How to Build Muscle with a Cardio Routine
Cardio exercise are those in which you pump up your heart rate to about 70-80 of the maximum and then keep it there for about 20-30 minutes. These type of workouts are extremely popular, especially for fitness conscious people, but one major problem with them is that a person is unable to gain mass through them.
While doing cardio exercise, you want the heart to pump at a rapid speed, but if there is resistance in the form of weights, that will become extremely difficult and the desired effect will not be there. There are however still some ways through which you can improvise.
Instructions
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1
Determine your heart rate range
The first thing you need to do is to determine your heart rate. If you are male, subtract your age from 220 and then multiply it by .70 and .80 to determine your heart range for a cardio workout. In case you are female, subtract 88 percent of your age from 206 and then multiply for range determination. -
2
Figure out what suits you best
There are a lot of cardio exercises. Select the one in which you are the most comfortable and can actually extend yourself doing that. This should be the very exercise you should target for building up your muscles. -
3
Select the equipment
After selecting the exercise, the next step is to select the equipment which can help you in creating resistance to your workout routine. There are can be a lot of options in this regard including dumbbells, resistance bands, kettle bells, barbells, exercise machines, home gyms or weight machines etc. Whatever you select, it should allow you to maintain a 30 minute workout. -
4
Experiment with other exercise postures
You can take a start, but one exercise alone is not enough for a proper workout. You need to experiment with other postures and make a list of cardio exercises in which you can afford to add on weights, and inclinations for that matter. -
5
Do a proper warm-up
Warm up is necessary for every exercise. When you want to do the exercises of this specific type, start off without the weights, and then gradually add on the weights. -
6
Avoid over-stretching yourself
Maintaining a high heart rate is already a difficult task and people of all age groups cannot do these routines. Even if you can, improvising with weights can be fatigue-some. The important thing here is to take things slowly. And if you feel that cardio’s combination with mass gain is getting tough, make a separate routine for weight gaining exercises.
