Is Cardio killing your gainzzzzzz?

Hello! How has your day been so far? I hope it’s been fantastic.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to mention my gym clothes or post any recipes. Based on my blog traffic you all could really care less about what I’m wearing to the gym and what recipes I share. Well, it’s your loss because I actually found some color to add to my gym wardrobe. I also have a chocolate chip cookie recipe that is non-paleo cousin but not really my cousin approved but nope, I’ll keep that to myself as well. So there!

The Super Bowl was this past weekend. Did anyone make my yummy recipes I gave you in my last post? I did! They were a hit! In fact, my entire spread was Paleo. It was fantastic! I did partake in a hard cider and a couple glasses of wine and I was ok. I totally paced myself.  I felt great on Sunday. Monday though was a different story. The hubs and I got some baked wings and the next day my face was swollen along with my abdomen and upper thighs. There must have been something in the seasoning. I have felt miserable this week and it has taken days for me to feel normal again. Blah. It’s REALLY frustrating when you think you’re making a safe food choice and then BAM! Reaction.  I even cut my workout short on Tuesday morning because I felt like such crap! What?! Unacceptable!

So, this week I want to touch on cardio and the affects it can have on your gainzzzzzzzzzzzz! Eh..hem the affect cardio can have on building muscle.

Let me just start by saying I.LOVE.CARDIO! Love it! I love to sweat. I love pushing myself to the point I can barely breath, recovering and then doing it all again. For many years 90% of my exercise was comprised of cardio. I was so focused on loosing fat I didn’t give too much time to weight training. The only true weight training I did was in the form of some sort of body pump class.  I would spend 1- 1 ½ hours at the gym doing cardio and then about 30 minutes weight training. When I got in to running my weight training went down to only a couple days per week.

When I shifted my focus to weight lifting a few years ago, going to the gym suddenly felt very strange. I didn’t know how to not do cardio. My work outs felt so incomplete.  I went through an inner panic thinking about all the weight I would gain by not doing cardio. I then started following programs on Bodybuilding.com because I had no idea how to create a weight lifting regimen, maybe I was just doing it wrong. The programs I found consisted of a brief cardio warm up and then nothing but weight lifting. These programs even required a 1-2 minute rest in between sets! I was mortified. Rest?! WTF is that? I don’t rest at the gym! I felt so conflicted. Then I came across this one program, I wish I could remember who created it. I want to give credit to Jim Stoppani buuuuuuuuttttt don’t quote me on that. That program included 30secs – 1 minute of cardiovascular activity between sets. Once I started that program I felt much more at ease. I stopped worrying about having to stay later at the gym or doing 2-a-days to get my cardio in. I stuck with it and no matter what program I follow now, I include 20-30secs of cardio activity between each set. Once I enter the gym I don’t stop. But this begs the questions, is my cardio killing my gains?

If cardio is performed too often, to intense or for too long it is not good for muscle growth. This is why rest periods and rest days are so important because this is the time when muscle growth occurs. If you’re looking to gain muscle, ideally, cardio should be done for only about 15-20 minutes on days opposite your weight training days. If you have time available, you could incorporate cardio on the same day but aim to do cardio in the morning and weight training in the evening or vice versa. But who has time for that? I tried it…..no Bueno. There are just not enough hours in the day.

Incorporating cardio with weight training is a delicate balance. One I’m still trying to figure out. Long, low impact cardio is bad for muscle growth and HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is great for fat loss but lousy for muscle building. And P.S. if you didn’t know I’m a HIIT addict!  Cardio and weight training is all about finding that middle ground. You should do what works for you and your goals. Don’t be afraid to play around with different cardio times, durations and intensities.  Mentally I need cardio in my life. I enjoy the endurance and challenge it provides my body. For me, I need to try to get all my gym time in early in the morning. I try to stick to about 20 minutes of steady state cardio to warm up. Then, while lifting I throw in some cardio movements to keep my heart rate up. Going forward if I want to really work on gaining muscle I need to push past the mental freak out and convince my brain to let me do the bulk of my cardio at the end of my work out as opposed to the beginning so I have my full energy to expend on pushing and pulling weight. Whatever I have left can go toward my cardio. Ahhhh! That's scary to say. I'll let you know how that goes. I may be ok, I may have a break down, I don't know.

So how is your cardio game? Do you cardio daily? Do you split up your cardio and weight training? What do you do for cardio? I always like new ideas. Currently I’m in love with the jump rope!

Hey, check out the blogs Instagram, Instagram.com/barbellsandboyshorts. I’ve posted a video sample of how I train daily. Leave me a comment, let me know what you think!

Fun Fact: No word in the English language rhymes with Month.

Yup…..I know you’re trying to rhyme right now!

Have a great weekend and wonderful week ahead. Come back next week…were talking breakfast.

P.S. Valentine’s day is next week. Don’t forget your sweetie!

For yummy paleo Valentine’s day desserts, you should check out cleaneatingwithadirtymind.com and PaleOMG.com. They have wonderful recipes for dinners for two as well.