Cardio Training For Bodybuilders

There are a lot of jacked up bodybuilders who are warming up benching 220 lbs, and yet, they are never doing cardio. Cardio for bodybuilders may not be as essential as lifting, but it is still something extremely helpful. In fact, a lot of bodybuilders are worried that cardio training is going to “undo” months of their hard work when it comes to gaining lean muscle. They are afraid of cardio because they are afraid of burning lean muscle (for which they work hard) instead of fat.

This is why there are a lot of guys (even bodybuilders) who are confused about what cardio for bodybuilders to do, and what’s the best cardio for bodybuilding. In fact, some believe that they shouldn’t do it at all. I must mention that this is a mistake.

Regardless if you’re preparing for a competition or show, or you’re just starting the journey of bodybuilding, cardio is extremely beneficial to add to your training regime. Failing to do so will not only increase the risk of cardiovascular issues, but you will also never maximize your full potential when it comes to muscle definition.

A correct bodybuilding cardio plan is going to help you lose body fat as you maintain your muscle strength and gains.

Cardio for Bodybuilding

Endurance training (aka cardiovascular exercise, or shortly – cardio), will help improve your heart’s ability to pump blood and increase the amount of oxygen that the muscle’s (and other organs’) cells receive. A bodybuilding cardio workout is essential because it helps you burn more calories and induce fat loss. It also comes with great health benefits (cardiovascular benefits).

Similar to strength training, there’s a lot of science behind cardio and the results it provides. While it is extremely hard to both burn fat and add substantial muscle mass at the same time, cardio significantly helps with this. Still, this is the reason why a lot of bodybuilders are following different on and off season diets and training plans. In an attempt to gain as much muscle mass and strength as possible (bulking cycle off season). Then to burn fat and maintain muscle mass (cutting cycle on the season).

While bodybuilding cardio during off season is limited to ensure that the calories and energy go into your body’s recovery process to gain muscle and strength, you still need some to stay away from excess body fat gains and for its health benefits. But during on season, cardio for bodybuilders is extremely important to melt away the body fat. That’s why most of them tend to have about 4 cardio training sessions a week.

Best Cardio For Bodybuilders

Bodybuilders mainly use cardio to increase their caloric expenditure. There are various types of bodybuilding cardio workouts you can add to your weekly schedule to get the maximum results. Cardiovascular exercises are actually one of the most important elements to getting that well defined, and muscular physique. There is science suggesting that it will significantly increase your results. The amount of body fat you lose during cardio depends on various factors.

Timing

Timing is an important element. For example, it is going to be highly effective for you to perform your cardio sessions first thing in the morning. Usually, on an empty stomach. Studies suggest that cardio on an empty stomach will help burn fat because the body will focus on getting its energy demand from the fat stores, instead of first needing to burn carbs that you get from foods. Nevertheless, cardio late in the afternoon can still be just as effective if you follow a proper diet.

Intensity

When it comes to intensity for cardio, you measure it as a percentage of your maximum heart rate used while performing a particular exercise. To burn fat most efficiently, some studies suggest that there’s a “fat burning zone”. You achieve that zone when you hit approximately 65% of your maximum heart rate. In order to determine your maximum heart rate (it varies, of course), you should subtract your age from 220 and multiply it by 0.65. That is going to make the ideal number of heart beats per minute to reach the “fat burning zone”. This will maximize the fat burning benefits from your cardio.

Duration

If you’re doing cardio for bodybuilders, you’re training to become a marathon competitor. This means that the duration of cardio will greatly vary. Cardio for bodybuilders is used just to help increase oxygen flow to muscles and burn excess body fat. This means that both the training sessions per week as well as the duration of each training session differ from marathon competitors (greatly). For the best results for cardio for bodybuilders, you should only aim for 3 to 4 cardio sessions per week. You perform them on non resistance training days. You can start small at around 5-10 minutes. Then you can increase the length of cardio sessions. Increase by 5 mins each week until you reach a total of around 30-40 minutes. Do not go over the 60 minutes limit due to actual risk of your body using lean muscle as energy (muscle loss).

Warm up / Cool down

Rushing into or out of a strength training session is a bad idea. The same when it comes for cardio. Doing so will place unnecessary stress on the heart, muscles, connective tissue, and joints. You should make sure you carefully stretch, walk, and then run. You need to ensure you avoid injuries and you do that both when preparing for strength training or cardio. Gradually increase the pace over a 3-5 minute period until you’re reaching the ideal heart rate. Then, don’t forget to cool down. At the end of your workout, use the 3 to 5 minute period to cool down. You use this time to slowly reduce the pace to ease your heart rate back to normal.

Nutrition

You need strength training to build muscle and burn fat. But regardless of how good your workout schedule is, you will never reach your maximum definition potential without the correct nutrition. Moreover, cardio for bodybuilders is crucial because you will never reach your maximum definition potential without cardio either. Yet, whatever the case, never underestimate the power of correct nutrition. The opposite is true, regardless of how much cardio (and strength training) you do, you will never reach your maximum potential without a correct diet. Keep in mind that nutrition is essential regardless of your goal. Whether it is cut up fat, bulk up muscle, and/or simply be healthy! To burn fat, you need to burn more calories than you eat.

You can find out your daily caloric maintenance using various online calculators. Find calories you should consume a day to maintain your current body weight). Aim to reduce the calories by about 500 per day from the maintenance. Do NOT place your body in a starvation mode. Not only do you risk your body taking its energy demands from lean muscle, but it is harder to maintain and likely to lead to health issues too. Aim to have at least 1 gram of protein per day per pound of body weight. Switch to healthy fats and complex carbs with a proper macro balance.

Compounds to add

As I already mentioned multiple times throughout my posts, I firmly believe that a healthy and balanced diet is pretty much the only success as a bodybuilder. However, different compounds can be really helpful in developing an awesome physique. When you’re performing cardio to reach the maximum muscle definition potential, you could aim for various supplements. It includes vitamins and minerals to boost the immune system and metabolism along with whey protein and creatine to maintain lean muscle mass.

Nevertheless, there are also fat burning compounds (such as Semaglutide, Clenbuterol, and/or Liothyronine) that were proven highly effective at burning fat. Moreover, there are also anabolic steroids which are extremely effective at burning fat, boosting recovery, maintaining lean muscle mass, enhancing endurance, and so on. Steroids can significantly help your cardio sessions. They do so by boosting endurance, ensuring you won’t lose lean muscle, and enhancing fat burning effects. With or without them, you still need to work out a lot, get lots of sleep, and have a proper diet. But these compounds can significantly boost your results. At Cycle-Gear.to you’re going to find the best quality anabolic steroids and other weight loss compounds for the best prices on the market, along with numerous information that will help you achieve your goals.

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