Is an hour of cardio too much when trying to gain muscle?

Musclebound8732

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I’m at 3500 calories a day

lifting 4 times a week while doing an hour of cardio 3 times a week

Is an hour good for those 3 days? Since it’s not like I’m doing and hour everyday.

Thanks.
 

Musclebound8732

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My cardio sessions would go very close to this:

Sunday:

Run stairs for 25 minutes
hit the bike at the gym for 10 minutes or 1 mile which ever comes first
Jump rope for 20-25 minutes


Monday and Tuesday:
Mens league basketball game so approximately 25-35 minutes of basketball cardio
Hit the bike at the gym for 1 mile or 10 minutes
Jumprope for 20-25 minutes

Thanks for the feedback
 

Jin

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Nobody can answer this except you.

ARE you gaining muscle? Or not?
Are you gaining fat? Losing fat? What’s the scale been doing?

you are you own experiment. Analyze the data and draw your conclusions. Everybody is different. If you don’t know how to interpret your data then collect it, post it and ask again.

with what you provided it’s impossible
for anyone to give you an answer that’s likely applicable to you.
 

TODAY

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Sicwun88

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I believe cardio needs are different for everyone? I've been doing 20 min before my workout,20 when I'm done! Some days I'll do an hour at the end! For me it depends on what Job I'm working?
There's days I walk 7-9 miles a day usually carrying heavy material!
On those days I do no cardio, might not even train those days either?
 

dk8594

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My cardio sessions would go very close to this:
Sunday

Run stairs for 25 minutes
hit the bike at the gym for 10 minutes or 1 mile which ever comes first
Jump rope for 20-25 minutes


Monday and Tuesday:
Mens league basketball game so approximately 25-35 minutes of basketball cardio
Hit the bike at the gym for 1 mile or 10 minutes
Jumprope for 20-25 minutes

Thanks for the feedback

I would consider an hour a day for three days in a row too much for me. My would be what your goals are? If you want to lose weight, it’s a heck of a lot easier to eat fewer calories than it is to burn them off. If it’s to gain muscle, your body is going to be too depleted after all that to have effective workout.

If you are doing it for cardiovascular health, keep it up you just might want to spread it out more.
 

dk8594

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Some reading material for you:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12627304/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19387377/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18545210/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17095931/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15570149/

There's actually a pretty robust amount of research pertaining to this topic, but the above should give you enough info to draw some conclusions re: your own training.

whoa whoa whoa! What is that? Science? Science doesn’t even work,bro !

(neither does math!) :)
 

BrotherIron

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Like what was said, you need to record everything and see how it goes. Make adjustments as need be. I like to start small and then make adjustments. For me, an hour is not small.... but that's me.
 

Musclebound8732

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I would consider an hour a day for three days in a row too much for me. My would be what your goals are? If you want to lose weight, it’s a heck of a lot easier to eat fewer calories than it is to burn them off. If it’s to gain muscle, your body is going to be too depleted after all that to have effective workout.

If you are doing it for cardiovascular health, keep it up you just might want to spread it out more.

My goals are to be an lean as possible 205 at 5’11.

So if I’m doing cardio hard for three days and weights for three days it won’t balance out the other four days where I’m doing nothing but still eating in a surplus?
 

Musclebound8732

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Like what was said, you need to record everything and see how it goes. Make adjustments as need be. I like to start small and then make adjustments. For me, an hour is not small.... but that's me.
The thing is this I do the cardio and weights on the same three days,but the other 4 days I’ll still be eating in a surplus but will not be working out. So I’m trying to see won’t it balance out?
 

snake

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In theory and if everything else lines up, it can be done. Is it easy? Fuuk no and there are so many factors there is no cut and dry answer.

I did something real close to what you're trying to do. Lifting hard and heavy, running 3x/wk for 5 miles. That was about 5 years ago but I recall the pain and beating I put myself through.

I can promise you this; 1. It's unsustainable for any great length of time. 2. It's the best you ever look. 3. It's the worse you will ever feel.
 

Tatlifter

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Wait, 10 minutes to ride a bike a mile!

Figure out what works best for you but in my opinion if you build a solid muscle foundation and are going for the aesthetic look and not training for some

marathon then 1 hour 3 days a week would eat up my muscle as well.

I like weights 4-5 days a week depending on my program with around 20 minutes of cardio for 3-4 of those days.

When prepping to be single digit BF ripped I went 20 minutes a day 5-6 days a week fasted before weight training.

Like Snake mentioned. Best youll ever look, worst youll ever feel and it isnt sustainable nor heatlhy for very long.
 

Musclebound8732

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Wait, 10 minutes to ride a bike a mile!

Figure out what works best for you but in my opinion if you build a solid muscle foundation and are going for the aesthetic look and not training for some

marathon then 1 hour 3 days a week would eat up my muscle as well.

I like weights 4-5 days a week depending on my program with around 20 minutes of cardio for 3-4 of those days.

When prepping to be single digit BF ripped I went 20 minutes a day 5-6 days a week fasted before weight training.

Like Snake mentioned. Best youll ever look, worst youll ever feel and it isnt sustainable nor heatlhy for very long.

Oh well no I’m not going for the supper shredded look just around 205 at 5’11 and about 13-15% bodyfat a very fit look,not competition look.
 

Musclebound8732

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Wait, 10 minutes to ride a bike a mile!

Figure out what works best for you but in my opinion if you build a solid muscle foundation and are going for the aesthetic look and not training for some

marathon then 1 hour 3 days a week would eat up my muscle as well.

I like weights 4-5 days a week depending on my program with around 20 minutes of cardio for 3-4 of those days.

When prepping to be single digit BF ripped I went 20 minutes a day 5-6 days a week fasted before weight training.

Like Snake mentioned. Best youll ever look, worst youll ever feel and it isnt sustainable nor heatlhy for very long.

In theory and if everything else lines up, it can be done. Is it easy? Fuuk no and there are so many factors there is no cut and dry answer.

I did something real close to what you're trying to do. Lifting hard and heavy, running 3x/wk for 5 miles. That was about 5 years ago but I recall the pain and beating I put myself through.

I can promise you this; 1. It's unsustainable for any great length of time. 2. It's the best you ever look. 3. It's the worse you will ever feel.

Well yea I’m not trying to be crazy shredded just trying to maintain 12-15% bodyfat at 5’11 205 I’m currently 191 right now and just want to build all muscle and minimal fat
 

Sapper

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As long as body fat is going down or staying the same and the scale is going up, you’re going the right direction. This is the first time I’ve ran while trying to gain weight and I’m still adding calories to my day. I’ve lost fat, gained strength and the scales within .5 pounds everyday for a couple weeks...I add good calories.
 
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Well yea I’m not trying to be crazy shredded just trying to maintain 12-15% bodyfat at 5’11 205 I’m currently 191 right now and just want to build all muscle and minimal fat

If you're trying to go from 191 to 205, I'd say focus on eating surplus and lifting, less cardio unless you have a really slow metabolism and gain fat easily.
 
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Hi,

For cutting the best is make cardio bettween 120 to 140 bpm , more than that you will start to lose muscle .
 

BrotherIron

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The thing is this I do the cardio and weights on the same three days,but the other 4 days I’ll still be eating in a surplus but will not be working out. So I’m trying to see won’t it balance out?

There is no set plan that works for everyone. All you can do is write it down, track everything, and adjust as need be. For example, if I do more than cardio/ conditioning 1x a week I begin to lose weight. I could try putting in another meal each day to help balance it out but the only way to know if it would work is to try it, record it, and track it.
 

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