Cardio

[charger69]

IN preparation for competition, what is the ideal bpm for cardio? I have always ran about 4 miles a day however I am beginning to question this practice. I usually am at 145-155 bpm. I use a monitor so I speed up as my bpm decrease.
I do not see the other bodybuilders running. The closest thing that I have seen is the elliptical.
I always begin to question my practices to ensure that my beliefs are not out dated. I do not think that age plays a factor in the answer.
Any feedback for or against is welcome. I am trying to optimize my training.

[Livinlean]

That BPM is a bit high. How close are you to your show?

I typically will do HIIT until I am in a heavy deficit at which point I switch to steady state (maybe 8 weeks out) to maintain muscle mass. Most BBers now adays wont do any HIIT to avoid muscle loss.

I can't imagine not being able to run. Performance is way too important to me to ever give up high intensity cardio.

[charger69]

That BPM is a bit high. How close are you to your show? I typically will do HIIT until I am in a heavy deficit at which point I switch to steady state (maybe 8 weeks out) to maintain muscle mass. Most BBers now adays wont do any HIIT to avoid muscle loss. I can't imagine not being able to run. Performance is way too important to me to ever give up high intensity cardio.

What would you recommend as a target bpm? I am 14 weeks out. Last year I ran over 850 miles which I feel affected my leg progress. This year off season i would run very little trying to get my legs up to par. Now 14 weeks out, I am upping my cardio, but I am swimming on leg day.
I do not consider my running hiit, it is more of a constant pace and letting my bpm dictate the speed.

[MuscleScience]

That BPM is a bit high. How close are you to your show?

I typically will do HIIT until I am in a heavy deficit at which point I switch to steady state (maybe 8 weeks out) to maintain muscle mass. Most BBers now adays wont do any HIIT to avoid muscle loss.

I can't imagine not being able to run. Performance is way too important to me to ever give up high intensity cardio.

I think that's one of the silly notions in BodyBuilding. Sure if you create and extended deficient over many months you will lose muscle. I have never seen any research that shows anything other than lean muscle mass gain with HIIT training. In fact in my mind, I would think that the massive amounts of GH that is released during a hard HIIT session would offset any potential muscle loss?

[charger69]

I think that's one of the silly notions in BodyBuilding. Sure if you create and extended deficient over many months you will lose muscle. I have never seen any research that shows anything other than lean muscle mass gain with HIIT training. In fact in my mind, I would think that the massive amounts of GH that is released during a hard HIIT session would offset any potential muscle loss?

What about trying to gain muscle while doing HIIT? I also do not consider running HIIT because I try to maintain a constant pace. I believe the past couple of years all of the running did not allow for me to optimize my leg development.

[MuscleScience]

What about trying to gain muscle while doing HIIT? I also do not consider running HIIT because I try to maintain a constant pace. I believe the past couple of years all of the running did not allow for me to optimize my leg development.

I think hit is superb at building muscle. It stimulates fast twitch and intermediate twitch fibers and raises your natural GH pulse during and after exercise to an incredibly high level.
It also helps create a very negative oxygen debt load very rapidly, that the body must "repay," by boosting metabolism. After HIIT your body will be in a high beta oxidative state (burning fat) for upto 36 hours and GH elevated up to 48 hours. Steady state exercise you get that effect for maybe 8-12 hours after. This is called Post Exercise Caloric Expenditure or Post exercise oxidative expenditure. I've seen it both ways on varies journals if you want to read up on it further. It's one of my favorite areas of exercise physiology that I still enjoy keeping up with.


My legs probably got the best cuts out of all my training regimes I've done since switching to more HIIT training.

[charger69]

I think hit is superb at building muscle. It stimulates fast twitch and intermediate twitch fibers and raises your natural GH pulse during and after exercise to an incredibly high level. It also helps create a very negative oxygen debt load very rapidly, that the body must "repay," by boosting metabolism. After HIIT your body will be in a high beta oxidative state (burning fat) for upto 36 hours and GH elevated up to 48 hours. Steady state exercise you get that effect for maybe 8-12 hours after. This is called Post Exercise Caloric Expenditure or Post exercise oxidative expenditure. I've seen it both ways on varies journals if you want to read up on it further. It's one of my favorite areas of exercise physiology that I still enjoy keeping up with. My legs probably got the best cuts out of all my training regimes I've done since switching to more HIIT training.

My legs are always cut, but I want more size. Trying to dial it in.

[MuscleScience]

My legs are always cut, but I want more size. Trying to dial it in.

What's your training volume like on them?

[charger69]

What's your training volume like on them?

This year cut back drastically on cardio off season. I was training quads one day per week and hams one day per week on seperate days. During my bulk cycle i started training hams and quads 3 x per week. One of my best cycles!

[MuscleScience]

This year cut back drastically on cardio off season. I was training quads one day per week and hams one day per week on seperate days. During my bulk cycle i started training hams and quads 3 x per week. One of my best cycles!

I've found that hitting legs multiple times a week works best for me too. I do a set of squats any time I'm in the gym. I don't always go all out. Just a nice way to stimulate them and up my metabolism