#10: Cardio, Overtraining and HIT

Q: Hi Guy,

I enjoyed reading your article in the last issue of Planet Muscle. I found it both informative and inspiring. Thanks.

I did have a question or two: What sort of cardio do you typically do and how do you keep from overtraining legs with cardio done frequently? Also, what are your thoughts on High Intensity Training, meaning one or two sets taken to the maximum? It seems that you are somewhat close to this approach with the three heavy sets per exercise.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks,

...John Z.

A: Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback. If, by my example, I can steer people away from drug use, I would consider that to be my greatest achievement.

With respect to cardio, how much you do should be directly proportional to goals. For a bodybuilder, the minimum I would recommend is three cardio sessions of 30 minutes duration every week. This amount will help to improve recovery times, keep your metabolism humming, and should control your fat levels as long as you are eating reasonably. It will also enable you to make the best gains in the gym. This is the regimen that I follow during the off-season.

If you have a few pounds of fat to lose, I would recommend five cardio sessions a week. This amount will still allow you to make gains in the gym, but not at the same rate as the three-times-a-week regimen. You should stay on the five-day regimen until you are happy with your body composition, and then move back to the three-day regimen to maximize your muscle gains.

For competitive bodybuilders who are trying to drive their body fat to ridiculously low levels, cardio is required seven days a week for 45 minutes at a time. When doing such high amounts of cardio, care must be taken not to lose more than two pounds a week to preserve as much muscle mass as possible during the dieting process. You will also need to transition to this level of cardio from the three-day regimen over the course of several weeks in order to further protect your hard-earned muscle. When doing this amount of cardio, you will not be making progress in the gym and you will actually begin to lose strength as you become ripped. Optimum strength can only be achieved while carrying some fat in your joints and muscles. Therefore, I would not recommend the seven-day regimen to a bodybuilder unless he was preparing for competition.

Cardio should in no way hinder your mass-gaining potential in your legs. Cardio works slow-twitch muscle fibers that are necessary for endurance. Weight training works the fast-twitch muscle fibers necessary for explosive strength.

If you are beginning cardio training for the first time, you may experience some soreness until your body gets used to it. Once you are regularly doing your cardio regimen, you should not experience any leg soreness due to the cardio activity alone, and your strength levels for the leg workout in the gym should be unaffected. For instance, this morning I did my 30 minutes on the bike before breakfast, and at lunch I had a wickedly heavy leg-training session. If you are doing both your cardio and weight training during the same session, you must do the weight training first. Carbohydrate stores in the body must be at their maximum level to carry you through a heavy weight-training session. Doing cardio before weights strips the body of these stores and results in less fuel being available to your muscles and, hence, less productivity in the gym. And performing your cardio after your workout when your carb stores are low will more efficiently tap into your fat stores.

With respect to my thoughts on High Intensity Training (HIT), I must confess that I am not at all familiar with the names associated with all the fads in bodybuilding training. When I was a teenager, I tried many such regimens promoted by drug-taking bodybuilders only to be disappointed with the results. These regimens either resulted in overtraining (Schwarzenegger-type routines) or undertraining (Mentzer-type routines). When it comes to non-natural bodybuilders’ routines, I always like to use this analogy: A horse can run around all day and develop massive muscles, but it is not going to work for you.

That is how I developed "The Five Pound Rule" that I explained in a previous article on this site and in my Planet Muscle article. It is very high intensity, and you have to give it your all for each and every heavy set. Completing three heavy sets at high intensity for five to eight repetitions sufficiently breaks down the muscle fibers to promote growth. Also, combined with only training the body once a week using a five-day cycle, it will prevent overtraining. I am very confident that if you try my workout regimen, you will not be disappointed with your progress.

Thanks very much for your question and all the best to you in your training.

...Guy Bourgon, Canadian Champion 2006

If you would like to ask Guy a question, please e-mail: askguy@seriousaboutmuscle.com.

SeriousAboutMuscle.com contributor Guy Bourgon is from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and is the winner of the Tall class in the Classic Bodybuilding division at the 2006 CBBF National World Qualifier. Guy also competed at the 2006 IFBB World Bodybuilding Championships held in Ostrava, Czech Republic, where he placed fifth in the Tall class of the Classic Bodybuilding division.