the house! This is my favourite workout for at home:
    http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/

    Its amazing how far you can get with your bodyweight.

    Good luck!
    thanks, I'll have to give this a try. :)
  • harbringer
    harbringer Posts: 11 Member
    Options
    From what I understand, being in a caloric deficit and doing long intense cardio is going to have a negative impact on your muscles. Probably nothing to worry too much about, however. If you're in fact doing some body weight execising, that should counterbalance it a bit.

    E.g. marathon runners are usually very skinny. Body builders often do quite little cardio, because it can have a negative effect on their gains.
  • victoriannsays
    victoriannsays Posts: 568 Member
    Options
    From what I understand, being in a caloric deficit and doing long intense cardio is going to have a negative impact on your muscles. Probably nothing to worry too much about, however. If you're in fact doing some body weight execising, that should counterbalance it a bit.

    E.g. marathon runners are usually very skinny. Body builders often do quite little cardio, because it can have a negative effect on their gains.

    ^ I agree that it is the caloric deficit cardio causes that has an impact on the muscles. Doing weight bearing exercises while in a caloric deficit can help you keep lean body mass.
  • damienhyatt31
    damienhyatt31 Posts: 8 Member
    Options
    Weight training is there to keep muscle on your frame. When you work out, you place a demand for that particular muscle group to either stay the same, grow, or even shrink. This will also be true for your eating habits. which will be the most crucial in determining the results you get. So to answer the topic question with the above already stated: Cardio is not going to make you flabby ... it's going to depend on how your eating. If you are in a surplus of calories( eating more than you burn per day) then you will gain weight ( water, fat and if your lucky muscle). If you are in a deficit( burning more calories than you eat per day) then you will lose weight ( water, fat and yes, possibly muscle.) Hope that helps. Good luck in achieving your goals. Keep it simple, keep it smart and you will be just fine. Don't waste your time over thinking it.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Options
    From what I understand, being in a caloric deficit and doing long intense cardio is going to have a negative impact on your muscles. Probably nothing to worry too much about, however. If you're in fact doing some body weight execising, that should counterbalance it a bit.

    E.g. marathon runners are usually very skinny. Body builders often do quite little cardio, because it can have a negative effect on their gains.

    That's not quite true. Competitive marathon runners are thin because added muscle is added weight which can slow you down. They don't aim to add muscle and often are have a naturally slender frame anyway. It's more of having the body type best suited for the activity.
    Ever look at some of the Ironman pros?
    Craig Alexander - won the World Ironman triathlon - that's a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run - a considerable amount of cardio
    07E6814B-D559-47AC-A95B-0197A369F1BD-9141-000008993A590EA8.jpg

    Yes, too much cardio and improper nutrition can burn muscle but it is incorrect to say that over 40 minutes of cardio burns muscle.

    ETA - Some bodybuilders do cardio, however, bulking is a different scenerio.
  • CatMou5
    CatMou5 Posts: 12
    Options
    When you are in calorie deficit you lose both muscle mass and fat. This is true when you do cardio only and weight train. However.... when you do only cardio you lose more muscle mass than if you were on a solid weight training program. Cardio only means you essentially become a smaller version of your previous self. For example, you can be 70kg and be 30% body fat and be 55kg and still be 30% body fat. This is how people become skinny-fat... they may be small but their body composition still has a large percentage of fat.

    When you strength train while eating a calorie deficit you maintain as much muscle mass as you can. What this means is that you reduce the rate of muscle loss. You can only affect two things within your body... the amount of muscle you have and the amount of fat. Looking "toned" is a result of building/maintaining muscle mass while reducing your body fat percentage. Basically using the above example.... if you started at 70kg and 30% fat and you lifted weights while dieting to 55kg, your body fat percentage may drop to say 20% and your figure would be significantly better than the skinny-fat person of the same weight.
  • Sycoholic
    Sycoholic Posts: 282 Member
    Options
    Often when you work out hard you can burn muscle too. Its not going to make you flabby. Now what more serious weight lifters will do is drink a protein shake before and after a workout. Before helps negate a catabolic state where your body starts using muscle whereas after is to speed recovery of the muscles you just worked out. Runners and weight lifters do different amounts of cardio because theyre after different things. However you can look at Crosfit as an example since they do heavy amounts of both and are pretty big and pretty fit cardio-wise. However theyre not as fast as runners and dont lift as much as bodybuilders who put in the same amount of time. Besides, have you ever seen a flabby runner in the Olympics?
  • CatMou5
    CatMou5 Posts: 12
    Options
    From what I understand, being in a caloric deficit and doing long intense cardio is going to have a negative impact on your muscles. Probably nothing to worry too much about, however. If you're in fact doing some body weight execising, that should counterbalance it a bit.

    E.g. marathon runners are usually very skinny. Body builders often do quite little cardio, because it can have a negative effect on their gains.


    Most bodybuilders limit cardio when bulking because essentially it just means that you would need to eat more to make up the extra calories burned. When they are cutting many do cardio... however, often they choose cardio such as HIIT or steady state which minimise muscle loss.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    Only if you eat cheesecake while you're on the treadmill.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    From what I understand, being in a caloric deficit and doing long intense cardio is going to have a negative impact on your muscles. Probably nothing to worry too much about, however. If you're in fact doing some body weight execising, that should counterbalance it a bit.

    E.g. marathon runners are usually very skinny. Body builders often do quite little cardio, because it can have a negative effect on their gains.

    But the experience of body builders has virtually zero relevance for the average exerciser.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    Options
    When you are in calorie deficit you lose both muscle mass and fat. This is true when you do cardio only and weight train. However.... when you do only cardio you lose more muscle mass than if you were on a solid weight training program. Cardio only means you essentially become a smaller version of your previous self. For example, you can be 70kg and be 30% body fat and be 55kg and still be 30% body fat. This is how people become skinny-fat... they may be small but their body composition still has a large percentage of fat.

    When you strength train while eating a calorie deficit you maintain as much muscle mass as you can. What this means is that you reduce the rate of muscle loss. You can only affect two things within your body... the amount of muscle you have and the amount of fat. Looking "toned" is a result of building/maintaining muscle mass while reducing your body fat percentage. Basically using the above example.... if you started at 70kg and 30% fat and you lifted weights while dieting to 55kg, your body fat percentage may drop to say 20% and your figure would be significantly better than the skinny-fat person of the same weight.

    In 30 years as an exercise physiologist, having worked with thousands of people, I have seen plenty of people who were BORN skinny fat. I can't remember working with anyone who BECAME skinny fat from doing cardio.
  • harbringer
    harbringer Posts: 11 Member
    Options
    First of all, that was really just an example of different archtypes of training. The person in question would ideally fall somewhere in the middle. I didn't say ANYTHING about triathlon. Nor did I say that bodybuilders didn't do cardio. Of course they do. They key is really that whilst in a caloric deficit your body is likely to burn muscle along with fat when doing alot of cardio, unless (and maybe even if) you do strength training along with it. The cardio in itself won't have a negative effect on muscle building.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Options
    First of all, that was really just an example of different archtypes of training. The person in question would ideally fall somewhere in the middle. I didn't say ANYTHING about triathlon. Nor did I say that bodybuilders didn't do cardio. Of course they do. They key is really that whilst in a caloric deficit your body is likely to burn muscle along with fat when doing alot of cardio, unless (and maybe even if) you do strength training along with it. The cardio in itself won't have a negative effect on muscle building.

    You gave the example of marathon runners as having little muscle, implying that is because of the amount of cardio they do. I gave another example of a sport where there is a ton of cardio but the competitors still have muscle.
  • sanvanhaaften
    sanvanhaaften Posts: 118
    Options
    Bump!! :)
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
    Options
    Cardio is better than not working out at all but it's pretty much pointless. If you do a ton of cardio and diet to lose weight but don't lift you'll probably end up flabby and skinny fat.
  • lizzardsm
    lizzardsm Posts: 271 Member
    Options
    agreed that cardio will not make you flabby!

    as for weight training - check out You Are Your Own Gym. it's a bodyweight workout routine (and it's been kicking my a**!!) they have android/iphone/ipad apps that make it super similar to having a trainer stand next to you and tell you what to do!
  • Tricep_A_Tops
    Tricep_A_Tops Posts: 319
    Options
    Losing weight by just eating at a deficit and doing cardio will cause you to lose about 28% more lean muscle on average than if you ate at a deficit and implemented a cardio and strength training program. I lifted during my entire 13 month weight loss and if I didnt I would haven ended up looking like a jellyfish. ( the reason why so many people still are not happy with the way they look even after they reached or even surpassed their goal)
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,704 Member
    Options
    Lack of muscle conditioning makes you flabby. Now can you burn muscle from cardio only exercise. Yes if you aren't consuming enough protein to help sustain it. In most cases, people do get enough, but because most cardio focuses mostly on legs, the upper body doesn't get the same kind of muscle conditioning which is why it's usually much "softer" than the lower body.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Categories