Can lack of cardio prevent me from gaining mass? I understand that cardio has its benefits in its own rite, but can not doing it often, stand in the way of me gaining mass?
No.
Pretty sure you can still gain mass if you don’t do any cardio. In fact you will probably gain mass faster with out using it.
In my head doing cardio is going to burn up fuel which could instead be used to fuel bigger muscles. So really as long as you eat good, train good and eat lots there is no reason why you wont bulk up without cardio. If after a couple of months you get bigger muscles but also get a bigger belly, then change your goal and add in some cardio if you want.
BUT!!!
I am new to this site, I read a lot of articles(instead of revising most of the time) but I am still new. So you could well be better waiting for a more experienced user’s response.
Most mass is built using reps in the 8-12 range with a good deal of benefit in the 3 to 25 reps range. Outside of that there really is little benefit in gaining size. As you said, cardio has othe benefits so should not be ignored. You will protect your muscle more by doing short intense cardio rather than long slow cardio. You also will get an increase in fat burning from short intense cardio which will give you a more muscular look.
Na…cardio is good n all, but if anything it would negate muscle gains by either eliminating too many calories or if you’re into that long cardio, might eat away at ur muscle. I’d say eat more.
I’ll take a different route than the posters above me. For someone with appetite problems or at a food eating sticking point cardio is an effective tool.
Let’s say you are eating 350 grams protein and 3500 calories daily, you were gaining good muscular weight but not any longer but you just can’t get any more good bodybuilding food down. You can go the route that many go and start slamming down junk food to get the scale moving again, great so did your waist. OR you get on a incline treadmill 30 minutes 2-3 times a week on off days(low intensity, let’s be sensible here) before breakfast and watch that eating platuea go bye bye real fast. A cardio session of that nature might burn 300 calories. That would be made up for and more by the increased appetite thus moving past the sticking point.
One could also argue that the food taken in at breakfast(now post cardio meal) are going to be utilized more effectively than if cardio wasn’t performed. The body will be very glycogen depleted and set up for a mini “rebound” that wasn’t there or wasn’t there to the same degree without performing cardio. That starts getting too technical, the real benefit of cardio during size gaining in my mind is the increased appetite and ability to stay leaner.
If more people weren’t afraid of cardio eating away their muscle mass and starting to realize it’s anabolic(in a roundabout way) potential we’d have less people complaining about becoming fat slobs during their “bulks” and they’d be able to stay in continuous size gaining mode for extended periods of time.
Listen to Scott… i’ve noticed that in every post he makes he knows what he’s talking about.
I do swimming, it makes me hungry like a wolf.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
I’ll take a different route than the posters above me. For someone with appetite problems or at a food eating sticking point cardio is an effective tool.
Let’s say you are eating 350 grams protein and 3500 calories daily, you were gaining good muscular weight but not any longer but you just can’t get any more good bodybuilding food down. You can go the route that many go and start slamming down junk food to get the scale moving again, great so did your waist. OR you get on a incline treadmill 30 minutes 2-3 times a week on off days(low intensity, let’s be sensible here) before breakfast and watch that eating platuea go bye bye real fast. A cardio session of that nature might burn 300 calories. That would be made up for and more by the increased appetite thus moving past the sticking point.
One could also argue that the food taken in at breakfast(now post cardio meal) are going to be utilized more effectively than if cardio wasn’t performed. The body will be very glycogen depleted and set up for a mini “rebound” that wasn’t there or wasn’t there to the same degree without performing cardio. That starts getting too technical, the real benefit of cardio during size gaining in my mind is the increased appetite and ability to stay leaner.
If more people weren’t afraid of cardio eating away their muscle mass and starting to realize it’s anabolic(in a roundabout way) potential we’d have less people complaining about becoming fat slobs during their “bulks” and they’d be able to stay in continuous size gaining mode for extended periods of time. [/quote]
That’s a very interesting take on the subject. I don’t doubt anything you wrote. However, the OP asked if a lack of cardio would prevent him from gaining mass. Unless the OP was in a situation similar to the one you described I don’t feel that not doing cardio would prevent him from gaining mass. So, unless the OP has a problem as described the answer would be no in my opinion.
[quote]Scott M wrote:
I’ll take a different route than the posters above me. For someone with appetite problems or at a food eating sticking point cardio is an effective tool.
Let’s say you are eating 350 grams protein and 3500 calories daily, you were gaining good muscular weight but not any longer but you just can’t get any more good bodybuilding food down. You can go the route that many go and start slamming down junk food to get the scale moving again, great so did your waist. OR you get on a incline treadmill 30 minutes 2-3 times a week on off days(low intensity, let’s be sensible here) before breakfast and watch that eating platuea go bye bye real fast. A cardio session of that nature might burn 300 calories. That would be made up for and more by the increased appetite thus moving past the sticking point.
One could also argue that the food taken in at breakfast(now post cardio meal) are going to be utilized more effectively than if cardio wasn’t performed. The body will be very glycogen depleted and set up for a mini “rebound” that wasn’t there or wasn’t there to the same degree without performing cardio. That starts getting too technical, the real benefit of cardio during size gaining in my mind is the increased appetite and ability to stay leaner.
If more people weren’t afraid of cardio eating away their muscle mass and starting to realize it’s anabolic(in a roundabout way) potential we’d have less people complaining about becoming fat slobs during their “bulks” and they’d be able to stay in continuous size gaining mode for extended periods of time. [/quote]
Very good point that i hadn’t thought about. cheers for expanding my mind.
So would cardio be used all the time during a bulking phase or just when you can’t really eat anymore and need an extra in the arse?