We all want that lean, perfect body. And, many of us try to combine a clean, healthy diet with lots of cardio. For many of us, we equate strength training with bodybuilding, and the idea of lifting weights seems counter to the idea of burning fat. It seems as though many of us feel that if you grunt out a long cardio session, you’re burning off all that fat – and think that this is the best way to get a low body fat. But….you might be wrong!
The people you see in all those fitness magazines and supplement ads – they didn’t build those lean bodies with cardio. They build them in the weight room. And, also eat an extremely clean and efficient diet. But, that’s their job. How can you accomplish a body like you see in the magazines? The question isn’t whether you should or shouldn’t have cardio as part of your workout plan. It’s more a question of what kind of cardio – and how much?
In a recently published case study of a natural bodybuilder (meaning, no steroids or artifical supplements), the study found that when the bodybuilder did five 40-minute cardio sessions a week for one month of preparing for a bodybuilding competition, and over his overall training period of 14 weeks, his body fat dropped from 14 percent to 7.2 percent. But – here’s the thing – he also lost 11 pounds of muscle, which was 43 percent of his total weight loss, and that was couinter to what he was trying to accomplish. The researchers speculate that there may have been two possiblities as to why this happened. One is that as his body fat dropped, he had less body fat to burn, creating a caloric deficit, which reduced his muscle mass. The other possibility was that too much cardio may actually cause their body to have a hard time adding or maintining muscle. Think about it – when was the last time you saw a muscle-bound endurance runner!
Strength training utilizes different muscle fibers than endurance training does, but both burn glycogen that can keep you from having extra energy for effective strength training. And, strength training normally uses fast-twitch muscle fibers, where endurance training works slow twitch fibers – and it’s the fast twitch fibers (when you’ve built them up) that gives your body shape and mass.
So – how can you drop body fat, while building a killer beach body? First, be careful when you do both strength and cardio training that works the same muscle groups – like legs, for example. Running can affect strength and size in your lower body, as it causes more muscle damage than running or cycling. So, for cardio, you may want to try walking on a treadmill, or cycling on an exercise bike or indoor cycle, rather than pounding the pavement with a long running session.
HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training, is a great way to get both cardio and strength training in an intense intermittent exercise format, causing you to build endurance while also building muscles, which is why it’s a popular exercise format today. But intense exercise also requries extra rest, otherwise you’ll feel irritable and tired all the time. The best solution is to decide what is the best approach for you – are you looking to get super lean, or build muscles? If muscle growth is your goal, and with that, loosing fat – then keep your cardio sessions small. If loosing fat, and having a lean body is your goal, you can up your cardio a bit for extra fat burning, while realizing you may loose muscle mass in the process.
Finally – that guy you saw with the killer abs in that magazine? Yes, he worked hard in the gym to build muscle. While also eating very healthy – low carb, low fat, high protein foods to bulk up and build muscle. Then, once he was big, he trimmed off the fat (and some muscle) – on a treadmill!
Learn more about the best cardio and strength equipment at any of our 3 locations here in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or Chandler.
