How Much Cardio Should Hardgainers do? Twice per week seems to be the magic number. In fact, cardio is an essential component of the Minimalist Muscle course.

I hopped on a Skype call with David a few weeks back on a Monday night.

At 5’10” and about 145 pounds, David was far from jacked, and he was very open about it.

“No matter what I do, I can’t gain size. When I lift heavy, I get stronger, but then I feel fat. But when I jog on the treadmill after each workout, I get skinnier.” Even when the scale starts to move, all the extra food I’m eating just adds to this muffin top,” he said while grabbing the bulge over his hips.

“I’m not sure what to do, Eric. How Much Cardio Should I do?”

While I appreciate his self-deprecating humor, he was only half-joking, and it pained me to see it.

I’ve been there too:

I’ve done moderate steady-state cardio, kept volume super-low and only trained twice per week, and even skipped conditioning completely. Conversely, I’ve tried to train twice per day every damn day. For a plethora of reasons, neither worked.

But every time I completely took cardio out of the equation, I ended up pudgy, unathletic, and out of shape rather than lean and muscular.

Working your ass off to earn even a smidgen of muscle, yet find that you’re getting soft and out of shape is enough for most guys to immediately flip their diet, and go back to shred-mode. And this is the exact yo-yo programming that keeps most folks in a vicious cycle of bulking and cutting, yet no discernible change in their body, performance, or confidence.

Don’t fall for the belief that getting your heart rate up will immediately shift your energy balance and cause you to stay a catabolic scrawny mess.

Chances are, you’re not the genetically gifted skinny dude who can get away with eating like a gluttonous slob and only gain muscle. More than likely, you and I are similar: We need some cardio to minimize fat gain and improve our cardiovascular health while building muscle. 

With the methods below, you’ll improve your substrate utilization, meaning you’ll use fats, carbs, and protein for energy, recovery, and basic bodily functions to build muscle, rather than fat.

You’ll get more athletic.

You’ll stay healthy, instead of  getting fat, bloated, and unhealthy like most other people currently bulking up.

And most of all, you’ll stay confident, knowing that if you stay the course you’ll get jacked, not fat during your bulk.

Health Comes First

You hit the gym. You build muscle. Then, despite your hard work you can’t make it up the stairs without wheezing like a smoker stopping halfway up.

Before we can specialize in training, whether it’s for aesthetic or performance purposes, we must be able to move without pain and maintain good general health.

That means if you can’t make it up the stairs without wheezing and flailing for a hand rail you have no business “bulk
ing.” In the case of cardiovascular conditioning, you need a functional baseline for health just as you need a foundation base of strength to build muscle. Without diving too far down the rabbit hole, here are a few benefits to incorporating cardio into your routine:

Improved Capillary Density and Venous Return

The more muscle you have, the more potential there is for waste products after muscular contractions. By performing cardio on a regular basis, you’ll build a support network to filter out waste products. In the context of building muscle, think about the feeling your legs have after a high-rep squats.

Pretty heavy, acidic, and shitty, right?

By improving your capillary density and ability to dispel waste products you’re able to flush the legs and get back under the bar for more training. And more training with mechanical tension, metabolic stress, and triggered protein synthesis means more gains. Therefore, a better base of cardiovascular conditioning provides you with….

Better Exercise Recovery.

Even better the mere addition of cardio into your training will help you burn glucose and fatty acids for fuel. With consistent training, your body gets more effective at burning stored fuel. In other words, consistent cardiovascular training improves energy substrate use so you burn out outside the gym, and burn stored fuel in the form of carbohydrates and fatty acids during training.

Yes, lifting needs to be your focus. But don’t fall prey to the irrational fear of losing your #gains.

What should Hardgainers do for Cardio?

In addition to three to five lifting sessions each week, you should do some form of cardio twice per week.  These are your best options.

1. Jumping Rope

The jump rope is an awesome tool for hard gainers for three reasons:

Jumping rope is low Impact

Jumping rope is low impact, meaning there is little joint stress on your knees, hips, and ankles despite a high number of foot contacts. When you’re gaining weight, your joints and tissues need time to adjust to your new bodyweight. Jumping rope each day conditions the tissues of your legs to handle a heavier bodyweight.

Instead of jogging or sprinting, start (and keep) jumping rope to reduce joint stress while training at a relatively high intensity.

Jumping Rope is Self-Limiting

Jumping rope is a self-limiting exercise: to jump rope without failing you must stay in an aligned, joint stacked position while moving. This reinforces “stiffness” and a strong core that transfers force from head to toe.

This forces your trunk to stay engaged and resilient under the load of movement, a very important job if you want to stay healthy and athletic. Instead of overstriding in a sprint and popping a hamstring, you might whack your calf or stub a toe, then restart your exercise. Basically, jumping rope makes it nearly impossible to get injured compared to higher-impact options like sprinting.

Jumping Rope Keeps Your Athleticism

We’ve all seen the dudes who gain 10-15 pounds, yet all of a sudden lack any coordination or athleticism. Frankly, it’s embarrassing. You should be strong and capable. The jump-rope fixes that: By working on foot speed, timing, and coordination, you’ll preserve your athleticism even when focusing on maximum muscle growth.

Try this: Start with 3-5 minutes of jumping rope before training sessions. After two weeks, add an additional 5-minute jump-rope session after training. One month in, continue jumping rope in your warm-up but have two separate 10-15 minute conditioning sessions with the jump rope. Beyond athleticism and conditioning, you’ll see nice improvements in your calf development. Giggity.

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