Does Cardio Make You Lose Muscle?
By Tom Venuto
Yes, it's true. It's a scientifically proven fact that muscle proteins are
broken down and used for energy during aerobic exercise. But don't worry, you
are constantly breaking down and re building muscle tissue anyway. This process
is called "protein turnover." Your body is constantly alternating back and forth
between anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) cycles. That's just a
normal part of life. Your goal is simply to tip the scales slightly in favor of
increasing the anabolic side and reducing the catabolic side just enough so you
stay on the anabolic side and you gain or at least maintain muscle.
This fact of human physiology has often been taken out of context and used to
scare people into not doing cardiovascular exercise for fear of losing muscle.
When you fast overnight as you sleep, you lose muscle too, but that doesn't mean
you should stop sleeping!
Sure, it's possible for you to lose muscle from doing too much cardio, but it's
highly unlikely. Shying away from cardio completely because you think you'll
lose muscle is a huge mistake. Only excessive amounts of cardio would cause you
to lose muscle because over-training tips the scale towards the catabolic side.
It's difficult to generalize and pinpoint one specific amount as too much, but I
think it's safe to assume that just about anyone could do up to 45 -60 minutes
of cardio a day, 6 to 7 days a week without losing any muscle - as long as the
proper nutritional support is provided.
Trainer John Parillo has always been an advocate of lots of aerobics, even for
his bodybuilder clients who are trying to gain muscle mass.
"Aerobics can enhance your recovery from weight training by promoting blood flow
and oxygen transport to your muscles," says Parillo. "Aerobics forces oxygen
through your body, increasing the number and size of your blood vessels. Blood
vessels are the 'supply routes' that transport oxygen and nutrients to body
tissues, including muscles, and carry waste products away for muscular growth,
repair and recovery. The expansion of this circulatory network is called
'cardiovascular density.'"
So, according to Parillo, aerobics can actually enhance recovery from weight
training and increase muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways
that provide nourishment to the muscles. Cardiovascular training is important
for fat burning, for good health and for muscle-building.
Losing muscle has more to do with inadequate diet than with excessive aerobics.
If you suspect you are losing muscle there are four likely causes:
1. You are not eating enough protein. Protein is the only nutrient that is
actually used to build muscle. To stay anabolic you must eat five to six protein
containing meals. Each meal should be spaced out approximately three hours
apart. Research has proven that if you are physically active, you need a minimum
of .8 grams to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.
2. Your carbohydrates are too low. Low carb diets are often used for fat loss,
but it is a mistake to cut your carbs too drastically. Carbohydrates are
protein-sparing, so even if you are eating large amounts of protein, you can
still lose muscle if you your carbs are too low.
3. You are not eating enough calories to support muscle growth. This is the most
common cause of muscle loss. When your calories are too low, your body goes into
"starvation mode." Your metabolism slows down and your body actually burns
muscle tissue to conserve energy. Muscle is metabolically active tissue,
requiring a great deal of caloric energy just to maintain it. That's why your
body will shed muscle if it thinks you are starving.
4. You are not training with weights. It is a common misconception that if you
want to lose weight, you should start with cardio only and add the weights later
- another big mistake! It is the weight training that keeps you from losing
muscle while you are dieting.
You are much more likely to lose muscle from not eating enough than you are from
doing too much cardio. All too often, people are afraid to eat a lot and do a
lot of cardio at the same time. It doesn't seem to make sense. Logically, it
seems like the two would cancel each other out - but the opposite is true. Many
people believe they must "starve" the fat by drastically lowering calories.
Unfortunately, this approach can cause you to lose muscle along with the fat.
The only way to maintain your lean mass while losing fat is to feed the muscles
with plenty of nutritious calories and at the same time, burn the fat off with
cardio.
Whether your goal is muscle development, fat loss or both, you should always
include some form of cardiovascular activity as part of your training program.
Unless you're doing some kind of ultra-endurance regimen, AEROBICS DOES NOT
CAUSE MUSCLE LOSS, in fact it supports the pathways that help you build it!
Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, personal trainer, gym owner,
freelance writer and author of the Burn The Fat E-book, located at Http://www.healthyweightlossprogram.net
Tom has written over 140 articles and has been featured in IRONMAN magazine,
Natural Bodybuilding, Muscular Development, Muscle-Zine, Exercise for Men and
Men's Exercise. Tom is the Fat Loss Expert for BodybuildingApplied.com and the
nutrition editor for FemaleMuscle and his articles are featured regularly on
literally dozens of other websites
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