Body transformations aren?t something that people tend to be very patient about. They want results, and they want them now!
This is readily seen in those who?ve identified a need to reduce body fat. Crash diets like the HCG diet, Atkin?s diet, juice diet, or any other of the myriad of unsustainable diet plans designed for rapid fat loss results.
This same obsession with lightning fast results can also be observed among individuals desiring to bulk up. They take weight gainer supplements, eat junk food to increase their calories, and as we?re going to address throughout this article, they completely cut out cardio.
For someone whose main concern is packing on muscle mass cardio can seem like a waste of time and effort. After all, why should they want to burn any additional calories?
I?m going to tell you?
Benefits of Cardio While Bulking
I need to quickly provide a disclaimer?
The information I?m about to lay on you is not intended for the hardgainer. Hardgainers are an entirely different breed that doesn?t need to concern themselves with cardio until they start making regular size gains and/or notice their body fat levels escalating beyond acceptability.
This article is meant for those who, with the right nutritional implements and training protocols, can put on weight and size without much trouble.
Alright. Now that we?ve gotten that out of the way?
There are two benefits of continuing to include cardiovascular conditioning exercise in your training regimen:
- Cardiovascular health and conditioning
- Maintaining lean levels of body fat
Very few beginning bodybuilders understand the critical level of importance cardiovascular conditioning has on their ability to gain muscle mass over time.
As your muscles adapt and grow you?re going to have to continue to place greater levels of intensity on them to allow for continual growth. This is the basic principle of progressive overload.
There are a few different methods of increasing the intensity that?s placed on your muscles. One of these methods is to shorten the periods of rest you use between sets.
If your cardiovascular conditioning isn?t up to snuff it?s going to be difficult to get to the point where you?re only resting for a minute or so between sets, which could hinder your muscle building progress.
There are also certain lifts, such as breathing squats, that are extremely beneficial for building an impressively large physique. If you can?t complete a full set of 20 breathing squats because you lose your breath, this will prevent you from benefiting from that particular set.
The final rep or two of a set is what pushes your muscles beyond their current capabilities and forces them to grow. Not being able to perform those final reps because your heart can?t keep up is simply unacceptable.
Cardio for Building Lean Muscle Mass
The second benefit cardio exercise provides those in ?bulk mode? is the ability to maintain their definition while adding muscle mass.
I?ve seen far too many well-intentioned individuals go on an eating binge in order to build muscle mass as fast as possible only to end up putting on an amount of fat that could cover a baby elephant.
I realize this is a different issue altogether than not implementing cardio work into your training, but the end result is the same: you?ll end up getting fat!
The body needs a certain number of calories to build muscle mass. Anything above and beyond that is going to add to your body fat levels, which shouldn?t appeal to anyone that?s serious about their level of fitness or aesthetic appeal.
I like how John McCallum puts it in his book, The Complete Keys to Progress:
?There is no value in fat. If you think it makes you look better, you?re only kidding yourself. It?s a blanket of blubber that impedes your comfort and efficiency, shortens your life, boosts you over the melting point on hot days, and hides the muscles you?re working so hard to develop. Getting fat just to make your muscles look bigger makes about as much sense as wearing extra sweaters so people will think you?ve got a big chest.? ??
While cardio does burn a certain amount of additional calories, it also keeps your body fat levels in check and helps to boost your metabolism while you?re working on building muscle mass.
You?ll want to take a couple of precautions when using cardio while bulking just to make sure it doesn?t negatively impact your ability to gain muscle:
- Never do more than 20 minutes at a time
- Keep the intensity at a moderate/low level
Following these rules will prevent you from placing a demand on your body that could potentially lead to the breakdown of the muscle tissue you?re working so hard to build up.
If you follow these rules, regular cardio workouts will only benefit your results by minimizing gains in body fat and providing your heart with a healthy dose of stimulation to allow you to live healthier and train with a maximal level of intensity.
Source: http://www.myhealthandfitness.net.au/is-cardio-really-necessary-when-trying-to-gain-muscle-mass/
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