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Using
Aerobics To Supercharge
Your Muscle Building
Techniques
One of the
most interesting muscle
building techniques is
aerobic. Aerobic exercise
is essential for
cardiovascular fitness, but
you can overdo a good
thing. Studies have shown
that too much aerobic
activity can reduce your
gains in strength and
muscle size compared with
weight training alone. So,
don’t forget it when you
wonder how to build muscle.
Restrict your aerobic
activities to 1 to 1/2
hours per week and vary the
type of aerobics you do.
Keep your food intake under
control, too. You'll have
bigger muscles and a more
defined physique.
Aerobic
exercise is a necessary
part of a balanced training
program and you can’t
ignore it when thinking
about how to build muscle.
Aerobic conditioning
strengthens the
cardiovascular system by
forcing the heart to work
at elevated rates for a
longer period of time than
occurs with most
weight-training routines.
Aerobics helps burn the
free fatty acids in the
body as well, resulting in
a more defined, muscular
physique. Moderate amounts
of aerobic activity can
also stimulate the
conversion of lactic acid
back into pyruvic acid and
glucose, which gives your
muscles more fuel for
additional
contractions.
You can
have too much of a good
thing, however. A study by
Dr. Kraemer and colleagues
at the Center for Sports
Medicine at Pennsylvania
State University found that
strength and power
increases declined when an
endurance-training program
was added to a
weight-training regimen.
The men who only trained
with weights had a 30
percent improvement in
their leg- press
performance over twelve
weeks. Yet, when a
four-day-a-week aerobics
program was added, a
matched group had a
performance increase of
only 19.5 percent. The
researchers also found that
endurance training reduced
the size of the muscle
fibers created by weight
training while increasing
production of the catabolic
hormone, Cortisol.
"Resistance training
increases protein synthesis
and the amount of
contractile protein in the
muscle fiber," notes Dr.
Kraemer. "On the other
hand, the stress from
endurance training causes
the muscle to respond in an
opposite direction by
degrading the contractile
proteins to optimize oxygen
uptake. The end result was
a reduction in the
athletes' strength and
muscle gains."
So, how to
build muscle with aerobics?
First of all, you need to
control the amount of
aerobics you do. One to
one-and-a-half hours per
week is all you really need
to keep your cardiovascular
system in good working
order. This aerobic
conditioning should consist
of two or three thirty- to
forty-five-minute sessions.
Be sure to do at least a
half-hour of aerobics at
any one time because it
takes a while for your body
to switch into the aerobic
(fat-burning) energy
system. Too short of an
exercise session will
therefore not provide you
with all of the desired
benefits. Remember to
include a five-minute
warm-up and a five-minute
cool-down with your
aerobics as well as a bit
of stretching. Don't count
this time as part of your
minimum half-hour,
however.
Pace
yourself so that your
aerobics is as beneficial
as possible. Try to do your
aerobic activity at an
intensity level that is
from 60 to 80 percent of
your maximum heart rate.
Much more than 80 percent
will increase the
involvement of the body's
other energy systems, and
anything less than 60
percent will be so low that
you'll need to spend a lot
more time exercising to
burn the fat you want to
get rid of. It's also less
exercise for your heart. To
determine your maximum
heart rate per minute,
subtract your age from 220.
(Your maximum rate declines
with age.) Then multiply
that rate by 60 and 80
percent to determine your
desired range of
heartbeats. You can measure
your heart rate by taking
your pulse manually or with
one of the machines now on
the market.
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