Why you need to do Cardio...My .02

[Trevdog]

I completely agree.

Who wants to gain a lot of weight but have your overall athleticism decline? I want to be able to play football or other sports without running out of gas in the first series.

 

[WHITE THUNDER]

I think whether you do cardio or not depends on your goals if want to cut up, then great do it, BUT YOU WILL LOSE SIZE AND STRENGTH unless you are on a good amount of AS. but if you are bulking and want to gain as much mass as possible IMO don't even think about it.

 

[europe]

if you want to stay small then do your cardio. if you are endomorph ok but you will never become a monster if you are doing cardio 4 times a week with normal genetics. For a fitness lifestyle it is ok but not for a real bodybuilder

 

[Beezers]

I'm with the last two guys here. If you're pushing the limits of your size potential then I wouldn't even as much as look at a treadmill. I used to be a cardio freak. Loved it. Then I had the relization that I want to be a freak of nature. I stopped doing cardio and what do you know...The freakiness began. Strength sky rocketed as did muscle mass. For overall health purposes it's a good idea to incorperate cardiovascular training. But for the serious bodybuilder in the preliminary stages of putting on all the muscle mass he can cardio should be avoided in my opinion. We all know bodybuilding isn't about health. It's about being the one to carry the first place trophy home after the show. A lean physique is great, but it means nothing wihtout super-human amounts of muscle mass which I just don't see happening with hours of cardio.

 

[BigGuns2]

Great post bro. You obviously have done your homework.

 

[1PUNCH]

I agree I dont think cardio 4 to 5 times a week at 45 minutes a wack is gonna eat up that much muscle. I dont wanna be 40 years old and have to take the elevator up to the 3rd floor of a hotel just to keep from breathing real hard and I have a few buddies now that look like they are in good shape but if they had to jump in a lake to swim 40 yards to save there little girl from drowning they would be up shit creek, personally Im not into the freak look I lean more towards the mens health look and being in shape and fealing good. I am in shitty shape right now because I had surgery on my neck 5 months ago and I can tell big time how out of shape I am, I catch myself breathing hard doing little shit and that sucks. trying to get back in shape now and cant wait, anyway not knocking the guys that are huge on here because I know you guys work your balls off just throwing in my 2 cents I think doing light running even just 30 minutes a day 4 days a week makes a big difference in the way a guy feals and looks, 1PUNCH

 

[G-Force]

I have to agree with 1Punch that doing 20 mins of cardio at 50% - 80% MHR first thing in the morning would not make any serious inroads into your mass unless as was pointed out you want to get freaky in which case you would be too big to do cardio anyway.
But for all non-competitive BB's the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages for the reasons outlined and IMHO the reason it is neglected is not because BB's are afraid of losing size, cos personally I would more than happy with a physique like Ben Johnson's or maybe only slightly bigger, but because dare I say it they can't be bothered. I know BB's who have the same goals as me in that they don't want to be absolutely huge and although they are highly dedicated trainers they absolutely dread the thoughts of doing cardio!

 

[The mann]

good post

 

[Jeff_rys]

still doing 4-5 hours a week on the stairmaster is not for laughs

i do max 2 hours a week on the stairmaster. But if done more, bye bye size.

 

[Jeff_rys]

by the way fhg43

great post, just saved to disk