 Ladies and gentlemen silent mic back with another video today. We're going to talk about cardio Cardio may be during cuts, but more importantly cardio. Will it kill your gains? Should you do cardio in a bulk and is there maybe such thing as too much cardio or is it affecting me negatively if you guys Want to dive into this thing do me a favor give this thing a thumbs up It helps me a lot subscribe new videos Monday Wednesday Saturday new podcast 50% facts We're tackling the hardest questions and getting the best answers From the world's leading experts on fitness nutrition business life So be sure to check out 50% facts on itunes spotify anywhere you want to go and I'm on twitch every single night Twitch.tv slash silent mic with two K's. Let's hop in so a common common question When should I do cardio? Why should I do cardio and will it affect my lifts and what I'm getting into? And I imagine the majority of you guys are either into some kind of strength sport Whether you compete in powerlifting or not You're just interested in getting stronger and maybe to squat the bench press and deadlift I also imagine that the majority of you guys want to look good, but not be Weak not be skinny and small. No one wants to be skinny fat. Everyone wants to have some muscle, but still have some definition if your goals are Primarily strength It might be a little bit different than if your goals are primarily aesthetics or if you're stepping on stage for bodybuilding So we're gonna kind of eliminate Competitive bodybuilding and we're going to talk about general strength powerlifting maybe even weightlifting strongman And then also what you guys need to know for your cardio bulk A lot of people bash West Side Barbell and Louis Simmons who was a very popular coach Strength and conditioning coach powerlifting coach in the geared powerlifting age He still has a ton of knowledge and a ton of things we can take from him Although not everything I think he says applies to the raw lifter or the lifter now in 2019 I do think there's a lot of knowledge base that he has That can be used and shouldn't be ignored and one of the biggest things he preaches about is GPP general physical preparedness which basically means that there's a base level of fitness how in shape you are For your sport and in shape again depends on the specificity of your sport, but we're talking about base Can you breathe a little bit? Are you generally strong? Mobile etc in that base the GPP depends on your sport In my opinion powerlifting might be one of the lowest GPP sports in the world where counter to that Soccer or basketball might be one of the highest GPP sports, right? You have to not only be fast You have to have good endurance. You have to have good agility. You have to have a good vertical jump You have to be resilient you have to Be strong enough to handle some contact in those sports obviously football is way up there as well There's a bunch of contact a little bit of sprinting Some endurance a lot of strength and a lot of agility and mobility But when we're talking about strength athletes getting stronger getting better at power lifting We still need to be able to recover from our sets from our workload and some cardio will help that now How much is too much and how much will be detrimental to you or your progress? kind of depends on the individual their lifestyle and Somewhat of their genetics and how far into the sport they are the more advanced you get You're probably going to be more specific into the sport But as a beginner being able to you know run a mile or ride a bike for 20 minutes and not get out of breath is going to be huge It will help also as you get further down the road, but Your loads and you'll be so specific in your training that you'll be prepared for that I think for general health cardio is going to be amazing no matter what obviously It's training of your heart your bloods your your lungs and that's going to help live longer And obviously I think it has a lot of mental and physical benefits for me mentally riding my bike commuting to work Commuting to the gym commuting around town has helped me in a lot of ways Think more clearly and obviously shed some fat. I'm in a pretty decent place right now. I'm not bulking I'm not cutting, but I'm paying attention to my nutrition I'm lifting pretty dang hard and adding in that neat that Little bit of cardio the little bit of extra energy a day has allowed me to become leaner While still maintaining if not gaining some of my strength back in both powerlifting and weightlifting When you're bulking obviously the cardio won't be as important Because we're doing cardio while we're cutting trying to get leaner to burn more energy So we can eat a little bit more while still being in a calorie deficit But while you're bulking keeping in some kind of cardio, so then You can recover sometimes a light walk a light bike does a lot for circulation again mentally and physically And allows you to recover from that training and allows you to handle more volume in training Although the lifting you know 10 sets of 2 on deadlift and going for a 20-minute bike ride are very different energy systems and very different skills They can complement each other if you can't Ride a bicycle or go for a walk for half an hour and you're trying to do you know 10 sets of 2 at 80% on your deadlift It's going to be much more difficult than if you have the work capacity the general endurance Muscular endurance to handle that bike ride or go up some stairs, etc. etc How much is too much too much is probably just when you start to feel too fatigued and can't Accomplish your lifting now That's when we have to figure out our priorities if we just want to be healthy you have fun and lift some heavyweights I'm not going to tell you to ever stop cardio or playing sports But if your goal is purely to get stronger then you might have to dial back You might not be able to play in that you know team soccer league on Tuesdays and the weekend warrior basketball league on Saturday Some of that may just leave you too fatigued as calories sleep And how much we can recover all of that is just different stimulus and it all just takes different Energy to recover from it. And so we only have one system that we're basically Using to recover. It's not like we have a cardio energy system what we do, but you guys are getting the analogy here I don't want to get too much in detail It's not like we have a recovery for endurance and a recovery for musculature all of it is stimulus and all of it can Fatigue us so if you're too fatigued from a basketball game, it should be pretty obvious that your deadlifts aren't going to go as well But if we have a nice layer of cardio throughout our week three to maybe even five times a week Kind of lower intensity stuff keeping your heart rate good Well still being able to accomplish all the sets and reps you want to do in training Tracking our calories. You should be all set. I do suggest you do some kind of conditioning What matters what type that's going to have to be you and figuring it out I can't coach all of you individually with your goals and your history But I prefer something kind of low intensity something good where I can kind of think I can kind of zone out And it doesn't affect my body if I was doing sprints Shuttle sprints or sled sprints all the time my legs would probably be very fatigued from all the squatting and weightlifting I'm doing we're going for a bike ride is the perfect mix for me I get to be outdoors get a little sunshine and Still get that cardio in get a little sweat Hopefully that helps you guys figure out if cardio is being detrimental if it's messing up your gains Hope you like the video give this thing a thumbs up sign the mic. I'm out of here. Catch you Monday Wednesday Saturday. Thanks y'all