1. Does cardio help build muscle?
2. Which muscle groups does cardio strengthen?
3. Cardio intensity helps build muscle effectively
4. Some notes when doing cardio to avoid muscle loss
Cardio includes many different exercises, bringing unexpected health benefits. However, few people can know all the benefits of cardio exercises. Therefore, whether cardio exercises can build muscle is also a question of many people before practicing this sport. To find the answer, please refer to our following article.
Does cardio exercise help build muscle?
Cardio is known as an exercise that helps control heart rate, improve cardiovascular health, and stimulate blood circulation. In addition, Cardio is also known as an exercise that helps burn excess fat extremely effectively and accelerates the weight loss process. Therefore, if you want to have a toned body and clearly show attractive muscle blocks such as abdominal muscles, cardio training is the indispensable first step in this muscle-building process.
Therefore, if you practice cardio combined with a healthy, scientific diet, it will help increase muscle effectively, quickly own a balanced, healthy body.
• Cardio training will help transport more oxygen to the muscles, stimulate protein synthesis, regenerate new muscles, and improve muscle better.
• Hidden muscles are often located under the fat layer, so the body accumulates too much excess fat, which will inhibit muscle growth. When practicing cardio, excess fat will be removed, and the hidden muscle layer under the fat will also be exposed.
• Some high-intensity cardio exercises require the body to move continuously, creating pressure for the muscles to develop. Moreover, cardio exercises also coordinate the whole body movement, thereby helping the muscles develop evenly.
Which muscle groups does cardio exercise help strengthen?
Does cardio exercise increase muscle? The answer is yes. More specifically, cardio exercises will help strengthen the following muscle groups:
• Lower body muscles, including thighs and calves: Cardio exercises such as running, jumping, cycling, etc. require continuous leg movement. Muscles such as the thighs and calves also have to work a lot, helping to increase muscle mass and firm muscles.
• Upper body muscles including back, shoulders, biceps: Exercises such as badminton, basketball, sexy dance are all cardio exercises. When performing these exercises, the upper body will have to work a lot, helping to increase muscle and reduce fat effectively.
However, you should remember that the main effect of cardio exercises is still to reduce fat. Therefore, the effect of muscle gain will not be obvious in some muscle groups, especially the glutes and abdominal muscles. To increase muscle mass better, develop all muscle groups comprehensively, you should combine cardio exercises with muscle exercises.
Cardio intensity helps increase muscle mass effectively
Endurance training and aerobic exercise are equally effective for both men and women. If you maintain regular exercise, it will promote reactions such as muscle protein response, amino acid distribution, increased anabolism, reduced inflammation, and reduced protein and DNA damage. To promote muscle gain, during exercise, you should maintain cardio intensity with a minimum heart rate of 80%.
Some office workers and the elderly often exercise very little, and the exercise intensity is also lower. For these people, the body’s muscle mass will decrease, and they often have diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular disease. To improve cardiovascular health as well as overall health, strengthen the body, increase muscle mass, and reduce fat, exercise is always a necessary requirement.
Some notes when doing cardio to avoid muscle loss
Once you know whether cardio increases muscle, you should also note that doing cardio incorrectly can lead to muscle loss and catabolism. Here are some ways to do cardio to avoid muscle loss that you need to pay attention to:
Combining exercises
Cardio exercises are very diverse, including walking, jogging, cycling, climbing, aerobic dancing, soccer, badminton, basketball, table tennis, etc. For muscles to develop evenly, you should combine exercises, but you need to alternate the types of exercises. Each exercise should only be repeated 2-3 times/week. For example, if you only jog, only the thighs and calves will develop, while the upper body muscle groups will not be affected. On the contrary, if you combine badminton with other muscle groups, such as the shoulders, back, and forearms will also be stimulated to develop. Thanks to that, the body and muscle groups will develop proportionally. Moreover, combining exercises will also avoid boredom during the training process.
Do not exercise when hungry
Exercising cardio when hungry will stimulate the body to burn excess fat faster because the body needs to use energy from excess fat to meet the needs of exercise. In the long run, muscles will also be broken down to create energy for the body, causing muscle loss. Therefore, to lose weight, maintain muscle, or gain muscle, you need to have a light meal about 30 – 60 minutes before exercising. Your snack should be boiled eggs, protein bars, smoothies, oatmeal, etc., and you should only eat in moderation, not too much to cause bloating.
Need to change the intensity of training
Each person’s body always has the ability to adapt. Therefore, if you do cardio at one intensity, the muscles will not be impacted with enough force to develop. At this time, the body will lose fat but cannot increase muscle.
Once you know whether cardio increases muscle, you can apply cardio exercises to your training plan. However, no matter what exercise you do, you should increase the speed and difficulty to stimulate muscle growth.
For running, you should alternate long-distance running with sprinting. Depending on your physical strength, you can increase the running time.
For cycling, you should cycle faster and longer to increase the effectiveness of muscle growth and fat burning.
If you practice weight lifting, you can try heavier weights as well as higher technical requirements.
Thus, the above article has helped you know whether cardio increases muscle. It can be seen that cardio is an effective exercise to help you reduce fat, increase muscle, and firm your body. However, to achieve the highest muscle gain effect, you should pay attention to combining exercises that help strengthen separate muscle groups.