It's not that you're losing muscle by doing cardio (which btw, walking is low-intensity cardio), but from a muscle building prospective, doing cardio in addition to weight training is robbing your muscles of the calories they need to grow and become stronger. You won't lose muscle by doing cardio, you just won't gain any either.skully wrote:What I am curious about...does our bodies even know we're doing a "cardio" exercise? What if someone is truly an active person in nature, who does not follow exercises and has a lot of movement in their jobs/lives...a lot of walking....etc...if someone is walking for 1 hr straight at a 5km/h..how would their bodies know it's cardio or just "Walking" ....does that mean everytime you walk for long and fast ( which i do from time to time when I'm in a hurry) i'm losing fat and muscles? doesn't make sense...
Muscles and too much cardio
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Re: Muscles and too much cardio
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
Now that makes more sense to me. So basically, eat more "healthy" calories, especially protein.wfountain wrote:It's not that you're losing muscle by doing cardio (which btw, walking is low-intensity cardio), but from a muscle building prospective, doing cardio in addition to weight training is robbing your muscles of the calories they need to grow and become stronger. You won't lose muscle by doing cardio, you just won't gain any either.skully wrote:What I am curious about...does our bodies even know we're doing a "cardio" exercise? What if someone is truly an active person in nature, who does not follow exercises and has a lot of movement in their jobs/lives...a lot of walking....etc...if someone is walking for 1 hr straight at a 5km/h..how would their bodies know it's cardio or just "Walking" ....does that mean everytime you walk for long and fast ( which i do from time to time when I'm in a hurry) i'm losing fat and muscles? doesn't make sense...
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
If you think of your ability to grow muscle like money in the bank it starts to be pretty simple.
If you have an income of $1,000.00 per week you can't spend more than that without dipping into your savings account. At some point your savings account will be empty if you spend more than the $1,000.00 per week and you cannot continue to spend at that same rate.
Building muscle is similar. You have just a certain amount of energy and and recovery ability. If you spend more than you have by doing a lot of lifting and a lot of cardio, then you will dip into your physical reserves. But like the savings account if you deplete it you will bankrupt the system (over train).
You have to match your training with the available time, energy, recovery ability and food intake. If you do less than you have available you will grow slower than necessary; if you do more, you will eventually over-train. From experience it is easiest to over train by adding a lot of high intensity cardio to a weight lifting routine.
If you have an income of $1,000.00 per week you can't spend more than that without dipping into your savings account. At some point your savings account will be empty if you spend more than the $1,000.00 per week and you cannot continue to spend at that same rate.
Building muscle is similar. You have just a certain amount of energy and and recovery ability. If you spend more than you have by doing a lot of lifting and a lot of cardio, then you will dip into your physical reserves. But like the savings account if you deplete it you will bankrupt the system (over train).
You have to match your training with the available time, energy, recovery ability and food intake. If you do less than you have available you will grow slower than necessary; if you do more, you will eventually over-train. From experience it is easiest to over train by adding a lot of high intensity cardio to a weight lifting routine.
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
So how do you really know what's good enough for you and your body and the way it builds muscles and sheds fat?
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
skully wrote:So how do you really know what's good enough for you and your body and the way it builds muscles and sheds fat?
That's a little bit hard to do. That's the reason people over-train.
The symptoms of over training are achy muscles, lethargy, loathing to go to the gym.
If you don't look forward to the day in the gym, there is a chance you are over-training. When you have your training levels just right you will look forward to the day in the gym.
I was training for a mountain climbing expedition once and I was lifting in the morning; running at lunch time, and riding bicycle in the evenings and on weekends. I was logging 25 miles a day (weather permitting) during the week on bike; 50 miles per day on the weekends. One day I went to the garage to get bike--I thought about riding and I could not get up the energy to do so. I put the bike away and did not ride again for 8 months. That was over-training. The final symptom was that body would not do the work anymore.
Luckily I peaked just before the climb and over-trianed after. For this type of training timing your peak performance is key. What I should have done after the climb was to back off on the mileage so that I would not over-train. By over-training I set myself back the following season.
You have to learn to "listen to your body" and adjust the work according to how you feel.
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
Some really great posts in this thread. Thanks guys.
I guess the question was subtle way of asking what's gunna happen if i continue doing what i am doing. I ride to work and there is no escaping it. I do about 13 kays each way most weekdays plus train weights Monday Wednesday and Friday and swim Tuesday and Thursday. I get to about Thursday and the ride starts to exhaust me, but i can drop the intensity a bit and it seems to help.
The reason i asked the second part of the question was because i used to work in civil engineering as a labourer and the heavy work was for 8 hours a day 6 days a week and that didnt mess me around too much. I had in head that i was still gaining strength, but without the rest, i was not going to build mass..?
Swanso, thanks for your thorough explanations, sometime i read your responses in other threads and they go over head a bit (im still very new to all this fitness thing) but your posts in this thread have been detailed and very informative.
I guess the question was subtle way of asking what's gunna happen if i continue doing what i am doing. I ride to work and there is no escaping it. I do about 13 kays each way most weekdays plus train weights Monday Wednesday and Friday and swim Tuesday and Thursday. I get to about Thursday and the ride starts to exhaust me, but i can drop the intensity a bit and it seems to help.
The reason i asked the second part of the question was because i used to work in civil engineering as a labourer and the heavy work was for 8 hours a day 6 days a week and that didnt mess me around too much. I had in head that i was still gaining strength, but without the rest, i was not going to build mass..?
Swanso, thanks for your thorough explanations, sometime i read your responses in other threads and they go over head a bit (im still very new to all this fitness thing) but your posts in this thread have been detailed and very informative.
Re: Muscles and too much cardio
Can't you semi-bypass this "problem" by doing your weights before you do cardio, on the same day? Of course, I imagine you still need to eat more.