# Cardio to build muscle?



## Yurfavoritepirate (Mar 11, 2018)

Hello all. The forums favorite pirate here.

ive always been taught that doing cardio on a bulk can aid in muscle gain. If any of you agree, disagree or have something to chime in about this I'd love to learn. 

Also how long? How much do you consider too much? How many times a week? 

Thanks


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

I mean honestly when people do cardio it actually costs you energy, some of that energy comes from breaking down muscle into BCAA and then the liver converting it into glucose.
So I'm almost 100% sure its not helpful for building muscles directly per se.
 I think where that notion comes from is the fact that cardio improves blood circulation and cardiovascular efficiency, meaning more nutrition and oxygen goes to your muscles.
Honestly my only cardio is biking 2 miles on a free wheel bike to and from the gym....its basically nothing.
But thats just my opinion, will see what other people have to say.


----------



## Yurfavoritepirate (Mar 11, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> I mean honestly when people do cardio it actually costs you energy, some of that energy comes from breaking down muscle into BCAA and then the liver converting it into glucose.
> So I'm almost 100% sure its not helpful for building muscles directly per se.
> I think where that notion comes from is the fact that cardio improves blood circulation and cardiovascular efficiency, meaning more nutrition and oxygen goes to your muscles.
> Honestly my only cardio is biking 2 miles on a free wheel bike to and from the gym....its basically nothing.
> But thats just my opinion, will see what other people have to say.


Doesn't  it take a lot of extreme drawn out cardio for your body to resort to using muscle tissue as fuel?


----------



## Bro Bundy (Mar 11, 2018)

Yes I don't know anyone who burns muscle with cardio..If you lift hard eat hard how can u lose muscle ? You would need to do hours and hours of intence cardio similar to a pro mma fighter


----------



## Bro Bundy (Mar 11, 2018)

Every pro bb does cardio


----------



## automatondan (Mar 11, 2018)

Welcome, but we already have a favorite pirate named FD...


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

Well the problem is the the hormones released during cardio.
Cortisol, Adrenaline and most importantly Glucagon. 
Hormones dont usually tell apart muscle from fat and just break down anything for energy. 
Thats why people talk about Catabolic windows and such, and a lot of body builders eat frequently, its so their body doesnt resort to literally eating it self right away.
Then again Im not an expert
, far from actually just a couple things i know.


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

Bro Bundy said:


> Yes I don't know anyone who burns muscle with cardio..If you lift hard eat hard how can u lose muscle ? You would need to do hours and hours of intence cardio similar to a pro mma fighter


Yea you are right, but like how much cardio do bb do? max ive seen is like 20 minutes on a treadmill post workout. I see some people go up to an hour and wonder why they cant build muscle


----------



## Jin (Mar 11, 2018)

Yeah, I bought that whole "cardio kills gains so don't do it" BS too. That's why I've always been fat. Recently I've been doing 80min of cardio 5x/wk with strength increasing and BF decreasing. That was off cycle. 

What BB said is truth. 

Bottom line one is that cardio is essential for good health and better aesthetics.


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

Jin said:


> Yeah, I bought that whole "cardio kills gains so don't do it" BS too. That's why I've always been fat. Recently I've been doing 80min of cardio 5x/wk with strength increasing and BF decreasing. That was off cycle.
> 
> What BB said is truth.
> 
> Bottom line one is that cardio is essential for good health and better aesthetics.


I guess ill up my cardio then and see


----------



## Jin (Mar 11, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> I guess ill up my cardio then and see



Keep in mind I have a lot of lean mass already and I was lifting heavy for low volumr to maintain that mass and eating sufficiently.


----------



## Bro Bundy (Mar 11, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> Yea you are right, but like how much cardio do bb do? max ive seen is like 20 minutes on a treadmill post workout. I see some people go up to an hour and wonder why they cant build muscle


Some do very little some need hours of it.A hour a day of medium paced cardio goes along way on fat burning


----------



## Robdjents (Mar 11, 2018)

I think we just had this convo in the chat box yesterday...i was definitley a cardio kills my gains guy...going to start doing more thanks for the wake up call BB!


----------



## Yurfavoritepirate (Mar 11, 2018)

Bro bundy your right about all pros do cardio.

what I can take away is that I probably need to find the right amount of cardio for ME. 

For my first show my coach had me max 40 min a day and I got fkn diced on that.


----------



## Gibsonator (Mar 11, 2018)

Robdjents said:


> I think we just had this convo in the chat box yesterday...i was definitley a cardio kills my gains guy...going to start doing more thanks for the wake up call BB!



same here, i don't believe thaat anymore but i still dont do cardio, or abs, thats why they don't look like bundys lol. 
OP wtf is up with your avi, like what is that??? wierdo.
Bee, stfu and stop pretending like you know shit about shit young punk


----------



## Robdjents (Mar 11, 2018)

Gibsonator said:


> Bee, stfu and stop pretending like you know shit about shit young punk



poor bee...lol


----------



## BRICKS (Mar 11, 2018)

Bundy and Jin are right.  I've been doing 60 to 75 minutes of cardio 5 times a week.  Fat is melting off and my weight isn't changing.  That means gains.  I don't know anybody who looks big AND lean that doesn't do cardio.


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

Gibsonator said:


> same here, i don't believe thaat anymore but i still dont do cardio, or abs, thats why they don't look like bundys lol.
> OP wtf is up with your avi, like what is that??? wierdo.
> Bee, stfu and stop pretending like you know shit about shit young punk


F**k you,old C**T


----------



## John Ziegler (Mar 11, 2018)

Dont make me bust out the before and after cardio pics


----------



## knightmare999 (Mar 11, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> F**k you,old C**T



Surprised BB hasn't thanked this one yet. 
HaHa


----------



## knightmare999 (Mar 11, 2018)

Zeigler said:


> Dont make me bust out the before and after cardio pics



How about the during?


----------



## stonetag (Mar 11, 2018)

My wife's friend is a cardiologist, I saw her last year and she said I have a condition called diastolic dysfunction=heart contracts normal, but wont relax as well. She said the best treatment.... aerobic exercise, pfffft what does she know! But serious I need to start banging out some cardio, and I better not lose any MUSCLE.....Jin, Bricks, BB and uh, bee......lol


----------



## Yurfavoritepirate (Mar 11, 2018)

Gibsonator said:


> same here, i don't believe thaat anymore but i still dont do cardio, or abs, thats why they don't look like bundys lol.
> OP wtf is up with your avi, like what is that??? wierdo.
> Bee, stfu and stop pretending like you know shit about shit young punk



Wtf kind of tattoo is that you have did you draw that when you were 12?


----------



## PillarofBalance (Mar 11, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> Well the problem is the the hormones released during cardio.
> Cortisol, Adrenaline and most importantly Glucagon.
> Hormones dont usually tell apart muscle from fat and just break down anything for energy.
> Thats why people talk about Catabolic windows and such, and a lot of body builders eat frequently, its so their body doesnt resort to literally eating it self right away.
> ...



I will never be able to get this post out of my head. I talk shit about cardio more than anyone but Jesus at least I can admit it's because it's boring.  Cortisol adrenaline and glucagon?


----------



## itismethebee (Mar 11, 2018)

PillarofBalance said:


> I will never be able to get this post out of my head. I talk shit about cardio more than anyone but Jesus at least I can admit it's because it's boring.  Cortisol adrenaline and glucagon?


Dude dont get me wrong, I lost 45 lbs with just running and diet in around 3 months, I love cardio and I can run alot
In clincal studies it does show a spike in all those hormones and they are all in fact catabolic, I like cardio but I see these 6ft and 150 lb dudes running on the treadmill and you ask them what there are doing and they say "Cutting" you know damn well they dont need cardio, thats the last thing they need.


----------



## notsoswoleCPA (Mar 12, 2018)

I recently started doing cardio after my second doctor got on me for not doing it.  At least he only recommends 30 minutes of low intensity steady state cardio done whenever versus my other doctor who wa.nted me to do HIIT cardio BEFORE working out.  I tried that HIIT for a couple of weeks then dropped it all together because I couldn't squat or deadlift squat after doing it.

Now, if you want a laugh...  I asked my doctor why he recommended HIIT cardio prior to lifting weights and he couldn't give me a reason.  I then asked him how many times he has done it and his answer was NEVER...  IDK why one would give such advice without reason or trying it themselves.


----------



## snake (Mar 12, 2018)

I keep this simple; too much cardio is where it starts to fuuk with your squats. Everything and anything up to that is in play. You can do some serious cardio and have an okay squat or you can do some serious squatting and have an okay cardio program. The body can not serve 2 masters at a high level for any length of time. Do both at a high competitive level and you soon will be doing neither.


----------



## snake (Mar 12, 2018)

Cardio is a necessary evil. There's no disputing the benefits of it for your body; both inside and out.

That being said, can we stop acting like we enjoy it? We are mostly muscle heads and it takes a lot of O2 to fuel all that muscle. And it doesn't matter if you're 240 lbs with 35% BF or if your 240 lbs of rock hard muscle. Your joints couldn't give a shit less if you chose the wrong cardio for your body. 

I have put my time in on road running; well for the lack of definition, let's call it jogging. I can not stand when some real runner who is able to pound out 8 miles starts to talk to about how great they feel after a run. Yeah me too! I feel so much better now that I can breath. Nothing like a good waterboarding to make you enjoy being able to get enough air into your lungs.


----------



## Bro Bundy (Mar 12, 2018)

I can't run for shit


----------



## Bro Bundy (Mar 12, 2018)

Snake runs half naked in front of Amish people


----------



## gymrat827 (Mar 12, 2018)

Bro Bundy said:


> Every pro bb does cardio



Yes.  Cuz they need to stay 7-9% all year so they can cut to 4.5-5.5% to hit the stage.  

If u let to much fat build up you ll be doing too much cardio pre stage time n lose muscle.  
IMO they just have to keep a physique with good lines n muscle separation


----------



## BRICKS (Mar 12, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> Dude dont get me wrong, I lost 45 lbs with just running and diet in around 3 months, I love cardio and I can run alot
> In clincal studies it does show a spike in all those hormones and they are all in fact catabolic, I like cardio but I see these 6ft and 150 lb dudes running on the treadmill and you ask them what there are doing and they say "Cutting" you know damn well they dont need cardio, thats the last thing they need.



Dude, why in the FK,  yes, capital letters, would you pay any attention to what someone 6' 150 lbs sais about bodybuilding?


----------



## Gibsonator (Mar 12, 2018)

Yurfavoritepirate said:


> Wtf kind of tattoo is that you have did you draw that when you were 12?



12 1/2 actually. it's a cover up puto


----------



## JuiceTrain (Mar 12, 2018)

All I'm doing is cardio and calisthenics via MMA and guys ask if I'm bodybuilder haha


----------



## Rhino99 (Mar 12, 2018)

BRICKS said:


> Bundy and Jin are right.  I've been doing 60 to 75 minutes of cardio 5 times a week.  Fat is melting off and my weight isn't changing.  That means gains.  I don't know anybody who looks big AND lean that doesn't do cardio.



^ This.
Just before I got hurt I added in cardio doing treadmill trying to keep my hr about 130 for 45 minutes after every workout.
I'm 6'2 and 255 and in 3-4 weeks of this my weight was the same but I dropped 1.5 inches off my waist.


----------



## Chillinlow (Mar 14, 2018)

itismethebee said:


> I mean honestly when people do cardio it actually costs you energy, some of that energy comes from breaking down muscle into BCAA and then the liver converting it into glucose.
> So I'm almost 100% sure its not helpful for building muscles directly per se.
> I think where that notion comes from is the fact that cardio improves blood circulation and cardiovascular efficiency, meaning more nutrition and oxygen goes to your muscles.
> Honestly my only cardio is biking 2 miles on a free wheel bike to and from the gym....its basically nothing.
> But thats just my opinion, will see what other people have to say.





itismethebee said:


> Dude dont get me wrong, I lost 45 lbs with just running and diet in around 3 months, I love cardio and I can run alot
> In clincal studies it does show a spike in all those hormones and they are all in fact catabolic, I like cardio but I see these 6ft and 150 lb dudes running on the treadmill and you ask them what there are doing and they say "Cutting" you know damn well they dont need cardio, thats the last thing they need.



So which one is it ? You do cardio or you don’t? You are all over the place dude I’m with Gibs just stfu please


----------



## vegasdeadlifts (Apr 10, 2018)

I think the distinction to be made is between anaerobic (ex: sprinting) and aerobic (ex: jogging) cardio, the former of which can very much build muscle (look at elite sprinters) and the latter of which leaves you looking like a beanpole (cue long-distance runners). Obviously there's lots of other factors too and it's likely much more complex at the physiological level


----------

