Cutting w/o cardio

[Abbaddon]

I am a personal believer that cardio is a part of the bodybuilding lifestyle. If your a powerlifter, dont do cardio. However, if you want to be a bodybuilder you should get yourself used to cardio. Not just for fat burning purposes but also for the health benefits. Now I am not talking about running a marathon, but some cardio should be done for everyday your in the gym even if it is only 15-20 minutes at the beginning or end your body will thank you for it by helping muscle growth. It is good for your heart, and also builds up your cardiovascular endurance which makes for more intense lifting sessions. Trust me I hate cardio, I really hate running with my bad knee so I have found some other good ways to do cardio.

Heavy bag: Eight 3 minute rounds of hitting the bag for one minute in between is a lot more grueling than it sounds and is a great way to do cardio of you hate to run.

Station cardio: I often do this on my days away from the gym. It is basically sets of different exercises done in a curcuit. 5 different exercises(pushups, situps, jumping jacks, bend and thrusts, etc) the military knows what they are doing with these.

Basically cardio is an essential in this lifestyle. It is good for you in the all around.

 

[Belial]

Very well, you may disagree. And I won't get into it, because I've posted on this topic far too many times in the past.

But essentially, cardio is contra-indicated for individuals wishing to preserve muscle mass. Cardio by its nature will always be more catabolic to muscle tissue than simply sitting around; it reduces recovery, empties glycogen stores, etc. It does not intrinsically keep the fat off; at the end of the day diet manipulation is a FAR better way to reduce fat gain. If you're storing fat, you're simply taking in more calories than your body can utilize. it's better to reduce your intake and not put on the fat in the first place, rather than doing an inherently catabolic form of exercise that will burn more than just fat.

Cardio is NEVER a must. The "fat burning zone" is bullshit; immediate sources of energy have little impact as far as body composition in the long run will go. I'm an individual who puts on fat easily, as are several people i train. And only one of those people does cardio, yet we're all lean. For controlling fat gain, diet is number one, cardio is a distant second.

 

[Abbaddon]

Belial, I wasnt disagreeing with you at all. I do believe that diet is number one in fat loss, it should take first precedence in everything actually I would rather miss a workout than miss a meal. I was only saying that cardio is a part of this lifestyle that is essential. I was not implying balls to the wall cardio just a little everyday.

 

[Belial]

Abbadon, absolutely. I agree it's beneficial for overall health. i was replying to gymtime, sorry about that.

 

[Abbaddon]

No problem... Just making sure the two fallen angels werent in disagreement

 

[gymtime]

How dare you speak to an elder in that tone.

We will agree to disagree as I have only my own experience to go by. I've dieted and lifted w/o cardio to moderate success. I add cardio in the mix and the effects are undeniable. I sacrifice some muscle of course, but it's more than worth it for the fat loss IMO. In other words, the difference here is the fact that for me, maintaining muscle is a preference, but not a requirement. I'm a bigger, thicker-framed guy so the small amount of muscle I lose, I can afford.

But as with anything, it's different for everyone. I concede that you deal with this more often in your line of work than I do. I am my only client. Which reminds me, I have some training questions for you that I'll PM you about later.

Enjoy the weekend young man.

 

[Belial]

lol, Abbaddon. After all, what would the big guy say?

Gymtime, glad we could be so civil about this. Something to be said about those old world values!

look forward to the PMs.

 

[Blood&Iron]

Looks like this issue has been fairly well addressed. I'm not normally a big fan of cardio, but the one time I think it's worthwhile is while on a CKD. Just follow the BodyOpus guidelines. They go something like:

Sunday: 45 min cardio to speed descent into ketosis
Monday: Upper-body workout, no cardio
Tuesday: Lower-body workout, no cardio
Wednesday: 30-40 min cardio
Thursday: 30-40 min cardio
Friday: Depletion workout or HIT workout, no cardio
Saturday: Rest

 

[TAGMAN]

Can you do 10 minutes of cardio maybe 2-3 times per week? If you can, then try HIIT. Checkout this website then if your interested I'll tell ya what I do.

http://www.musclemedia.com/training/hiit.asp

 

[Grizzly]

I'm forced to disagree my friend. This is true for some people, but not everyone. If you are prone to putting on weight easily, cardio is a must. And 60 minutes per week doesn't do it.

I must disagree with that. I was fat for my entire life. Then, one day, I decided to start bodybuilding to lose weight. In 4 months I lost 50lbs and I didn't do a single second of cardio.