Is cardio really that bad? Is it possipble to get better results faster thru diet and stimulants?
Well with cardio you can burn up more muscle tissue. Losing fat is simply a matter of thermo dynamics. IE: If you burn more calories than your body takes in you will drop fat. So cutting calories should be llone needs. (Espec w/stimulants and other drugs)
You also have to make sure your careful when you diet otherwise you will lose a lot of muscle tissue that way also. As most people sugguest dont plan on any kind of mass gaining phases during your diet.
Diet is the key with any program, bulking or cutting. I see too many guys run every day on a treadmill, really killing themselves, yet they refuse to modify their diets. I mean, would you rather run 30 minutes or just not eat that cookie? Same dif.
Cardio isn’t evil, but it should be a secondary consideration after diet. Supplementation comes in third, after diet and training type. In other words, don’t take MD6 and then eat fast food all day long in massive quantities. It’s potent stuff, but it’s not magic! Same with training. Too many guys spend all their energies trying to figure out the “ideal” training program to add mass, yet they eat like birds. Really skinny birds.
In short, the secret to any successful program is diet, diet, and diet.
I think it depends on what you are looking for, and bodytype(amount of fat) and how it responds that determines if you need to do extra cardio. I believe a reason some strength trainers do not prescribe their clients(elite athletes) with cardio is because they already do their fair share on the playing field and at practice so their is really no reason to do extra. I am a strong advocate of weight training and it promoting weight loss just remember many athletes are doing cardio although it may not be in the gym.
I agree with Chris and most of you that weight trainers, especially bodybuilders, need to be careful not to do too much cardio, especially long, draining sessions. The day after my leg workout, often the next two days, are times I certainly do not perform cardio sessions. That being said, however, as an “ex-fattie” it’s difficult to keep my system running at what I consider peak performance levels without some walking, biking, or running. Especially in the spring/summer/fall months here in Wisconsin, biking outside on a real bike is a truly enjoyable experience. Of course, I just plain love biking, too. As long as I’m eating well enough and big enough, two or three cardio sessions per week help me, I feel, with keeping my metabolism up, burning some calories (I’m 45 years old and the calories just seem to stick more than they used to!), and giving me the endurance to keep going hard in my weight workouts. Bottom line, though, was stated by Chris: don’t put that cookie in your mouth, have that discipline to say no, and you won’t have to do so much cardio. Eat to train, rather than train so you can eat.
Chris,
I recently read that if a person were to do any cardio at all, it should be at the end of a weightlifting workout when glycogen levels are low (to burn fat). My question is, would this interfere with strength and/or mass gains due to high cortisol levels at this point? What if I did cardio for 15 minutes after 45 minutes of weights?