I ran for two miles before my workout everyday for two weeks. I obviously wasn’t putting on a whole lot of LBM but I was shredding fat. I am now on mag-10 and have stopped running before I workout. I can tell I am gaining a lot of muscle but I am also gaining back the fat. Does anyone have any suggestions of how I should intertwine my strength training and my cardio? ( I want to gain muscle but stay relatively at the same BF) Your response is seriously appreciated.
A mix of anaerobic, aerobic, Weight lifting, and caloric deficit has worked best for me. All of these things are taken into account in John Berardi’s “Winning Formula” article.
KraigY
Cut back your caloric intake slightly and keep cadio to a minimum during your MAG-10 cycle.
Listen, if your main goal is to gain muscle: never ever, ever, ever, ever do cardio prior to weights. Everytime you do so, your effectivly depleting your glycogen and blood sugar thus making your weight session pathetic in terms of strength. Also, your raising your cortisol and lowering T; no state to then build muscle. So in summary, unless your a serious “runner,” muscle mass is not a main priority and cardio prior to weights is fine. BUT, in your case, here’s your solution: do the same ammount of cardio right after your weight session. Also, don’t chug any postworkout drinks or sugar just yet if your goal is fatloss. Do that right after the running is completed. I follow this exact same routine (20 min HIIT, followed by 20 min walking). Some would deem this stupid, but I stay very lean year round and yes, I can in fact build muscle. Cardio has got a real bad rap as of late. According to my goals though, what’s the point in building muscle if you can’t see it? Good luck. Also, try not to jack your insulin prior to the weights/cardio. As long as your insulin is high, you won’t burn fat. Pre-workout “surges” do have their place though.
What im going to tell u is not the mainstream of the advice ull get. However, if u give it a try ill bet u anything u want u will be surprised if u want to stay hard and lean. Anytime u do cardio for prolonged periods of time ur cortisol levels go up, and ur growth hormone levels stay the same or go down. both of these conditions are going to cause more muscle breakdown than ud want, plus ur heart rate isnt going to remain elevated after ur workout, so that u dont burn additional calories. However, if U keep ur rep range from 8-12, keep ur rest intervals short, and superset exercises in couples, ur GH levels will go up, the workout will have somewhat of a cardio effect on your body which will not only cause fat loss, itll also keep ur heart rate elevated for hours afterwards while ur body recovers, burning additional calories. What I do is do set 1 of exercise A supersetted with set 1 of exercise B followed by 2 minutes of cardio. u do this until 3 supersets are completed and move on to another pair of supersets. Is this a good program to gain serious strength? No. Is this a good program to get huge in a relatively short period of time? no. however, is this a good program to stay lean and put on some lean hard muscle at the same time ( considering ur diet allows it)? yes. Id been just as skeptical as any hardcore weightlifter about this program , but after i told the guy 'dis dont make no sense' I tried it out. Plus the guy must be doing something right cuz he manages to stay incredibly lean year round with respectable size. however u judge for urself. i can tell u right now u WILL be lean. because u only do 2 minutes of cardio at a time, ur cortisol levels shouldnt sky rocket, plus ur heart rate will stay fairly elevated throughout the whole workout as ur either on the treadmill or doing ur superset with no rest in between. u get the benefits of increased growth hormone from ur workout, and prolonged elevated heart rate, PLUS, since u dont do 20 minutes of cardio after ur workout, ur cortisol levels wont skyrocket when u most need ur post workout nutrition. This is just my two cents, and it seems to me this program would create a kind of environment that would prevent muscle breakdown from elevated cortisol levels, and allow you to lean down faster while keeping and possibly growing some lean hard muscle mass. i would like to see someone respond to me on this.