Lifting is your passion. You live for the gym because of the benefits, you know you are getting stronger, and the challenge of beating your personal best and the tight pumped up muscles that feel like they are going to burst afterword. Perhaps you really dread cardio and giving your precious lifting time to running, biking or even worse the elliptical, makes you feel as though you are losing that hard earned mass, but you're not. You are actually shredding away those layers of fat to reveal all of your hard work.
If all that you work on is building mass, no one will be able to differentiate biceps from triceps. If you want to look like you are chiseled out of marble you are going to have to do some cardio. Don't worry you have to run ten miles.
You know that cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart, and that healthy heart will bring more blood to your muscles faster so that you can lift more. The more blood that your heart can pump means more oxygen getting delivered to your muscles.
Following are some guidelines that will help you the strong, mighty lifter build some muscle definition that will really show off all the time you have put in pumping iron. You don't need a lot of cardio just some high intensity gut busting intervals that will melt the fat right off of you.
#1: Change it up
Do you keep the same lifting routine all year round? I thought not. Just as you change up your weight lifting you should change up the cardio that you incorporate into your routine.
If you are in a bulking phase, keep the cardio low. No more than once or twice per week for 15-20 minutes. This limited cardio will let your body focus on building muscle, something that takes a lot of energy.
Do you keep the same lifting routine all year round? I thought not. Just as you change up your weight lifting you should change up the cardio that you incorporate into your routine.
If you are in a bulking phase, keep the cardio low. No more than once or twice per week for 15-20 minutes. This limited cardio will let your body focus on building muscle, something that takes a lot of energy.
If you are looking to get cut, for competition, beach season or you just want to build muscle definition, you will need to increase your cardio to 3-5 times per week to burn away that extra fat hiding those glorious muscles.
All year round you need to switch up your cardio so that you do not get bored with it. Try running one day, riding the bike the next and then doing a high intensity interval day where you combine different activities.
#2: Don't lift weights and do cardio together
If you are concerned that you cardio training is going to hinder your recovery from strength training, separate them by as much as possible.
If you are concerned that you cardio training is going to hinder your recovery from strength training, separate them by as much as possible.
If you separate these two workouts your cardiovascular work outs will not impede your increase in strength and size. Just use common sense, don't go for a hard run right after you have your tough leg day. Give yourself some time to recover.
Short on time? If you must do cardio and strength training on the same days at least make sure different body parts are used in your two workouts. If you are rowing for cardio, lift with your legs.
Always make sure you do your lifting before your cardio. You do not want to deplete your glycogen stores in your muscles before you hit the weights.
Everyone needs some cardio in their lives. You will build muscle definition if you make the time to incorporate some intense cardio sessions every week into your routine.
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