I want to do cardio while still maintaing muscle mass. I know if you start losing large amounts of weight you lose muscle, but I always watch bodybuilding videos even thought I’m not close to their stature, I was wondering if the whole 20min on a stair climber is what you need to do.
I’ve been running sprints and sprinting stairs as of late and was wondering if that was okay or whether its too much, if someone could just lead me in the right direction id be grateful.
I’d cut out the high intensity stuff and just walk 30 minutes of the treadmill everyday, try to keep your heart rate below 130bpm or so, this will spare the most muscle…
idk, i usually do about 30-35 min of cardio and just aim for 350-400 cals burned around 2miles or so…I always walk on a moderate incline at about 3.5-4.0 mph…
[quote]Hintonshawn88 wrote:
I’d cut out the high intensity stuff and just walk 30 minutes of the treadmill everyday, try to keep your heart rate below 130bpm or so, this will spare the most muscle…[/quote]
Uh… Yeah,… okay…
I’d avoid all the long boring low intensity stuff every day, and just do a few short sessions of sprints each week (maybe 2x). Best way to maintain muscle mass, achieve higher EPOC, and not lose your f-ing mind (but what the hell do I know about losing fat and maintain muscle?! -lol)
[quote]Hintonshawn88 wrote:
I’d cut out the high intensity stuff and just walk 30 minutes of the treadmill everyday, try to keep your heart rate below 130bpm or so, this will spare the most muscle…[/quote]
Uh… Yeah,… okay…
I’d avoid all the long boring low intensity stuff every day, and just do a few short sessions of sprints each week (maybe 2x). Best way to maintain muscle mass, achieve higher EPOC, and not lose your f-ing mind (but what the hell do I know about losing fat and maintain muscle?! -lol)
S[/quote]
Haha thats great, how far do you sprint? like 100’s 200’s and how many?
From the bodybuilding perspective: The idea is to do the absolute minimum amount of conditioning work to achive the goal. If you enjoy the HIT approach and can limit the number of sessions per week and length of each session, it is a great approach…favored by many lifters. When I do sprints, I work up to eight sprints at 60-80 yds. I sprint up a slight grade and do sledgehammer work at the end of each sprint. When I run bleachers it’s both the up and down direction and the interval last about 3 minutes. We also take a heavy-bag (MMA or Boxing) and lay it long ways on the ground. We flip the bag down and back (eight squat-flips each way)in two man groups. It’s 30-40 seconds on / off / on / off,etc for 8 - 10 runs each. Your options are almost endless, or you could limit the work to sprints if you like.
The steady-state approach requires more time and many lifters find the work monotonous. I’m sure you know the options: Treadmill, stairmaster, elipticals, etc. I hear about lifters spending an hour or more per day on steady-state. IMO it should be limited to a max. of 40 minutes (and I like 30 max. even better) for male lifters.
Focusing more on interval based energy work will improve how your body relies on glycogen to fuel the sessions, and increase the reliance on fatty acids when at rest (that means the rest of the day). This is why for better changes in body composition natty bodybuilders (who cannot afford to lose any LBM) rely on intervals for the cornerstone of their fat loss plans. Yes, lower intensity steady state work will burn a few cals (I do it myself before breakfast), but that’s more for people with already low levels of bodyfat (as interval work can be stressful if done too much), or those who do not need to get down to single digit bf levels.
(oh yeah, Keto dieters should rely more on steady state work due to the depressed levels of body glycogen and the effect it would have on activities like sprinting)
It would benefit to know what you are doing cardio for. At 20 year’s old you should be doing all 3 lifting, long duration cardio and HIT. Your last phase of age where you can build different types of conditioning skills that last a life time.
Other than that at 171 lbs you really don’t need to do cardio for fat loss. You need to build muscle and if you are not lean enough for summer with Snooki just take a little fat and junk out your diet. You will look much better.