Dominic Stone
Cardio can burn muscle, but only if you're not doing enough weight training or supplementing your workouts with a nutritious diet. Running, for example, can cause more muscle damage than other forms of cardio, like cycling, rowing, and rucking. This is because it increases muscle protein breakdown during and after runs, making it harder for your body to build new muscle proteins. It also causes more fatigue than other kinds of exercise, which can interfere with your strength training workouts. However, this doesn't mean that running will always hinder your muscle-building efforts. To avoid any issues, it's recommended to limit your running to no more than 2-to-3 hours per week and to do your running and lower-body weightlifting on separate days.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Muscle damage | Running causes more muscle damage than other forms of cardio, like cycling, rowing, and rucking |
| Muscle protein breakdown | Running significantly increases muscle protein breakdown during and after runs, making it harder for the body to build new muscle proteins |
| Fatigue | Running causes disproportionately more fatigue than other kinds of exercise, which can interfere with strength training workouts |
| Length of workout | Cardio workouts longer than an hour can negatively affect muscle growth |
| Weightlifting | A lack of weightlifting can increase the odds of cardio burning muscle |
| Diet | Cardio can burn muscle if it is not supplemented with a nutritious diet |
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What You'll Learn
Running causes more muscle damage than other forms of cardio
However, this doesn’t mean running will always hinder your muscle-building efforts. To avoid any issues, simply limit your running to no more than 2-to-3 hours per week, and make sure you do your running and lower-body weightlifting on separate days. Research also suggests that keeping most of your cardio workouts shorter than an hour can help to avoid the negative effects of cardio on muscle growth. Going beyond an hour doesn’t mean you’ll automatically start losing muscle, but it does increase the chance of negatively affecting muscle growth.
It's also important to note that cardio doesn't automatically burn your muscle. But it can burn muscle if you do it too much, do it before your weight training session, or do 'high impact' cardio. Additionally, a lack of weightlifting or a poor diet can be more of a problem than cardio when it comes to burning muscle.
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Cardio can burn muscle if you do it before weight training
To avoid any negative impact on muscle growth, it is recommended to keep cardio workouts shorter than an hour. Going beyond an hour does not mean you will start losing muscle, but it does increase the chance of negatively affecting muscle growth. Studies of natural bodybuilders, who often do several 30-to-40-minute cardio workouts per week without losing significant muscle, support this. Therefore, as long as you keep your cardio workouts under an hour, you don't need to worry about burning muscle.
Additionally, it is important to note that a lack of weightlifting or strength training is often the problem when it comes to muscle loss, rather than cardio alone.
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Cardio can burn muscle if you do too much
Running, in particular, can cause more muscle damage than other forms of cardio, like cycling, rowing, and rucking. This is because it significantly increases muscle protein breakdown during and after runs, making it harder for your body to build new muscle proteins. It also causes disproportionately more fatigue than other kinds of exercise, which can interfere with your strength training workouts.
However, this doesn’t mean running will always hinder your muscle-building efforts. To avoid any issues, simply limit your running to no more than 2-to-3 hours of running per week, and make sure you do your running and lower-body weightlifting on separate days.
It's also worth noting that a lack of weightlifting or strength training is often the problem when it comes to muscle loss, rather than cardio alone.
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Cardio can burn muscle if you don't do enough weight training
However, this doesn't mean that running or other forms of cardio will always hinder your muscle-building efforts. Research suggests that to avoid the negative effects of cardio on muscle growth, it's best to keep most of your cardio workouts shorter than an hour. Going beyond an hour doesn't mean you'll automatically start losing muscle, but it does increase the chance of negatively affecting muscle growth.
Natural bodybuilders, for example, often do several 30-to-40-minute cardio workouts per week without losing significant muscle. So, as long as you keep most of your cardio workouts under an hour, you don't need to worry about burning muscle.
Additionally, if you're doing a lot of cardio, it's important to make sure you're also doing enough weight training and supplementing your workouts with a nutritious diet. This will help to ensure that you're building and maintaining muscle mass while also getting the benefits of cardio exercise.
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Cardio can burn muscle if you don't have a nutritious diet
Research suggests that to avoid the negative effects of cardio on muscle growth, it's best to keep most cardio workouts shorter than an hour. Going beyond an hour doesn't mean you'll start losing muscle, but it does increase the chance of negatively affecting muscle growth. Studies of natural bodybuilders, who often do several 30-to-40-minute cardio workouts per week without losing significant muscle, support this.
Running, in particular, can cause more muscle damage than other forms of cardio, such as cycling, rowing, or rucking. This is because it significantly increases muscle protein breakdown during and after runs, making it harder for your body to build new muscle proteins. Running also causes more fatigue than other exercises, which can interfere with strength training workouts. To mitigate this, limit your running to no more than 2-3 hours per week, and separate your running and lower-body weightlifting days.
In summary, cardio can burn muscle if it's not complemented by sufficient weight training and a nutritious diet. However, by keeping cardio workouts under an hour and ensuring proper recovery and nutrition, you can minimise the risk of muscle loss.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, cardio can burn muscle, but only if you're not doing enough weight training or supplementing your workouts with a nutritious diet.
Cardio can burn muscle if you do it too much, do it before your weight training session, or do 'high impact' cardio.
Research suggests that to avoid the negative effects of cardio on muscle growth, it's best to keep most of your cardio workouts shorter than an hour. Going beyond an hour doesn't mean you'll automatically start losing muscle, but it does increase the chance of negatively affecting muscle growth.
Running causes more muscle damage than other forms of cardio, like cycling, rowing, and rucking, which can interfere with muscle gain.
To avoid losing muscle, limit your running to no more than 2-to-3 hours per week, and make sure you do your running and lower-body weightlifting on separate days.
