How Much Cardio is Too Much Cardio?

We all know that cardiovascular exercise (or simply cardio) burns fat.  Sure, some types and methods of doing cardio burn more fat than others, but it’s pretty safe to say cardio burns fat.

Although not quite as unanimous or commonly known, cardio can burn muscle.  But the key word in that statement is CAN.  The fact is, burning muscle by doing too much cardio is not a real concern for most people, but let’s take a closer look.

We Want It to be True

It’s been well documented by a number of studies that we humans are inherently biased people, whether we like it or not – and even if we realize it or not.  We look for evidence to support what we think is true and what we want to be true.  For example, if you think Lexus is the best car made, then you are going to tend to pay attention to evidence that supports your notion that Lexus is the best car.  Yet you’ll tend to discount or even ignore evidence that points to the fact that another brand of car is superior.

Regarding cardio – most people hate doing cardio, and for the most part I do to.  Therefore you and I are susceptible to biases against cardio and would tend to disregard evidence that points to the fact that cardio is great.  Because if we agree that cardio is indeed good, then that means we should be doing it.

Sure enough, as soon as we read an article or forum post by some internet expert about how cardio burns muscle, we suddenly pay attention and say to ourselves “Yeah, cardio burns muscle, and I don’t want to burn any muscle, so therefore I shouldn’t do cardio.”

Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water

As with most prevalent myths or misconceptions, there is a smidgen of truth to the ‘cardio burns muscle’ statement.  Here’s the accurate statement: Too much of the wrong type of cardio, especially when combined with improper nutrition practices, can promote the burning of muscle for fuel. But the question remains…how much is too much?  (We’ll revisit the proper nutrition practices and type of cardio component on another day.)

Too much cardio is simply an amount that compromises recovery, such that significant amounts of muscle are burned to meet the demands.  I

say ’significant’ because the fact is, all exercise burns a little muscle…even resistance training itself which is used to build muscle!

These dang bodies of ours are pretty freakin’ smart and can amazingly adapt to just about anything we throw at them – especially when it comes to exercise.  That’s why even though exercise may technically ‘burn a little muscle,’ we don’t wither away to a pile of epithelial cells and osteocytes.  In fact, we practically always rebound from the exercise becoming improved – meaning stronger and with more endurance.

So just because an internet ‘expert’ or a paragraph in a textbook talks about BCAA’s from muscle being used for fuel during intense exercise, does NOT mean you’re going to burn all your muscle by doing cardio!  It’s simply not the case!

No matter how bad you hate doing cardio, it’s NOT evil, my friend.  In fact, it’s one of the most incredible weapons in your fat-burning arsenal!

My Real-World Cardio Experience

Over the course of the 18 years I’ve been competing in bodybuilding shows and preparing for photo shoots, I’ve tried it all!  I’ve gotten contest ready by doing no cardio, some cardio, and LOTS of cardio!  Here’s how I would briefly summarize what I found regarding cardio:

1) Doing no cardio forces you to have to consume a  severely inadequate number of calories, which dramatically compromises recovery!

2) Doing moderate amounts of cardio enables you to still eat plenty of nutrient-containing calories and recover well, while still keeping your muscle (assuming, again, that your diet is proper).

3) Doing lots of cardio (I’ve done up to 2 hours per day, every single day) enables you to get lean very quickly and still eat copious amounts of food.  However, after about 4-6 weeks of doing this much cardio along with almost daily weight-training, you tend to start to feel a bit run down and overtrained.  You also tend to ‘thin out’ a bit doing so much cardio, but you can also tell and feel that you’re in GREAT cardiovascular shape!  And, a bit surprisingly, I found that doing no cardio was worse in terms of ‘keeping muscle’ than doing lots of cardio!  I suspect that’s because of the lack of nutrients that accompanies the severely calorie-restricted diet that has to accompany a no-cardio approach to getting lean.

Don’t Be Scared

In closing, I want to encourage you to not reject cardio simply because someone told you to.  Try doing significant amounts of cardio and simply see how you look and feel after a few weeks.  No doubt it’s going to do your body (esp heart) good, but I think you’ll also be surprised at how you’ll feel about cardio once you’ve given it a fair chance.  Just don’t fail to give it a shot simply because, deep down, we ALL want cardio to be evil…therefore we don’t have to feel bad for not doing it!

Yours in health,

Dr Clay

PS Check out the new Physique Coaching program.  Not only would you get a complete nutrition, training, and cardio routine that takes the mystery out of exactly what you should be doing, but you will also learn all about how to properly access your progress and manipulate your cardio, diet, and training to achieve your best physique possible.