Does Cardio Stop Muscle Growth?
Figure out which kinds of exercise best suits your needs.
Ben Greenfield
Listener Josh recently wrote in asking:
“I occasionally hear people say that cardio inhibits muscle growth. I would like to increase my muscle size and keep body fat low. I follow your tips like doing jumping jacks between sets. But am I negating any muscle growth by doing cardio in addition to weight lifting?”
In the episode How To Lose Fat and Gain Muscle At The Same Time, you learn that it is certainly possible to be on a low calorie diet and still gain muscle, but only if you are lifting weights.
However, when you “diet” and lift weights at the same time, your muscle gain occurs at a significantly lower percentage than if you ate enough calories to sustain your physical activity.
This is simply because muscle needs calories to grow.
Here’s the gist: when an intensive cardio program is performed simultaneously with weight training, the cardio places you at a caloric deficit without directly causing lean muscle gain. In many cases, it actually breaks down muscle. So ditch the cardio in favor of weightlifting to speed up your muscle growth.
And don’t worry, you’ll still get good cardiovascular health effects from weight training.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.