The Best Muscle Building Cardio

22 October 2009, 11:17 pm

How does cardio affect muscle building?

Any old time stalwart, when asked, will tell you that cardio is a waste of time.

But let me tell you that this is not true.

There are two important roles played by cardio in muscle building.

1) Muscle building cardio warm-up.

The best way to warm up before lifting weights is a five-minute light cardio session.

In addition to increasing your body’s core temperature, it also warms up your arms and legs so that they are ready to take on the onslaught of pumping iron without being prone to injury.

You can chose from any form of cardio such as running, spot jogging, using a stair climber or elliptical trainer, or cycling.

Your heart rate increases during a cardio session, resulting in adequate blood being pumped throughout your body, and this prepares your body for a weight training session.

2) Muscle building cardio for definition.

If your goal is to only increase strength and build muscle volume, then cardio is not as important, except during the warm-up phase.

But, to get that ripped look and sport six pack abs, you need to combine high intensity cardio with weight training.

I’ve seen this so many times in gyms around the country.

People mostly head to the gym to get the ripped physique of their favorite movie star.

Then, after pumping iron for months, even though they get bigger and stronger, they find it difficult to get the definition that they’re looking for.

For well-defined muscles, you need to include muscle building cardio into your workout.

So would you choose muscle building cardio that comprises of a long, leisurely run through that park or 45-minutes on the treadmill every alternate day?

None of them.

If you are looking for serious definition, there is only one form of muscle building cardio that can get you those washboard abs and make you look ripped: high intensity, low interval cardio.

That’s right; running on the treadmill for hours is not what you need to do.

For it to be truly effective, muscle building cardio needs to be very intense and short, just like weight training.

Now that we know the type of cardio that you need to do, let’s move on to how often and when.

It has been shown through studies that maximum fat is burned when you perform a high intensity cardio just after the weight training session.

Not having to schedule time for exercises on your off days is another advantage of doing cardio just after your weight training session.

You can also maximize fat loss by adding some standalone muscle building cardio on your off days.

It is a good idea to start slow if you’ve previously never done high intensity muscle building cardio.

Starting off slow does not mean you need to reduce the intensity; it simply means that you should reduce the number of days in a week that you want to do this.

Trust me, high intensity muscle building cardio is not the easiest of things to do.

Your muscles will burn, your eyes will water, and it will leave you panting for breath.

But be persistent, and you will eventually start to see the muscles beneath as the fat dissolves.

You can get more information on muscle building cardio training at the website given below….

Muscle Gain Truth.