Now is an era of popular fitness, more and more men want to have muscles and small abdominal muscles to increase their masculinity, and the most effective way to increase muscle is to stimulate muscle growth through intense strength training as much as possible. . But at this time, many people asked, can I do aerobic exercise during the muscle building period? Will it use up muscle?
First of all, let’s clarify the difference between muscle building and aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is a durable exercise that enhances the inhalation and use of oxygen by the human body. The unique feature of its exercise is that the load is light, different from muscle building. Muscle building is a super-loaded weight to challenge the limit of the muscle, with a sense of rhythm and a long duration. According to sports medicine, the appropriate exercise load for aerobic exercise is 4 to 5 times a week, lasting 20 to 30 minutes each time, and the heart rate during exercise is 120 to 135 times per minute.
Which items are aerobic exercise? Walking, brisk walking, jogging, skating, swimming, riding a self-bridge crane, playing Tai Chi, dancing fitness dance, skipping rope/doing aerobics, etc. Are we suitable for aerobic exercise during the muscle building period?
In order to better illustrate these issues, let’s take a look at a study done by Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. They divided 28 men with fitness experience into 3 groups of strength combined with aerobic training for 6 weeks. After testing their muscle strength and muscle size changes.
The following training is the ratio of the strength and aerobic time of a training, first strength and then aerobic.
Group A: 3:1 = Strength Training: Cardio
Group B: 1:1 = Strength Training: Cardio
Group C: Only strength training, no cardio
After 6 weeks of training, the test results are as follows:
Group A: Muscle strength increased by 24.6% and size increased by 2.8%.
Group B: Muscle strength increased by 7.2% and size increased by 1%.
Group C: Muscle strength increased by 30.4%, size increased by 4.3%
The results showed that muscle strength and aerobic were inversely proportional. The more you do aerobic, the less you gain in muscle strength and muscle size.
For such a result, the researchers speculate:
- The combination of strength and aerobic training greatly improves the training intensity and puts too much pressure on the body.
- Excessive cardio may interfere with the progress of muscle strength and muscle size. .
