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To Cardio or Not to Cardio?

Should you do cardio or not when you’re engaged in a serious muscle building and strength training program?

That debate has gone on for years with both sides fighting for their opinion.

In this post, I’ll share my feelings about the cardio question.

Let’s examine both sides first.

The cardio side believes that a good steady state program is beneficial to your health, gets you in better shape, and allows you to perform better during weight training.

The anti-cardio side believes steady state aerobic training strips away all your hard-earned muscle and there’s no need for it because heavy squats and deadlifts will get your heart pumping and leave you out of breath.

No go to the cardio they shout!

Where do I come in on this debate?

With neither side. I believe a mixture of both is the way to go. Here’s why.

• You need cardio for health and well-being
• Too much steady state cardio will strip your muscle away
• What good is it to be big and strong, but you can’t walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath
• Steady state is boring as all hell

The key is to find a balance and lucky for us hardcore lifters, there is a way to get that balance.

It’s called Intervals.

As you probably know, intervals are a combination of fast, full-on bursts of speed, on any cardio apparatus of your choice, mixed in with moments of slower, steady state fare.

In many tests, exercise scientists have proven that interval sprinting actually helps increase lean muscle mass, not burn it off.

If you don’t believe me look at the bodies of most high-level sprinters.  They’re ripped to shreds with loads of lean muscle on their frames.

Some of that is due to performance enhancers, of course, but this isn’t theory or speculation. It’s been proven in the lab by esteemed doctors like Izumi Tabata, who created his own highly effective interval training program.

You also need some steady state cardio for heart health and fat burning.

What I have done is mix both intervals and steady state into my training regimen. Here’s how I do it.

I start out doing a 20-25 minute steady state warmup and then go a full 10 minutes of intervals that consist of 30 seconds full speed and 30 seconds slower pace. That’s a total of 10 intervals.

After the intervals, I go at a steady state pace for a five minute cool down.

All told that’s 35-40 minutes on the bike that gives me a combination of steady state for heart health and intervals for muscle building.

The best of both worlds.

I do this five days a week, always in the morning. Sometimes I jump into my weight training right after, but mostly I lift in the afternoon or early evening. Not that it’s better to do it that way. It’s just the how I like it.

Try this or something similar in your own program. I think you’ll be pleased with the results.

Remember, train hard and heavy.

Take care.

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