When you work out, should you do cardio? Doesn't cardio make your muscles shrink? If you have to do cardio, which exercises should you choose? These are the main questions that most athletes ask themselves.
Indeed, some bodybuilders categorically refuse to do cardio, under the pretext that this discipline prevents mass gain. On the other hand, some athletes combine the two disciplines and obtain palpable results with both. We decided to write this article in order to give more answers to these questions. Focus on the subject.
Cardio and weight gain: compatible or incompatible?
Some athletes still think that cardio exercises are incompatible with weight training insofar as they slow down muscle development. As a result, they refuse to combine the two programmes.
This is not completely untrue, because if they are performed disproportionately, cardio and weight training are two completely incompatible disciplines. The objectives of these two programmes are in fact completely different.
While cardio focuses on endurance and breathing, weight training aims to build mass. However, you cannot work on the two different objectives at the same time. Either you work on endurance or you build muscle. And it is obvious that for a bodybuilder, it is the gain of mass that is the most essential.
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that weight training and mass gain can be combined. But for this to work, the athlete must already have set objectives. To this end, one of the two disciplines will only complement the other.
If the main objective is to build muscle, then cardio will be used to improve the athlete's performance. The cardio sessions will not be more important than the weight gain exercises.
What are the advantages of combining weight training and bodybuilding?
Used wisely, cardio can be a source of benefits in bodybuilding. Muscle development is based on three pillars: sufficient protein produced by the body, good quality complex carbohydrates and fatty acids, and sufficient recovery time.
As long as these three elements are present in sufficient quantities, the athlete will have no difficulty in developing muscle mass. Doing cardio is not a factor in slowing down mass gain. On the contrary, it can be a great source of benefits.
When it comes to weight training, regular cardio sessions can help improve endurance and the efficiency of the cardiovascular system.
They are also very useful for increasing the capillary density of the muscles. Cardio training sessions also help to facilitate the circulation of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. They also help to eliminate metabolic waste even faster.
If access to oxygen and nutrients is improved, the muscles can start the process of rebuilding tissue faster and easier.
One of the main reasons why sportsmen and women do cardio training is because it helps to permanently reduce body fat. Fat rolls and excess weight are eliminated. Also, training stamina and endurance are significantly improved.
Bodybuilding: How to choose a suitable cardio exercise?
Choose according to your objectives
Endurance training indirectly contributes to muscle mass gain. But for this to work, you need to ask yourself the right questions based on the athlete's main objective and his or her morphotype.
The choice of a cardio exercise to adopt depends mainly on the objectives that the sportsman has set himself. If the athlete's objective is to lose fat, the cardio programme to be adopted should be more concerned with fat burning. For example, this could be a HIIT programme. This can be done two to three times a week to complement the strength training programme.
If the aim is to work on endurance and strength, it is better to opt for a LISS-style cardio programme. LISS cardio training works on endurance. To do this, the athlete must maintain a constant rhythm for a fairly long period of time.
For a beginner to weight training, cardio training is necessary to gain endurance and strength. It allows for example to strengthen the leg muscles, to be able to do leg extension series more efficiently.
Choosing according to your morphology
In the field of bodybuilding, there are three types of morphology: ectomorph, endomorph and mesomorph. These morphotypes condition the choice of cardio training programme to adopt so as not to reduce muscle mass.
When you have an ectomorph morphotype, i.e. you are not very tall and slender, it is difficult to develop muscle mass. No matter what you eat, you don't gain weight. In this respect, it is not very useful to combine cardio and weight training.
An individual with an endomorphic morphotype is rather tall, with a rather square silhouette. They put on weight very easily and have to watch their diet to avoid putting on weight. From a muscular point of view, these people manage to develop their muscle mass more easily.
However, they need to exercise intensively to burn fat. This is why cardio is recommended for an endomorphic athlete. Between 3 and 5 cardio sessions per week, the objective of burning fat can be achieved.
When you have a mesomorphic body type, your body builds muscle very quickly. The body stores less fat, so you can eat whatever you want because you are not afraid of putting on extra pounds quickly.
Even if you gain fat, you can also lose it very quickly. For this type of body type, one or two cardio sessions are more than enough to keep in shape and burn off the few extra calories.
