Cardio twice a day??

[TmRich0808]

I am 215 pounds, around 10-11% bf with a pretty decent amount of muscle/strength/physique but obviously trying to burn some fat and get leaner. I would like to maintain the amount of muscle I have, while burning fat. I love doing about 15-20 minutes of moderate cardio after my weights workouts. I can usually run around 2.5 miles on the treadmill in 20 minutes so I would consider it moderate intensity. I do cardio after every workout. My question is if it would be wise to do another cardio session later in the day after my weights and first cardio session (maybe 4 or 5 hours later). I would only do about 30 minutes or so on a stationary bike on the second cardio session. Id really love the perspective from a muscle building stand point to see if this is a good idea or if I am doing too much cardio, resulting in a loss of muscle?? Thanks in advance for the advice guys.

 

[harbonah]

I've done it on a cut if you have your diet down you should not loose much if any muscle.

 

[nicksox15]

Can definitely be done, as Harbonah said that your diet would need to be on point. Depending on how intense your lifts are as well, I would worry about burnout at some point. Just make sure if you start to feel tired alot or run down, stop with the two a days.

 

[Torobestia]

I think adding more cardio to an already cardio-heavy routine is a bad idea, and you're set yourself up for losing more muscle than you need to.

I think once you approach a certain degree of leanness you should revisit your diet, really tighten it up, but start incorporating more refeeds to maintain the weightloss (and understand that while you weight will go up after a refeed you'll net more fatloss by the end of the week than if you hadn't of done the refeed in the first place).

Another alternative since you've been doing mainly steady state cardio is to do some HIIT instead of the steady state (either as a separate session or in addition to your lifting). That could definitely provide both a new stimulus to help you get leaner and help preserve muscle since it's more anabolic/less catabolic than steady state cardio.

 

[harbonah]

I think adding more cardio to an already cardio-heavy routine is a bad idea, and you're set yourself up for losing more muscle than you need to.

I think once you approach a certain degree of leanness you should revisit your diet, really tighten it up, but start incorporating more refeeds to maintain the weightloss (and understand that while you weight will go up after a refeed you'll net more fatloss by the end of the week than if you hadn't of done the refeed in the first place).

Another alternative since you've been doing mainly steady state cardio is to do some HIIT instead of the steady state (either as a separate session or in addition to your lifting). That could definitely provide both a new stimulus to help you get leaner and help preserve muscle since it's more anabolic/less catabolic than steady state cardio.

I would not call 15-20 min of cardio post workout a cardio heavy routine do you know something outside of this post? Like maybe he is doing crossfit or something? :what:

 

[Torobestia]

I would not call 15-20 min of cardio post workout a cardio heavy routine do you know something outside of this post? Like maybe he is doing crossfit or something? :what:

Yeah you're right, I guess 2 hours or less of cardio a week is not the worst thing in the world, no. Still stand by what I said, though.

 

[JudoJosh]

I think adding more cardio to an already cardio-heavy routine is a bad idea, and you're set yourself up for losing more muscle than you need to.

Certainly is plausible

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/showthread.php?t=225621

 

[TmRich0808]

I would not call 15-20 min of cardio post workout a cardio heavy routine do you know something outside of this post? Like maybe he is doing crossfit or something? :what:

No, not doing crossfit. I laid out my workout plan in the original post. I am however going to start incorporating HIIT training on my "cardio only" days to give the cardio a little more of a fat burning target.