Risking Muscle Loss with Too Much Cardio

We all have different fitness goals and for a majority of people, weight loss ranks pretty high on the list of goals for getting into shape. Performing a lot of cardio is a common method for shedding unwanted pounds but the thing to keep in mind is the risk of muscle loss. It is easy to focus so much on weight loss that we neglect the importance of maintaining muscle.

Why maintaining muscle is important

This is just a quick list of some of the key reasons maintaining muscle is essential:

• Muscle burns more calories than fat
• Increased muscle increases metabolism
• Core muscle strength improves balance and stability
• Increased physical performance (sports, daily activities)
• Decreases the risk of injury
• Look and feel better

How too much cardio can affect muscles

When the body is experiencing a calorie deficit, a cardio activity such as running will cause the body not only to seek out its fat stores for energy but also muscles. In fact, I have learned that the body will eat away at muscle before the fat stores.

Ways to help prevent muscle loss

• Limit cardio workouts to three times per week
• Avoid doing cardio and strength training on the same day
• Perform strength training at least twice a week
• Use interval training in place of typical cardio routines

It's important to find a balance between cardio and strength training. I set out specific days for cardio and weights. It changes every week but I have most recently been using intervals for cardio workouts and increasing my amount of strength training days.

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