offseason cardio..

[quebecBULK]

Is there any downside to this?

I am doing 30min 3-4 times a wk while bulking to keep some of the bloat down and to minimize fat storage.

Anyone

 

[Reload]

Unless your a competing ectomorph that sheds leg mass through regular cardio (debatable)...everyone of us should be doing some form of cardio to maintain heart/major vessel health (contractility). There is some debate as to too much cardio potentially causing "LVH" left ventricular hypertrophy. If your into sports be it running, swimming, basketball, bodybuilding etc...your going to have an enlarged heart.
Add AAS to the mix and their effect on increasing blood pressure/decreasing HDL to LDL and the fact that heart tissue has androgen receptors... it doesn't take an exercise physiologist to figure out the potential downsides of cardio for the chemically enhanced. It's all a very delicate balance and everyone responds differently. Cardio is good period...anyone who tells cardio isn't needed probably won't be around to see their grandkids.

 

[quebecBULK]

good post, well said.

I basically want to maintain a healty heart while bulking since i tend to get winded easily when i get up there on the scale.

I am not an ectomorph, last comp i lost 45lbs and barely lost a few inches on the quads.....i just hold lots of water in the legs.

you think 30min of low intensity cardio (3-4x wk) is too much?

 

[Reload]

That's fine...your heart will thank you for it later

 

[w8's]

see i am doing cardio for the summer to stay lean. The minute i start cardio my legs are gone. completley. no matter if i squat myslef to death every week or not. they just contiually lose size and strenght. they get hard and a nice shape. but don't look like bodybuilders legs. It hurts when i do shows to cause my legs get thin and ripped but are no where near the size they were before. I was hoping to keep up doing 30 mins 3 times a week durring the winter. but i don't think i can make improvements to my legs doing that.

 

[Conan21]

w8s

theres only one reason for that

overtraining

 

[Mr_Magoo]

you should be able to find some cardio that doesnt effect ur leg mass, think an dbe creative..................weighted cardio via weights in a back pack works well for me, rowin machine

 

[FRKNHUGE]

local highschools indoor swimming pools bro, best cardio out there
and its low impact to boot
frk

 

[Rogue]

Hello
Cardio is real important in the off season. Don’t over do it though. It will keep your heart healthy, blood flushed, also aside from the health benefits, cardio will help build the new extreme capillary networks to support all that new found muscle growth. This capillary network will help you hold more muscles when getting in shape.
As far as loosing size from cardio, that hard to understand... the only loss you will experience is total body volume, unless as previously stated you are WAY OVERTRAINING! A brisk walk or swimming should eliminate that. I’ve been swimming lately and fell real good.

Out

 

[Queefer]

Low impact cardio should only burn fat and also bump up your metabolism. If you want to make sure and burn 0 muscle, then drink some whey right before you start your cardio. Not only will the protein preserve muscle, it will also help you to burn more fat. Unless you are virtually fat free, I don't see any reason not to do cardio year round.

 

[gainingmass]

What would be yall's suggestion for off season cardio. Would like 10-15 mins 3x a week after workouts be enough? too much? Just want to keep my metabolism going strong and not put on too much fat.

 

[w8's]

w8s

theres only one reason for that

overtraining

the only cardio that doesn't affect it is walking. i do well losing on walking but if i want to bump it up a bit i use the stair master or run on the treadmill. i cannot run outside my ankles break all the time on the uneven ground.

i dont' thinks its overtraining for me personally cause it will happen when only training and doing cardio 3-4 times a week and i feel i have a decent handle on how my body handles overtraining.

hell maybe its just water and maybe i store a bunch of water in my legs.

 

[Conan21]

judge your leg pogress by keepin track of strength. If your maintaining your strength and you think you legs are getting smaller then yes, what ur losing is probably water and fat. But if you losing a decent amount of strenght then you are losing muscle and overtraining.

Perhaps you legs are recovering just enough when there is no cardio but when you add jogging , walking , running, etc to the mix this is working the leg muscles even more and they are not recovering from workout to workout out. You just keep breaking down the tissue even more.

I would drastically decrease the volume of ur leg workouts and up the intensity.

1-3 sets with proper rep speed and tempo is all that is needed; the objective is to provide as much stimulation as possible with the least amount of sets to increase recovery ability and make your body spend its time hypertrophying or atleast maintainging (if your in hard dieting) instead of spending its time simply tryin to fill in the whole caused by high volume. at best you might stay the same strength. But with a high volume leg routine and running, my guess is that you are finding yourself a couple reps weaker from workout to workout

this should apply to all muscles really but especially ur leg routine since this is what u are having trouble with