Does cardio kill the gains? It depends on how much cardio you are doing from a duration and weekly perspective. Doing cardio in general shouldn’t destroy your strength and lean muscle gains. But if you are doing it 90 minutes or more a day for about 5 days a week then that will diminish your strength and lean muscle mass gains.
Does cardio kill the gains? iStock-photo credit: Jacob Wackerhausen
There are studies that show that cardio and strength training together will diminish strength, power and hypertrophy gains. And there are studies that show that adding cardio to resistance training will inhibit strength and muscle gains. So, the studies are mixed at this point. But at the end of the day, it will come out to how much you are doing in terms of the effect it has on your strength and lean muscle mass gains.
A 2018 review study published in the sports journal found that HIIT cardio has no negative effect on muscle building with resistance training. One of the ways that cardio can affect your resistance training workouts is if you perform your cardio before you do any type of weight-training.
This will zap your energy and affect your strength levels trying to lift weights. If your goal is to increase your strength or lean muscle mass, then you want to lift weights before you do cardio. This is best from an energy efficiency perspective.
Prolonged cardio that is greater than 90 minutes will increase the risk that your body will begin using protein as a source of energy. And this will speed up your muscle protein breakdown. After 90 minutes of cardio is when protein breakdown increases.
Another important tip is if you are not consuming enough calories than doing an excessive amount of cardio can negatively compromise your muscle growth and strength levels. The number of calories you consume is a direct result of how much energy you will have to power through your workouts.
Those extra calories from food will help to repair and build muscle. For hypertrophy muscle gains to occur muscle protein synthesis must exceed muscle protein breakdown. And this doesn’t happen without sufficient solid food intake.
The Bottom line is cardio will only kill muscle gains if you are doing more than 90 minutes of cardio daily while not consuming enough calories or food intake to support the activity level.
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References
1) Methenitis S. A Brief Review on Concurrent Training: From Laboratory to the Field. Sports (Basel). 2018 Oct 24;6(4):127. doi: 10.3390/sports6040127. PMID: 30355976; PMCID: PMC6315763.
2) Schumann, M., Feuerbacher, J.F., Sünkeler, M. et al. Compatibility of Concurrent Aerobic and Strength Training for Skeletal Muscle Size and Function: An Updated Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med 52, 601–612 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01587-7
