Does too much cardio impact muscle growth???

[csheldo1]

I’m 25 years old, 6’1” and 180lbs. I've been working out steadily for the past 7 years, with the exception to a couple months here and there where I lost motivation ;-)
I’ve always worked towards building muscle while keeping the fat off. However, in the past 3 years (literally) I haven’t seen much of a gain in muscle size. I have gained a decent amount of strength, but have not really noticed any actual physical growth. I lift 4-5 times per week (sometimes 6). I also do cardio (running, elliptical, rowing, etc.) 4-5 times per week for a minimum of 30min. I usually try to do 40-45min of cardio on a given day. Is this too much? Is the amount of cardio I’m doing negatively impacting potential muscle growth? PLEASE HELP!

 

[buzz]

when do you do your cardio,if its at the time you do your weights,i would say thats not a good idea,if you do cardio AM weights PM or the other way around,as long as you are pre fueled and your diet is good it shouldnt be a problem.but 45mins cardio 5 days and weights seems a little to much,30mins would be better IMO,what cardio do you do.

 

[[Focus]]

To effect muscle hypertrophy, you need to be in a caloric surplus. So, yes, too much cardio can be a problem, depending on your overall metabolic equation.

If you haven't gained any appreciable muscle in 3 years, and your weight has otherwise stayed the same, you clearly are not eating enough to cover the extra energy spent on doing your large volume of aerobic activity. Thus, in your case, it is most certainly a problem. I recommend you either eat 500-1000 more calories a day, or stop doing the cardio. I would go with eat more, personally, as the cardio has health benefits and such, and makes you feel good, and blah blah blah.

Don't jump it up really quick, though. Try adding 200-300 calories a week until you find a caloric intake at which you are gaining 0.5-1lbs per week. Then just stay there until you're as big as you want, or as fat as you can stand.

 

[Karky]

I agree with the two others. the only time cardio becomes a problem while trying to gain muscle mass is if you can't eat enough to cover for the calories burned by the cardio.

eat more until you are gaining weight each week, not too much though, as you don't want to get fat (I persume) maybe 0.5-1 lbs a week at first and take it from there. But don't read too much into weight gain per week recommendations.

 

[[Focus]]

But don't read too much into weight gain per week recommendations.

This is a good point. Remember, we're talking ideals, and only in the general sense (averages are not very accurate case-by-case). Imo, it is of course better to eat more and gain "too much fat" than to make no progress.

 

[csheldo1]

Thank you for your feedback. It will be tough to eat more now that I've been in that routine for so long, but I guess if I want to see results from all the effort I put in....something has to change.