BEGINNING BODYBUILDING Q & A WITH MARC DAVID
QUESTION:
Hi Marc,
I want to cut to the chase as I have been away this weekend and am back in the gym in the morning (it's a late night her'e now), sufficed to say I am loving the fact that I found your site (will be purchasing the full guide just as soon as the Office gives me chance to take a breath!!).
One quick question in response to the Cardio feature: How do you "know" when muscle is being burnt? I do a 10min cycle before my workout and a 10min run afterwards (I run at 8mph) - I would love to do more but don't have the time (I do Mon, Wed, Fri weigh't workouts with the 10mins and the start and end of each day but don't really have the time for full cardio on Tue and Thu).
So my question is how do I know if I am burning fat or muscle?
Cheers
Ben
ANSWER:
Since you are tired, I'll be brief. ;-)
You know you aren't burning muscle if you engage in a cardio routine that promotes fat burning and is short but intense. It's called HIIT.
It's much harder to figure out what you are burning then it is to know that you are doing your cardio routines properly.
That's why I recommend that you learn to do cardio correctly and you'll always know you are burning fat.
Needless to say...
There's a super simple way to keep this potential muscle burning from happening.
First...
Understand there's no need for long endurance sessions unless you are training for a long endurance session. As a fitness or bodybuilding individual, your goal for cardio is to engage your heart and boost your metabolism. You can do this easily in 30-45 minutes of HIIT training.
Second...
If at all possible, schedule your cardio sessions about 8 hours apart from your weigh't training. If that's not possible, do your cardio AFTER your weights.
Why?
Because when you lift weights, it's more of a short term fuel source called Glycogen. You'll need short bursts of energy to get the job done. Cardio is better at burning fat as a fuel source if you start off properly.
You'll hear people go back and forth on that but here's a quick test if you are curious.
Do your HIIT cardio first. Then see how well the weigh't workout goes. :-)
Last...
Engage in proper post-workout nutrition. This will ensure you re-fuel your body and keep it in an anabolic (growth) state as opposed to searching for the proteins and fuels it needs to recover.
Ben if you follow these really general but simple rules, you'll not only get leaner but your cardiovascular endurance will be better and you will avoid the whole muscle burning issue.
Proper cardio and some of the programs that I've personally tried and highly recommend is something that I do go over in more detail in the Beginner's Guide to Fitness and Bodybuilding at:
http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
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Perfect, thanks Marc.
I did my first HIIT-style cardio today, it's tough, I was sweating buckets and only managed 10 minutes (1 -to- 2 min jog, 30secs intense) but I think I understand how it might work: if you ask the body for instan't energy for a short burst it needs to use the muscle to move your body so obviously it doesn't want to start using it as an energy source and break it down, so it uses fat. When you then come off the intense 30seconds (or whatever) it allows your body to come off burning the fat and use the Glycogen -- obviously I am making this up as I have no biology knowledge, but it works for me :-) Thanks very much
Ben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Regards,
Marc David Editor http://www.beginning-bodybuilding.com
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