Focus on your diet to get abs.

Article by Rob Maxwell, M.A. Exercise Physiology, CSCS, ASCM CPT from fittothemax.net

Abs are made in the kitchen

Repeat after me, "Abs are made in the kitchen!"

Crunches aren't enough for abs.

What does it mean that abs are made in the kitchen? 

Many people want abs. If you know what this statement means, then you know what that means. If you do not, let me explain.

The term abs is short for abdominal muscles. And when I say that many people want abs, what I mean is that they want their abdominal muscles to show. They want definition. They want what is often called a six pack.

This just means that abdominal muscles are showing very clearly. In short, many people want to have a defined looking midsection. To get that look it comes down to diet and not spot reduction. Abs are made in the kitchen because you need to focus on diet to have your abs showing. It's more about fat reduction than it is about muscle growth to get abs.

Ab definition is relative to fat mass.

Spot reduction doesn't work 

Spot reduction refers to the idea that you can exercise a certain part of your body to make it smaller. You cannot. To be more specific with what I am talking about, spot reduction of the abs is a belief that if you do a lot of stomach exercises such as hundreds of crunches, you will make your midsection smaller.

Simply put, this is not true. When we strength train (and that is what a crunch is), we make an area stronger and make it hypertrophy (grow the muscle). We do not make it smaller. If anything, we make the specific area bigger!

Don't worry, though. The abdominal muscles are such that even as they get bigger, they do not grow outward. But the obliques on the sides of the lower torso can get bigger and stick out more. Many top bodybuilders that are looking for more symmetry do not train their obliques for this reason - because they do not want to look "blockier.”

A 6 pack doesn't come from crunches.

When we exercise any area - whether we are working our abs or our arms - we are making them stronger and adding muscle tissue (even if it is just the slightest bit). That is a good thing.

The abdominal muscles are such that as you get leaner and have any abdominal muscles at all (which we all do) they will show up. You cannot make your abs smaller with ab exercises. You can stop exercising them and they will atrophy (get smaller), but you do not want that.

We need strong abdominal muscles to support other areas of our bodies like our lower back. But all that ab work you may be doing is not doing a thing to help you with that goal of defined abs. It can even be counterproductive.

I often see people doing all these different abdominal routines where people are doing set after set with many different ab exercises. They are not doing that, I guarantee you, because they are obsessed with making their abs stronger. They are doing this because they think that they are making their look skinnier.

All these extra exercises can be a waste of time. The abdominal muscles are responsible for spinal flexion. The spine flexes down. That is what they do. That is the job of the abs. The transverse abdominal muscles hold the spine in place (think about doing a plank).

All that you need to do is pick a few basic abdominal exercises and work the abs with the same set and rep ranges that you would any other muscle group. They are not special. You want them to look special? Focus on diet and cardio.

Don't waste your time for limited results.

How to get a 6 pack - the right way

When I tell people that many top bodybuilders hardly work their abs, they do not believe me.

But it is true. They have awesome looking midsections because they stay so lean. They work their core by keeping great focus on their abs as they do their other exercises.

For example, if they are doing rows, they focus on keeping their spine nice and straight and contracting their abs to help them do this. They understand that the abdominal muscles are a major stabilizer muscle, and that they are using them when they strength train regardless of the exercise.

Use your abs in every exercise.

By doing that, hardly any work at all is needed to keep your abs strong. The bodybuilder understands that to get their abs to look defined has nothing to do with the exercise, but everything to do with being lean.

If you are a male with 5% body fat (females should have a higher percentage of body fat by about 10%), you will have an awesome midsection and a six pack irrespective of whether you have ever done a crunch.

If you are 20% body fat (which is average for a male) and you do abdominal work every day, no one will see these abdominal muscles.

Having great abs is about being lean. To be lean, you must take in fewer calories than you use, period.

If you want the abs to look better, you really need to eat clean and eat just what you need (a calorie deficit). Once you reach that goal, you eat just the amount you need to maintain. 

I have competed. I do some core work, but not a lot. I should clarify that. I do focus hard on the lower back because I want that muscle to be strong. The lower back is part of the “core.” But I do not do a lot of anterior abdominal exercises. I do some to maintain their strength.

As I said above, I really focus on keeping my core engaged on every exercise, so I do not need to do a lot.

Why don’t I do more? It is boring to me. I do not like doing it. And I know how pointless it is overall. It is hard for me to get motivated to do something that I know is not really benefiting me.

I really hit the lower back muscles hard, though. I do not want my back to be weak.

Let's go back to competing. When I competed, my abs looked good. I have a six pack and I do try to stay lean like that. I do not want to go up and down. But there have been times when I have not been as lean, and guess what? My abs are not what you would call ripped when I am not as lean.

Abs are made in the kitchen. I tell any client who wants to lose body fat. We must watch what we eat (the quality and the quantity of food) and we need to do our cardio to burn the fat and reduce the calories.

If we do that and we do it consistently, we will get lean and the abs will show up! How much they show up is 100% dependent on how lean they are. Women will need to be around 14-17% body fat to show that kind of development and men around 5-8%.

Get lean to get abs.

Keep in mind that all of our bodies have a set point. Not everybody can get lean enough to show the abdominal leanness. And that is okay!

I am not writing this with the motive to shame people into thinking that a 6 pack is the be all and end all. It is not! I have seen abs on both men and women that are shredded and, to me, look very unattractive. It is about taste.

I am just saying that if you’re on a quest for six pack abs, you’ll find them in the kitchen and on the treadmill!

Muscle imbalances

So, what? Do not be a buzzkill, Rob. “I like doing a ton of abs!”

Here is the problem. You can work your anterior abdominal muscles so much that you begin to get a bit of a forward tilt because that is what the abdominal muscles do. They flex the spine. Flex means to reduce the angle of a joint.

So, in the case of the abdominal muscles, they flex the spine forward and pull your upper torso downward. We have seen in recent years that studies are showing that the low back is getting weaker on those people that do so much anterior abdominal training. It creates a muscle imbalance.

Every muscle has what is called a “forced couple.” This means is every muscle has an antagonistic muscle group that opposes it. In the case of the anterior abdominal muscles, rectus abdominis, it is the erector spinae or lower back.

When this muscle gets worked harder or more than the muscle that opposes it, a muscle imbalance occurs and it can weaken the lower back.

I have seen that a lot with people that have come to me with low back pain or injury. They defend themselves right away and say, “I work my core all the time.” I have them explain. Sure enough, they do a boat load of crunches and do not work the lower back.

To have a strong lower back, you need to work the lower back! And the entire core needs to be kept in balance. We do that by making the lower back more of a priority and if you are a typical gym goer, making the anterior core less of one.

Get lower back strength.

How to train it right

Let us say that your motive to exercise the core is because you want to train the core for strength. Good!

Again, my first tip is for you to really engage the core in all that you do. That is truly the best core exercise you can do. It is like doing a plank all the time! And work your core muscles (rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, obliques, and erector spinae) all in balance. Pick an exercise for each (you can vary it).

Work the rectus abdominis by doing a crunch or a reverse crunch—any movement that flexes the spine. Work the transverse abdominals by doing a plank type movement. Work the obliques by doing side bends or rotations. Work the lower back by doing spinal extensions either on a machine or with your own body weight.

Do the 1-3 sets of 10-30 reps (and 45-60 seconds for plank). Do NOT do 100 crunches or 1000 or whatever. That is just silly!

If you do follow these principles, and do it mindfully with enough load, your core will get stronger.

Speaking of load, here is another issue with the 1000 crunches guy, it is not enough load! Would you do that for your biceps?

You still need enough of a load to fatigue the muscle in a low enough rep range. If you can do more than 30 abdominal flexion reps and you are not feeling it, you need to find a way to add load. The abdominal muscles are made of the same tissues as any other muscle in your body.

For them to make progress, they need to be overloaded. Regarding the plank, holding the plank longer (more than a minute) is not making progress. If you want to effectively overload the plank exercise you make the planks harder not longer. For example, doing a plank on a stability ball would be a good overload.

Find what actually works.

Focus on what you eat

The core exercises discussed above are for strengthening the core. If you want defined abs, spend a lot more time focusing on how you eat and how much your shoes are contacting the ground.

If you create a calorie deficit over time and you have the genetics to get lean enough, your abdominal muscles will look cut!

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that it is a lot easier to do 2000 crunches than watch what you eat. I know. I get it.

A lot of people train abdominal muscles because they are easy to do. But easy isn’t worth it, right? It is hard to flex those muscles of discipline and tell yourself to really watch and control what you eat.

Again, I get it. But it is the only way. It is hard for almost everyone. Why almost? Come on, we’ve all seen the little surfer teen with a rock hard six pack park his bike and go grab a big gulp and a pack of ding dongs. Keep in mind, he is 15!

But for everybody else who is not full of testosterone due to puberty, it takes work. But as I always say, the work is worth it. Do not shoot the messenger. Abs are made in the kitchen. 

Rob Maxwell 

Rob Maxwell from fittothemax.net owns Maxwell’s Fitness Programs in Port Orange, Florida. He's been in business for 25 years.  He runs a personal training studio and they do virtual training. Follow him on Twitter for more.

Not all forms of exercise benefit the brain in the same way

Exercise seems to improve almost everything from physical health to emotional and mental well-being. Today, I would like to look at how different exercises improve brain function.

Different kinds of exercises affect the brain differently

This study investigated how exercise affected memory in 52 students between the ages of 11 and 12. The test was to memorize 20 words and recite them back immediately - and then after a delayed amount of time. This was done in 3 sessions: One after playing team games, one after doing cardiovascular (circuit training) exercises and one after no physical activity at all. Immediate memory was highest when followed by team-game forms of exercise, and delayed memory was higher in both forms of exercise. The results showed that exercise rapidly improved memory, but also that different forms of exercise will affect memory in different ways. Team sports, which stimulated the brain along with the body, had a greater effect on short-term memory.

This highlights the importance of the fact that exercise should be performed according to individual goals. In other words, 'why exercise' should determine 'what exercise'.

Personality determines what kind of exercise is the most enjoyable

Personality will determine what kind of exercise you enjoy the most. My personal, most enjoyable form of exercise is long distance running or walking - most probably due to my inherently relaxed nature. If you are currently looking for the form of exercise that will give you the most benefit, try thinking about what you want your mind to get out of the activity. Do you want your exercise routine to spice up a boring routine or provide a mentally relaxing escape? You could also balance out what you currently don't like about your mental environment. For example, steady-state cardio can provide for a time of mental peace and relaxation if you constantly feel rushed from one task to another, while bodybuilding can give you something to work towards of you feel like you need more goals to motivate you. A social form of exercise is great for people who need a little push to get started, get bored easily or who are more competitive in nature.

Aerobic exercise may increase memory and learning more than resistance training

This study tested the effects of different forms of exercise on verbal memory and learning. 86 women between the ages of 70 and 80 with probable MCI (mild cognitive impairment) were designated to 3 different styles of training: Aerobic training, resistance training and balance/toning training. The training programs lasted for 6 months. Their brains were scanned (using MRI scans) and their verbal memory and learning skills were tested using Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test. They concluded that aerobic training increased the size of the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory) more than the other forms of exercise in their test subjects.

Why does cardio-vascular exercise improve brain learning and memory more than other forms of exercise?

More research is needed to determine why aerobic exercise, or cardio, is better at boosting memory and learning. There are, however, a few theories. These are the two most common ones.

Oxygen

Aerobic exercise trains the body to process and use oxygen more efficiently. VO2 Max is the measurement of how much oxygen your body can use. The greater your VO2 Max, the more oxygen your body can draw from every breath and the more of it can be used to create energy. Cardio-vascular exercise increases VO2 max because this form of exercise uses oxygen as its primary fuel source. Increased oxygen availability may increase mental well-being and performance.

Blood circulation

Blood circulation is extremely important for both mental and overall health. Your body depends on blood to eliminate toxins and by-products and transport nutrients throughout its entire system. The brain is no different - oxygen (and carbon dioxide), water, hormones and other chemicals are constantly being needed and be transported to and from the brain. Exercise that requires more blood circulation will, therefore, stimulate greater ability for it to serve the rest of the body.

All forms of exercise will benefit the brain in one way or another. For example, check out how body building improves cognitive performance. It is better to do a form of exercise that you enjoy, compared to none at all. If you are exercising for the mental health benefits, choosing a form which you enjoy and which benefits your brain the most can yield greater benefits than one that doesn't meet these two important criteria. Stay Strong!

Support our website and buy these awesome Socks.

Fasted cardio myth debunked by science

Maybe it is time bodybuilders start training like cyclists

Fasted Cardio Myth Debunked

By Clint Latham – www.BikeALatteCO.com 

 I Wipe the sleep from my eyes, fumbling blindly in my closet for my bibs and ask myself time and time again; “Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this?”

I would slowly make my way downstairs while carrying my bike; just thinking that this won't even last an hour, as I try to find some way to grip any bit of motivation left from the depths of my soul.

I’m sure that you’ve heard it a million times; especially if you are involved in the body building community.

If you want to maximize fat loss, you need to wake up early and hit the cardio before a single calorie hits the pit of your stomach. But the science would actually indicate otherwise. If you lived during the late 1990’s you have likely heard of the health craze sweeping the nation: Body for Life.

It was a health and fitness challenge put on by sports supplement company guru Bill Phillips. I was especially fascinated by this challenge as it was based out of my home town of Golden, CO.

  In Bill’s chapter on cardio he had two basic principles:
1) Hit the cardio early before eating your 1st meal
2) Perform short, high intensity interval cardio or High Intensity Interval Training

The idea was that the body had been fasting all night while you slept; reducing blood sugar levels, decreasing muscle glycogen stores and further decreasing insulin levels. Thus if you hit the cardio before your first meal the body would have no choice but to use fat as its primary fuel source.

This would send the body's fat burning potential into high gear. Ever sense countless cyclists, bodybuilders and anyone else has been looking to cut weight; they have been clawing their way, tired and hungry, through high intensity cardio in the hopes of shedding a few extra pounds.

As I traveled the country to the world's biggest bodybuilding events - The NY Pro, the Arnold and the Olympia - I would hear this time and time again. You've got to do your cardio fasted if you want to burn fat. It is as if it had been inscribed into the 10 commandments.

As I would head down to the hotel gym in the morning for a spin, I would see countless bodybuilders knuckling the cardio equipment in the hopes of shedding a few extra ounces of fat, being so tired and hungry that they could barely keep a steady pace, let alone reach the intensities required for High Intensity Interval Training.

Could this really be the best way to burn fat? They looked absolutely miserable. As I started to get back into the racing scene, a friend and training partner (Gareth Thomas - the national triathlon coach for the UK) used to always harp on me before our rides. "How many grams of carbs have you eaten?"

But I always brushed him off. Here I was working with some of the fittest people on the planet, who can get to 3% & 4% body fat and your telling me to eat!? Yeah right!

But that's when I got curious. We have bodybuilders performing fasted cardio and we have cyclists cramming as many carbs as possible. Yet both are extremely lean.

What's the truth? How does the body oxidize fat?

The human body does not operate within a vacuum

The body is constantly adjusting its use of fat or carbohydrate usage depending upon a variety of factors. Kent Hansen, in his study, The Effects of Exercise on the Storage and Oxidation of Dietary Fat, found that, "Generally if you burn more carbohydrates during your workout you will burn more fat post workout".

While research does show that fasted cardio can increase the mobilization of fat from the adipose tissue, this only occurs at very low levels of intensity. In the study Regulation of plasma fatty acid oxidation during low- and high- intensity exercise, "Our data suggests that, in addition to sub-optimal FFA availability, fatty acid oxidation is likely limited during high-intensity exercise because of direct inhibition of long-chain fatty acid entry into mitochondria." 

If a bodybuilder performs HIIT, they may see an increase in fat mobilization but that does not mean an increase in fat oxidation. This results in all those fatty acids being re-packaged and stored back into the adipose tissue.

After all of that suffering you put it right back where it came from! Furthermore Jeffery F Horowitz in his article in the American Journal of Physiology, found that; “When trained subjects exercised at 50% of the their maximum heart rate, an intensity that equates a slow walk, there was no difference in the amount of fat burned - regardless of whether the subjects had eaten or not.”

These results continued to be the same until the subjects, that were fasted, exceeded the 90 minute mark. Only then did the fasted cardio begin to show favorable results. Thus what are we left with?

The body will burn more fat cells when fasted at a lower intensity, but the duration has to be longer than 90 minutes. Anything shorter and it's a wash. And if we try to increase the intensity, there is an inhibition of fatty acids being able to enter the mitochondria.  

Why bodybuilders should think like an endurance athlete

As a competitive cyclist my goal for each workout was to make my engine bigger, stronger & faster. The way to do this is to increase the size and density of your mitochondria. Mitochondria are what produce ATP and is the only place in the cell where fat can be oxidized. It is the cell's fat-burning furnace.

The more mitochondria my body has, the bigger my engine and the faster I can ride. Think about it like a car. If you have a V12 and a 4 cylinder engine both sitting at idle, which one is going to use more gas? The V12, right!

Thus we would be better suited to turn our bodies into a V12 mitochondria machine so that we are constantly burning more fat cells. The study: An acute bout of high-intensity interval training increases the nuclear abundance of PGC-1α and activates mitochondrial biogenesis in human skeletal muscle found that low volume, high intensity interval training increases mitochondrial biogenesis.

Within 24 hours of maximal intensity exercise, new mitochondria were being formed.

I preach to any new cyclist I that work with to always eat before their rides. Why? Because without the fuel to fuel your muscles, you can't reach the intensity levels required to produce the enzymes that lead to mitochondria growth.

I know countless bodybuilders who will preach, “You got to eat before you lift bro! You need to fuel those muscles.” Why doesn't the same principle apply to high intensity cardio? You need to fuel the muscles to perform at a high level in order to induce growth. In this case, increase mitochondrial growth and fat burning potential is the goal.

In the same study, they found that a combination of both endurance and resistance exercise causes a significantly higher degree of mitochondrial biogenesis then endurance exercise alone. Bodybuilders have the resistance training part down, but what about the endurance?

Most bodybuilders I know cannot wait for their cardio sessions to be over. In fact, most of them dread cardio. Enter the popularity of the high intensity interval training workout. It's short and sweet. We also know that one of the best ways to cut fat is calories in vs calories out.

As bodybuilders get closer to show prep they begin cutting calories drastically to start leaning out.

Now it is even more important that our mitochondrial engine is huge. We want to run the fat tank on empty.

When performing an HIIT workout at the correct intensities, the body uses roughly 75% carbohydrate and 25% fat.

 The body, fully stocked full of glycogen stores, has roughly 90 mins worth of fuel for a moderately intense workout. In order to maintain optimal levels of glycogen, a daily carbohydrate intake of approximately 3 to 5 grams per pound of lean body mass is recommended when accumulating between 1 to 5 hours of training daily.

If a bodybuilder cuts (and especially limits) their carbohydrate intake, they are already running on empty before they hit the gym.

The bodybuilder's worst nightmare

Muscle tissue is made up mostly of protein which, in turn, is made up of amino acids. Normally, your body does not use protein to produce energy. If you run out of glycogen stores and no glucose is available, however, your body will then break down its own muscle tissue to release amino acids.

These amino acids are sent to your liver where they are converted into glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis.

When your body starts to use muscle tissue for energy, you lose muscle mass.

Starving without any glycogen left in the muscles to fuel their cardio efforts, bodybuilders still hit the treadmill in the hopes of shedding more fat.

What's really going to happen is your body? It's now going to use the protein in that hard earned muscle to fuel your HIIT session.

Think about a Tour De France rider. (If you're asking what the TDF is, it's like the super bowl of bike racing) Why are they so dang skinny? They burn so many calories during the race that they cannot eat enough to restore glycogen stores.

What happens? The body starts eating the muscle. A bodybuilder is doing the same thing to a lesser degree during the cutting phase. The question becomes, why not have 20-40 grams of carbohydrates pre-cardio, to be able to hit the intensity requirements needed to build more mitochondria and save that precious muscle mass?

You will be a constant fat burning machine and not have to sacrifice any muscle mass! In my Ride to 75 programs for new cyclists, one of the key principles is fuel.

We want to ride to lose weight. Cycling for Weight loss requires that we build a big mitochondrial engine to be a 24/7 fat burning machine. Now it is never a good idea to make a major change before a big show.

However, you can start focusing on building your engine between shows by fueling your HIIT workouts which will burn more fat cells.

You will also have to suffer less during the cutting phase. If you or someone you know who is interested in achieving happiness and health on two wheels please share with them, Cycling for Weight Loss, the FREE resource guide is found here.

Support our website and buy this awesome Tee Shirt.

Benefits of Skipping For Bodybuilders

Skipping can actually help bodybuilders achieve greater muscle growth. Here are a few reasons why:

Because Skipping is Cardio

Cardio has been thought to be the arch enemy of muscle growth, but the right kind of cardio can help muscle growth by increasing blood circulation and improving anaerobic performance.

Skipping Improves Workout Performance. You have less Light Headedness, less Nausea and less Fatigue.

Skipping improves your energy performance and endurance. This is why boxers skip; so that they can perform at the highest intensity for prolonged periods of time. The reason why people often experience light headedness, nausea and fatigue or feeling exhausted when doing squats, for example, is because they are not used to expending so much energy in a short period of time. The body is therefore trying to cope with the energy-intensive part of the workout instead of the muscular stress. When your body is more adapted to working at a higher intensity, you will feel less of these side effects.

Focus on Muscular Fatigue Instead of Cardio-Vascular Fatigue

Ever had to stop squats or deadlifts because you feel light-headed or nauseous? What if you didn't get that feeling at all and could carry on until your muscles failed, instead of your energy system? Skipping makes your body more adept at high exercise intensities, so that when you train under the iron, you can focus on delivering maximum stimulus to your muscle without hindered energy limitations.

Speedy Recovery

Because of the above, when your body is more cardio-capable, recovery after your workouts will be quicker and more efficient. Your body will need to recover less from the energy-related aspect of training and can focus more on recovering from muscular stress. This means that you will enter into an anabolic state quicker and more recovery can be done per muscle per day. Less resources (nutrients and energy) spent on energy, more resources (nutrients and energy) spent on muscle! 

Excess Energy: 

Because you will also require less rest in between sets, your workout can either be shorter or include more exercises. Having higher energy levels also means that you will push harder during your weight training.

Increased Metabolism:

Skipping increases your metabolism, so your body will burn carbs quicker for energy. This means that you will need to make sure that you are eating enough carbs, otherwise your body will break down muscle. The brighter side of an increased metabolism is that your body is better able at producing energy, which can also be used for muscle growth and recovery.

Better Immune System

Being more physically fit increases your immunity so that you get sick less often, we all know how illness can set us back a few weeks!

To find out more about how cardio can increase muscle growth, click here.

Skipping Tones Your Body

Skipping is a great way to keep your bulk phase as clean as possible (more muscle, less fat) and speed up cutting phase (shorter duration needed, better results at the end)

Skipping Tones Muscle

Skipping tones the shoulder, arm, ab, quad, hamstring and calve muscles. Adding an aerobic exercise like skipping to a weight training exercise will add a separate stimulus to the calves, for example, challenging them to grow bigger to adapt.

Good Joint Health

High rep training helps to solidify joints so that they are stronger during low rep training. Skipping helps to build shoulder joint stability, for example, so that they are less prone to injury under the bar.

Add Jump Rope To Your Routine, But Don't Subtract It!

Let skipping add to your workout, but don't let it take away from your original goal. As great as skipping can be as a complimentary exercise to a muscle growth program, too much can be a bad thing. If your main objective is to grow muscle, do not skip so much before weight training that you don't have enough energy to finish you training at an optimal level. As well, skipping too much after a workout might overload your body so that it spends less of it time recovering (and growing) from muscle stimulus to cope with the stress of this intense cardio. One of my favorite ways to include skipping into my routine is to skip at night because I train in the mornings, so that it does not interfere with muscle growth. Additionally, don't push yourself too hard when skipping. Rather give 100% during weight training workouts and around 60% when you skip. Don't try to push yourself to perform better in the same way you push yourself to improve on every workout. Your body will slowly adapt with time and rather increase the intensity or time over smaller increments so that your body spends more of its precious resources on muscle growth instead of trying to adapt to skipping more.

Silly analogy: a little chilli makes French toast better, but too much takes the original flavor away. Stay Strong!

Support our website and buy this awesome iPhone case.

Cardio Can Help Weight Lifters Grow More Muscle

A positive correlation between cardiovascular exercise and muscle growth

Cardiovascular exercise can help you grow muscle faster, and I am not only talking about HIIT (high intensity interval training).

The old exercise spectrum: Cardio vs weight training

All exercise is healthy and helps to keep your body in shape. Healthy people exercise. These people can almost always be stereo-typically divided into two groups.

There are the healthy individuals on one side of the spectrum who focus almost exclusively aerobic or cardio exercises like running, swimming and cycling. Top performers in these fields can be found at endurance events.

The healthy exercisers on the other side of the spectrum focus on anaerobic or strength training. The top performers in these fields include strongman and bodybuilding champions. 

We all know that exercise has many benefits, but different forms of exercise have different benefits. Yoga is better at calming the mind and body and teaching oneself to deal with stress, which leads to a healthier and prolonged life. Cardio is better at improving heart and lung health, circulation and energy productivity, which also leads to a healthier, prolonged life. Strength training is great for strengthening the body’s structure for stronger bone, joint and muscle integrity, which also leads to a healthier, prolonged life. By doing different forms of exercise, you can get different benefits. If your goal is to build muscle, you can use cardio to obtain the benefits that will help you build even more muscle.

Bodybuilders focus on anaerobic exercises like weight lifting in order to maximize muscle size and avoid cardio because it depletes energy that could be used to do more muscle-building exercises, takes up nutrients that could be used to build muscle, and increases the amount of time used to exercise. 

Cardio-vascular exercise, though, can benefit the body in such a way that it is more efficient at building muscle. Here is how:

The benefits that adding cardio to a strength training program include:

• Better aerobic performance. This comes in handy because you will get less tired throughout your strength training routine. Your body becomes better at burning energy for a prolonged period of time without resorting to muscle tissue. It will also be better at using oxygen for energy. Oxygen usage is directly related to lactic acid production.

• By being physically fitter, you are able to put a larger stimulus on your muscles during your usual workout because you will be able to train for longer without stopping due to energy constrains. That also means that you will need to rest less in between sets as you catch your breath. This will place a further and greater stimulus on muscle fibers.

• The improved oxygen and nutrient delivery systems that come through better blood circulation, heart function and lung capacity will improve the rate at which your muscles receive what they need in order to grow. Protein synthesis will start sooner and waste products will be eliminated faster.

• Your body gets better at breaking down fat and using it for energy, which means that less muscle is broken down as a quick-fix for the body's energy needs. This can also lead to shorter cutting phases and longer bulking phases.

How to use cardio to increase muscle growth

Here are great ways to use cardio to benefit muscle growth (by increasing overall endurance and physical efficiency), without hindering maximum muscle growth (by stealing nutrients, energy and recovery time).

Do cardio as a warm-up and cool down, before and after a weight training session.

This serves a double benefit. Cardio is simply added to a weight training program without too much effort but with the benefits mentioned above. It gets the blood flowing and wakes up the body so that it is optimized for the serious exercise that follows. People that warm up are able to lift heavier weights for more reps and experience less injury. Doing light cardio after weight training will redistribute blood. This prevents blood pooling so that old blood that contains lactic acid and other waste products is removed from the muscle and new blood that contains nutrients can get to the muscles sooner. Cool down exercises are a great way to speed up recovery from exercise.

 Remember that cardio is used to complement and not take away from muscle growth, so keep warm-up and cool-down cardio sessions under 10 minutes each. Make sure you do this cardio until you start to develop a light pant, but not to the point where you are too tired or don’t have enough energy to give 100% during weight training. A light-to-medium intensity is best. Stop when you have developed a light sweat.

Do cardio at a different time of the day. 

You can also do cardio at a different time of the day to compliment muscle growth. Some people cycle or run in the mornings and then go to the gym after work at night time, for example. Remember that if your goal is to gain as much muscle mass as possible, keep cardio sessions at a low enough duration and intensity that your body does not have too much of a hard time coping with the extra pressure placed on it to adapt to cardio sessions as well. By keeping these sessions at a light intensity, blood circulation is increased and muscles can receive even more nutrients in the middle of their rest periods, and the body will slowly become better at burning fat for energy.

Do cardio on rest days. 

Cardio can also be done on rest days. This serves the same benefit as the ones above - the advantage of increasing blood blow to resting muscles to speed up recovery. Some people do this form of complimentary cardio by taking light jogs in the neighborhood or taking a swim in the pool at times that they would be training at the gym. 

Doing cardio on rest days is called active rest. Some rest days should be active rest days (that include a light cardio element), and others should allow for complete rest. Complete rest ensures that the central nervous system gets enough time to recover and helps to avoid over-training. Click here for more tips about maximizing every rest day.

Keep this form of complimentary cardio easy as well because it meant to increase the efficiency of rest days, not add extra pressure on the body. A light sweat is a good indication of sufficient exertion.

Don’t overdo it

Cardio can boost muscle growth, but too much of it will start to compete with the body for energy and nutrients over muscle growth. Don’t give as much time and effort to your cardio workout in comparison to your weight training if muscle growth is your most important goal. 

Start with super light cardio that doesn’t challenge you as much as your weight training sessions and build up slowly so that your body never redirects the resources to adapt to cardio that it could have used for muscle growth. Keep a good eye on your diet and make sure that you are eating enough calories for the extra energy expenditure along with the usual calories needed for muscle growth.

Balance is always best, but if you want bigger muscle more than the ability to run a mile, tipping the scale in the muscle direction won’t hurt. However, dropping cardio altogether might not really be the quickest way to get there. STAY STRONG!

Support our website and buy this awesome tee-shirt.