Want to turbocharge your gains at the gym? It might be time to give your cardio endurance a serious boost
Are you struggling to see gains at the gym despite your efforts? Your lack of cardiovascular endurance might be holding you back more than you think
A lack of cardiovascular endurance can affect muscle building capacity in several ways:
Reduced oxygen delivery: Cardiovascular endurance is closely tied to the efficiency of your cardiovascular system in delivering oxygen to your muscles. During intense workouts, your muscles require more oxygen to function optimally. If your cardiovascular endurance is lacking, your muscles may not receive enough oxygen to support prolonged or intense exercise. This can lead to premature fatigue and limit the intensity and duration of your workouts, thereby hindering muscle building potential.
- Simply put; you give up due to lack of stamina rather than muscular stress.
Decreased workout intensity and duration: Without adequate cardiovascular endurance, you may find it challenging to sustain high-intensity workouts for extended periods. This limitation can result in shorter or less intense workouts, which may not provide sufficient stimulus to promote muscle growth. Consistently failing to challenge your muscles with progressive overload (increasing the demands placed on them over time) can impede muscle building progress.
- Simply put; you do not have the ability to push your body to adapt.
Impaired recovery: Efficient cardiovascular endurance supports better blood flow and nutrient delivery to muscles, aiding in post-workout recovery. Insufficient cardiovascular endurance can result in slower clearance of metabolic byproducts such as lactic acid, leading to increased muscle soreness and longer recovery times between workouts. Inadequate recovery can compromise muscle repair and growth processes, ultimately limiting muscle building capacity.
- Simply put; you are unable to workout consistently enough to see change.
Reduced calorie expenditure: Cardiovascular exercises, particularly those of moderate to high intensity, contribute to overall calorie expenditure. If your cardiovascular endurance is poor, you may struggle to engage in activities that burn significant calories. Since building muscle typically requires consuming a surplus of calories to support growth, a lack of cardiovascular endurance may hinder your ability to maintain an appropriate caloric intake for muscle building.
- Simply put; you won’t be able to build a big enough appetite to support muscle growth.
In summary, a lack of cardiovascular endurance can compromise muscle building capacity by limiting oxygen delivery to muscles, reducing workout intensity and duration, impairing recovery, and hindering calorie expenditure.
To optimize muscle building potential, it’s essential to incorporate cardiovascular training alongside resistance training and ensure a balanced approach to fitness and nutrition. As a recommendation we should be aiming to build a solid foundation of cardiovascular endurance through regular bouts of phase 2 cardio; working at around 60-70% max heart rate for 30 minutes 4/5 times per week.
A sample treadmill interval training cardio workout:
| Time (minute) | Speed (kmph) | Incline (%) |
| 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,17,19,21,23,25,27,29 | 1.5 | 12 |
| 2,4,6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20,22,24,26,28 | 3.5 | 12 |
As you can see, we change the speed every minute in order to increase and decrease the heart rate. 1 minute faster 1 minute slower for 30 minutes of work. Phase 2 cardio is great for increasing the body capacity to supply adequate oxygen to the muscles during strength training without the stress on the central nervous system.
So if you are neglecting your cardiovascular health, maybe it’s time to switch gears.
