cardio on off days?

O

osu_med

New Member
Forgive me if this has been addressed before, but I tried a search for it and couldn't find any real answers.

Will the cardio on off days kind of "negate" any hypertrophic gains on your lifting days? I was planning on swimming probably 2 days a week for about 20-25 minutes. I just don't want my body flip-flopping between anabolic/catabolic states and end up spinning my wheels. I still plan on maintaining a clean, high intake of calories, but I'd like to burn off some excess flab, which brings us back to the age old "tradition" of you can't burn fat and grow your muscles at the same time.

What do you HST experts say? Just drop the cardio altogether or what?
 
Light cardio is fine but not swimming. Swimming is too demanding a whole body exercise. Instead, go for incline treadmill, jogging or biking, incline treadmill being the 1st choice.

Here's what Bryan has to say:
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]
Cardio on Off Days

Light cardio (20-40 min.) may be performed on rest days. Incline treadmill (brisk walk) should be first choice.

Why is incline treadmill the 1st choice?
Its easy enough to be sustained for a long period, yet doesn't interfere with big muscle group movements such as squats or leg press, like bike and stairs do.

Nevertheless, you can certainly do whatever cardio you chose without concern for effectiveness (except swimming). So, if you like biking or jogging better, it will work just fine.
Click to expand...
That can be found on the HST FAQ Forum (alternatively you can also download the HST FAQ PDF e-book, found in the same forum)

Regards,
-JV
 
I've read what bryan says about this, but I haven't read the experiments that he builds his statements on. But I don't think that anyone can answer your question precisely:
swimming, fast-running and the like are excercises that exhausts you, and even though it works (mainly) the type 1 fibres instead of the type 2 fibres in your muscles, it builds up fatigue - try running 10 km as fast as you can, and squat 5rm the next day - impossible.

So it'sclear enough that "heavy" cardio shouldn't be done. However, I'm not sure of what to do to get maximum muscle gains - staying entirely off cardio or doing light cardio as bryan says... Anyhow, I think it's okay to do cardio - as long as you don't overdo it (if cardio was bad then maximum gains would be achieved by lifting and spending the rest of the day at the couch, which seems weird to me).

Hope it makes sense.By the way I don't think you should aim for a signifikant weight loss if you also want gains
 
I'm fairly sure there are posts on here somewhere stating that cardio actually helps growth as long as the calories used are replaced and that the exercise doesn't interfere in anyway with your weight training.
I guess it depends on your goals but I would rather do some more intense cardio (I don't mean swimming but running/cycling/crosstrainer at a higher intensity than walking pace) because I want to be fitter as well as getting bigger etc & that's more important to me than getting bigger alone.
Cheers
Rob
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (robefc @ Oct. 15 2005,9:55)]I'm fairly sure there are posts on here somewhere stating that cardio actually helps growth as long as the calories used are replaced and that the exercise doesn't interfere in anyway with your weight training.
I guess it depends on your goals but I would rather do some more intense cardio (I don't mean swimming but running/cycling/crosstrainer at a higher intensity than walking pace) because I want to be fitter as well as getting bigger etc & that's more important to me than getting bigger alone.
Cheers
Rob
Click to expand...
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]I'm fairly sure there are posts on here somewhere stating that cardio actually helps growth as long as the calories used are replaced and that the exercise doesn't interfere in anyway with your weight training.
Click to expand...

That sounds really interesting - do you think you can find those articles? I've been looking for such a statement, but can't seem to find one... I have the same wishes as you - fit is good, but I think that if it is proven that it makes your musclegains smaller, you might as well do a period of gaining, then switch to maintaining your musclemass and do cardio...
 
Here's a couple of discussions on the topic although I haven't exactly found the confirmation I was looking for...

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/cgi-bin....nabolic

http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/cgi-bin....+growth

(sorry, I have no idea how to post links with a nice little topic heading and not the whole thing :D)

Personally I feel that as long as you eat more and replace the calories used during cardio then it won't be detrimental to your gains. It might even help if you treat it like a workout with pre and post workout shakes and then a meal about an hour afterwards and another a couple of hours later - I consume a lot more calories that way than if I just didn't do any exercise during a particular day as its pretty much 4 meals in the space of 4 or 5 hours.

However, as your first post shows Bryan advocates light cardio on off days and generally he's quite knowledgeable about the whole bodybuilding thing!
tounge.gif
 
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