Chris Aceto and his advice on NO cardio when gaining?

[Redz122]

Hey, I just read Chris Aceto's Championship Bodybuilding and in it, one of the main beliefs he stresses is NO cardio when trying to gain muscle. Whats this all about? Don't you want to do cardio to get the blood circulating throughout your whole body so your skeletal system becomes primed for nutrient partitioning especially the muscles that were recently trained? Any thoughts?

[Warrior]

I am with you man. I would put in some cardio for the other benefits... like warming up your core, improving your endurance and getting things circulating. You can just add some more calories to fuel the cardio... just don't make it anything that will totally wear you out. Sure, if you over do it you can lose sight of optimal anabolism and systemically deplete your body too much. Just keep it reasonable... but I wouldn't eliminate it all together.

It also depends on the deffinition of "bulking." Are you trying to gain as much muslce mass as possible with no regard for additional fat accumulating - or you have a fast metabolism that keeps you lean anyway. Or... are you trying to clean bulk so muscle is accompanied by as little fat as possible. Some people pig out on whatever and do no cardio at all and call that "bulking"... but unless you are genetically gifted or on a lot of drugs - bodyfat can become a problem.

[ascendant]

this is definitely something that is dependent on the individual, their goals, diet, and many other factors. though i agree with you guys on most points, i think if cardio is done during bulking, it should be done in very limited amounts. no more than 3 times a week at a low to moderate intensity for 45 mins or so.

my main concerns for not wanting to completely get rid of it is the added cardiovascular benefit it provides, whereas weightlifting provides very little in that aspect. however with my active lifestyle, i tend to do no more than 1 day of cardio a week, if that during bulking. for those less active though, they may need to do more.