In the last couple of years, there has been a great increase in the number of people who have started taking health seriously. And with the onset of the pandemic situation all across the globe, the need to have a healthy body is the ultimate goal for everybody. Some people practice healthy living to just keep the body healthy whereas there is another set of people that look at ways in which they could transform the strength and the appearance of the body according to their ultimate body goals. In this article, we are going to talk about the latter one — those who want to achieve a strong muscular, and healthy body. In the world of body transformations, there can be N number of different body goals, and how one can achieve those body goals depends on the type of body they have and the kind of consistent efforts they put in. For example, if somebody has stepped onto the journey of weight loss, they will have to practice a healthy diet, cut down those extra calories, and do more cardio exercises or fat-burning exercises to achieve that body goal. And if someone is on the journey to gain some weight or to gain those muscles, then they will have to incorporate more endurance exercise routines and weight lifting routines to achieve those body goals.
But what is the right proportion of different exercises that one needs to build that muscle, in case you are looking at achieving a muscular body? If you are looking at building your strength or building your muscles, is it okay to get involved in cardio exercises because doing cardio does waste a lot of time and is known to initiate weight loss? In this article, we are going to understand how one needs to approach cardio exercise routines when their main focus is to build muscles. Read on to know more.
The common misconception
Most of the people out there in the bodybuilding and fitness world continue to believe that if one does cardio exercises it interferes with muscle building. And in this fear of losing their muscle bar due to performing in cardio workouts, they are making that transformation journey a little longer than it is required. Of course, endurance and strength training can indeed lead to a negative influence on each other but if they are combined proportionally, then the negative aspect dissolves. It is a very common misconception amongst gym enthusiasts that doing cardio will make them lose their muscle mass and this is simply not true. So, what is this relationship of cardio with building muscle? I just said that if you plan out a proper cardio routine, this will only complement all the hard work that you will put in when it comes to resistance and strength training. We see that strength and cardio are very important parts of anybody’s fitness routine. Of course, this needs to be tagged along with following a healthy diet with d-bal, giving adequate rest to the body, and also focusing on mental health.
Here are few points to note to understand why cardio is important for building muscle:
Cardio compliments strength training
Cardio is indeed said to torch those calories at a higher scale when compared to strength training, however, it is strength training that keeps those calories burning for a long time even after the workout has been completed. Depending on the kind of body goal that you have set for yourself, you can incorporate cardio along with his strength training. Low impact cardiovascular exercises like walking, swimming, for long walks are also enough to keep your health in check.
Improves your cardiovascular health
If you are into strength training or any kind of building endurance then ensuring that your cardiovascular health is strong is very important. And by strengthening your cardiovascular health, you will be able to improve the blood flow throughout your body.
This will also help you fight the delayed onset of muscle soreness way faster and this will shorten your recovery time as well and will help you level up your building muscle routine.
Sprinting is the ultimate cardio
For those who don’t know, sprinting is one of the anaerobic exercises. It is the wall’s strength and power to complete. And when you are running at a max space, you need to expend your oxygen levels reasonably than when you are Jon game — this will help you to rationalize the oxygen during your workout. This is one of the main reasons why sprinting is known to have been only for short bursts of time. Several studies have shown that fat loss was higher in people who sprint and even muscle mass has gained through this activity.
It’s printing is not your thing here are four cardio exercises that will help you build your muscle:
- HIIT: it stands for high-intensity interval training — this consists of workouts that are short and followed by rest periods that are timed. The main aim of performing this exercise is to get your heart racing up to the max levels as quickly as possible and then allow your body time to recover and then do it again. HIIT is designed in a manner that it can target specific muscle groups depending on the kind of exercise that is selected. This is very efficient and helps increase metabolism, increases natural growth of hormones in the body, it also increases anaerobic capacity, and burns more fat.
- Pushes/Pulls/Sled Drags: The sled is known to be an excellent tool for building muscle and cutting fat. They come and all kinds of shapes and sizes and one can push, drag them, or even pull them in several ways and target the different parts of the body. This form of exercise helps to work on their bodies to the maximum level and with very minimal recovery as there is no eccentric experience here. These exercises have a low impact and pose a very true threat to the ligaments and joints.
- Walking lunges: this exercise is a perfect combination of cardio and strength training, it is ideal for several health issues in the current society. It increases metabolism and burns fat at a quicker pace than your normal cardio. Several people out there have a poor and weak core, poor posture, and tight hip flexors — all this is a result of sitting behind a steering wheel the entire day or sitting in front of a desk all day. Performing lunges activates the posterior chain and boost leg muscles into an active state. Lower body strength increases and your musculature around the knees and will protect you from injuries like ACL years.
- Loaded carries: they are very important for developing the overall strength of your body and it is also a form of weight training. The idea of this form of exercise is quite simple – just pick up anything that is heavy and then carry it to a specific point. You can carry it to your right or left sides, over your head or just in front of you. You can use tons of different equipment for this including sandbags, medicine balls, kettlebells, and barbells. This exercise will build up the strength around your forearms, triceps, shoulders, upper back, biceps, abs, and obliques.
We need to understand that can’t you don’t always have to mean an hour on the treadmill! Long bouts of cardio that is in steady-state have proven