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Hiit cardio an issue while bulking ?

PLACEBOEFFECT9

New member
I am a bodybuider in my spirit , and i i try to stay lean year round . So cardio is a must . My issue is i hate doing regular bodybuilder cardio , walking on a treadmill etc .
But i enjoy more hiit cardio . I try to do it everyday . Cycling or dancing .
I put on decent size, when i am focused on bulking , this year i put on 7 kgs of which i
Believe 2-3 kg muscle , but i could never manage to be like 220-240 at 10 % bf. mY CURRENT STATS ARE 6 3 HEIGHT 200 LBS ( FOR EUROPE 190 CM 90 KG ) AT AROUND 13 % BODYFAT . I have been lifting for 4 years , with breaks in between due to injuries and surgeries .
So my question to you guys , do you think hiit cardio keeps me small , far from the targeted range at least 220 lbs at 8-10 % bf . Or can i keep hiit cardio in my rotine just bump up clean calories more let’s say 300-500 kcal .

Appreciate the advice from the experienced gym bros .
 
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For the most part I only do hit cardio, I usually back off significantly when I'm bulking but after noticing a few things I'm probably going to keep doing it to keep my appetite high. I think it's a fantastic idea as long as you can keep up with the calories to grow
 
Smont said:
For the most part I only do hit cardio, I usually back off significantly when I'm bulking but after noticing a few things I'm probably going to keep doing it to keep my appetite high. I think it's a fantastic idea as long as you can keep up with the calories to grow
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How many hours / week do you do hiit cardio on bulk ?
 
If you are doing hours of HIIT a week then yes, it will likely be an issue. I would say no more than 90 minutes of HIIT in a week if just staying in shape but wanting maximal growth. If you aren't gaining beyond that it is time to up the calories. Use your HIIT to stay in good cardiovascular shape, use your calories to manage weight loss/gain.

If you are around 13% you should be in a place to make decent gains, but can you tell a little more about your situation and expectations? We know you have been at it for 4 years off and on, that is not much info. How long are the on periods, and off periods? How much did you weigh and at what composition before training, how much muscle have you gained in that time? We don't know if your progress is great, and your expectations unrealistic, or if you have some training / nutrition situation because we need more info to answer that with any sort of actual relevance. However in the end so long as HIIT isn't lowering performance on your lifts, and you are able to out eat it, it is not going to be the limiting factor in hypertrophy.
 
MrKleen73 said:
If you are doing hours of HIIT a week then yes, it will likely be an issue. I would say no more than 90 minutes of HIIT in a week if just staying in shape but wanting maximal growth. If you aren't gaining beyond that it is time to up the calories. Use your HIIT to stay in good cardiovascular shape, use your calories to manage weight loss/gain.

If you are around 13% you should be in a place to make decent gains, but can you tell a little more about your situation and expectations? We know you have been at it for 4 years off and on, that is not much info. How long are the on periods, and off periods? How much did you weigh and at what composition before training, how much muscle have you gained in that time? We don't know if your progress is great, and your expectations unrealistic, or if you have some training / nutrition situation because we need more info to answer that with any sort of actual relevance. However in the end so long as HIIT isn't lowering performance on your lifts, and you are able to out eat it, it is not going to be the limiting factor in hypertrophy.
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So i started training at 72 kgs 160 lbs skinny kid , i was not able to lift and unloaded barbell to save my life lol 🤣 , so naturallly not a strong guy , so in 2,5 years i put on 18 kgs without getting fat . My goal is to get to 220 lbs lean , at around 10 % bodyfat year round .
First year was natural lifting .
I do hours of hiit . 30-60 minutes daily + 8000-10k steps daily .
I am a hard gainer , ectomorph body type .
In 4 years i trained consistently for 2,5 years total . First 1 year full natural training , then i did my first cycle and stopped due to sşde effects . It was an old school deca dbol test cycle .
A while later i restarted training , went on a cycle with test and tren but injured my shoulder and took a 1 year break .
When i got my health back i Restarted and did a small cutting cycle in moderate doses . Also in those years i made in total 4 aas cycles . 2 cutting and 2 bulking cycles . My cycles were short 6 weeks to 12 weeks . I do not want health issues so when some value is out of range i stop the cycle .
My last cycle was the biggest one yet
1-10 weeks 750 mg test
4-10 weeks 400 mg tren
1-10 week 200 mg npp
1-10 week 400 mg bolde
9 iu gh / day
10 iu humalog preworkout
With failed attempt with oral superdrol for a week , i felt like a zombie so stopped it .
In this cycle i put on 7 kg 15 lbs decent size . I ate 4000 kcal per day 80-90 % clean ( with some dairy products in the mix i consider not clean ) . Other things i eat chicken breast , lean cuts of red meat , salmon and white fish , whey , potatoes , rice , rica cakes , oatmeal , dextrose, fruits . So basically i ate 500 grams carbs / 300-350 grams of protein so at least 1,5 gr per pound of bodyweight , 60 grams of fat / day . Not a big sleeper so 7 hours sleep everyday .
So since i do so much hiit cardio , should i bump up the carbs to 600 grams / day on the next bulking phase ? I have a good appetite and i believe when i am locked in i can eat up to 4500-5000 kcal clean .
My cystatin c got up to 1,06 so i am back on a cruise with 250 mg test and 30 mg yk 11 . Rest of my values are in range ldl , hdl , hct , billirubin , ggt and so on .
I am on a slight surplus on cruise now . I am looking to drop yk 11 in 2 weeks and continue cruising on just 250 mg test for a few months, then go on my next blast .
 
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PLACEBOEFFECT9 said:
I do hours of hiit . 30-60 minutes daily .
I am a hard gainer , ectomorph body type .
In 4 years i trained consistently for 2,5 years total . Also in those years i made 4 aas cycles . 2 cutting and 2 bulking cycles . My cycles were short 6 weeks to 12 weeks . I do not want health issues so when some value is out of range i stop the cycle .
My last cycle was the biggest one yet
1-10 weeks 750 mg test
4-10 weeks 400 mg tren
1-10 week 200 mg npp
1-10 week 400 mg bolde
9 iu gh / day
10 iu humalog preworkout
With failed attempt with oral superdrol for a week , i felt like a zombie so stopped it .
In this cycle i put on 7 kg 15 lbs decent size . I ate 4500 kcal per day 90 % clean ( wşth some dairy products in the mix i consşder not clean ) .
My cystatin c got up to 1,06 so i am back on a cruise with 250 mg test and 30 mg yk 11 . Rest of my values are in range ldl , hdl , hct , billirubin , ggt and so on .
I am on a slight surplus on cruise now .
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In those 4 years how much have you put on total? It doesn't sound like your gains are really lacking, but also you wanting to gain another 20lbs while stopping a cycle if something gets out of range is going to be a big challenge for you and take longer to do than most people who will let things get out of range but then real them back in and spend some time in healthy ranges before the next cycle to minimize any issues.

As a hard gainer, if you truly are one then tons of any type of cardio is going to be a limiting factor for maximal growth. Of course you may not be a hard gainer and just someone doing so much HIIT the body is spending resources on recovering from HIIT sessions when it could be growing new tissue. Again, as long as you can out eat the amount of cardio you are doing you can make gains, but you are making things harder on yourself. If the HIIT is a labor of love then maybe don't sweat that 220 number you have in your head. Just keep working, and eating, and building like you have and just do it for longer.

That being said, if you were a bodybuilder that wanted to compete and needed to gain 25-45lbs of muscle like you are wanting, I would definitely have you cut your HIIT back a bit. However that is optimizing for growth, not your personal enjoyment, lifestyle or preferences. I have to say if you have already put on a decent amount of muscle with the gear use that another 25-45lbs of lean tissue is pretty unlikely without years of off and on cycles / cruises. If you are truly a hard gainer though, I think it is pretty unrealistic to expect to see another 45lbs of lean tissue gains. I mean we are talking elite level genetics results for someone saying they do not have elite level genetics. Not an insult, just based on you saying you are a hard gainer.

If you don't intend to compete, I would say if you enjoy your training style keep doing what you enjoy. It will keep you healthier while cycling. Eat for lean tissue growth, do some more cycles, and just be happy with continuing to make progress rather than assigning a number to it that feels like a failure if you don't achieve it.
 
Gaining 20-40lbs could be a 1 year plan, but gaining 20 to 40 lb of actual muscle tissue is going to be more like a three to five year plan, and depending on how much muscle you've already put on and how deep into your cycling you've already gone you may require a significant amount of gear and food to do that.
 
Edit, I see he was just making an example I thought you were actually looking to gain 20 to 40 lb of muscle on your next bulk
 
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