High Intensity Cardio

I had improved my placing from that first show, but I still felt that I needed to be in much better condition to be at my best. I was determined to make the needed improvements and not give up. Then in 1997, I began working with Beverly International. This was truly the turning point in my bodybuilding career. I ended up winning my class at both of the shows in which I competed that year! I’ve continued to have great success working with Beverly International, and was able to win the middleweight open class at this year’s Natural East Coast Classic.

I’ve also had the privilege of writing a couple of articles for previous editions of the No Nonsense Newsletter, and am always happy to share my experiences with others in the hope that it will help them. When Roger asked me to write an article about “High Intensity Cardio”, I told him I’d be happy to do so. I hope you will find the information in this article useful and applicable. The techniques I discuss here have helped me tremendously in getting into contest condition.

Whether you are preparing for your first contest or your 20th, chances are you will incorporate some cardiovascular work into your pre contest training regimen. Although there are always a few competitors who are blessed with metabolisms and genetics that make cardio work unnecessary, for most of us it is an important element in our contest preparations. Without a doubt, cardio can be an invaluable tool when you hit a plateau in your body fat reduction. However, when cardio is overused, it can result in burning muscle tissue, which is something we definitely want to avoid as bodybuilders. After all, this sport is about muscle! I’d like to offer a strategy you can use with cardio to maximize its effectiveness while minimizing the loss of lean muscle tissue.

The first thing to understand is that from a bodybuilding perspective we’re using cardio to burn body fat, plain and simple. And since we’ve already seen that doing too much cardio can burn muscle, it makes sense that the less cardio we do, the better our chances of holding on to our lean muscle tissue.

One technique that is very useful in maximizing cardio is using “High Intensity Cardio”. One nice thing about this technique is that you won’t have to spend near as much time doing cardio work each week, and you can still burn the extra calories you need to. There is a cost, however, and you’ll find that high intensity cardio is much harder than just sitting on a bike and spinning your wheels for 30 minutes while reading a magazine.

The key to this technique is getting your heart rate up to about 75-90% of your maximum heart rate. To determine your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. As an example, a 29-year-old bodybuilder would shoot for somewhere between 143-172 (75-90% of 191) beats per minute for their heart rate when using high intensity cardio. Many of the cardio machines (bike, stepper, etc.) that are common today have a heart rate monitor and these are very handy when doing this type of cardio. You can also buy a heart rate monitor at most sporting good stores.

But, it’s not necessary to always be checking your heart rate. The main thing is to make your cardio goal-oriented hard work, just like your weight training sessions. When you perform a bench press you know how much weight you are going to use – when it gets easy you increase the weight. You have to do the same thing with your cardio sessions. I use calories expended (as measured by the particular piece of cardio equipment that I am using that day.) The idea is to get a higher calorie expenditure in the same amount of time.

You may be saying, “How in the world can I keep my heart rate at 75-90% for 30 minutes?” Well, you don’t. The technique is interval based. Here’s how I do it:

My favorite piece of equipment for utilizing high intensity cardio is the stationary bike, and I’ll explain the technique I use in detail. The bikes at my gym have 12 levels of difficulty, so when I start my cardio session, I start at level 2 and stay there for 1 minute. At this point, I’m getting warmed up and ready for the grueling work ahead. After the first minute, I go up to level 5, which is still pretty easy. I stay at level 5 for a minute. My heart rate at this point will still be pretty low, nowhere close to the 75-90% range. But don’t worry, that will come later. After riding at level 5 for a minute, I go back down to level 2 for a minute. Then I go to level 6 for a minute. Now my heart rate is starting to climb a bit higher. After level 6, I go back down to level 2 once again for another minute, and then it’s up to level 7 for a minute. My heart rate climbs a bit higher as I increase the difficulty. I continue this interval technique until I reach level 9, and I do 3 intervals at level 9. When I get to level 8, my heart rate is getting close to the top of the target range, and at level 9, I’ll be up to 85 - 90% or more.

Remember, I’m only going hard for a minute at a time, and then I get to go back down to an easier level and “rest” for a minute. My heart rate will drop some on the easy minute, but before it goes down too much I’m cranking out another hard level and getting my heart rate back up. After I’ve done three intervals at level 9, I complete the remaining intervals at level 8 for the final portion of the cardio session.

This year I went up to the open middleweight class, retained my conditioning and carried away 1st place honors. If you have trouble getting your quads to “come in”, the high intensity technique I described on the bike can do wonders for you

Here’s the workout in chart form:

Minutes	Level
1	2
2	5
3	2
4	6
5	2
6	7
7	2
8	8
9	2
10	9
11	2

I’ve found that a 20-minute session using this technique works very well. You don’t have to use the bike though; it will also work on the stepper, treadmill, or just about any piece of cardio equipment where you can adjust the difficulty. On the treadmill, I like to adjust the incline when I’m doing the cardio intervals. I usually keep the speed constant. Whichever piece of equipment you use, try to increase your intensity each week. For example, on the bike, I would start out at maybe 1-2 intervals at level 9, but then work to 3-4 intervals at this level as the contest approaches.

My cardio strategy is usually to do about 3 high intensity cardio sessions per week, and about 2-3 medium intensity sessions. Sometimes I’ll throw in 10-15 minutes of medium intensity cardio in the evenings to help keep my metabolism cranking into the night. Just like with your weight training, it’s good to mix things up with cardio and keep a variety. Medium intensity cardio sessions last from 12 – 24 minutes. If your particular equipment has a program feature this is a good time to use it. For example, on a Lifecycle you might do the “Hill Profile” for 12 – 18 – or 24 minutes depending on your weekly caloric expenditure goal. Once again though, the goal is to not be content with the same level week after week. Every week or two raise the intensity level of your moderate sessions as well.

I found that targeted supplementation could also enhance the effect of my cardio work. I rely on Beverly’s GH Factor, Energy Reserve and Lean-Out. At six weeks out or so from a show I also add in EPH 833 from AST. I’ve found that 4 GH factor, 2 Energy Reserve, 4 Lean Out, an EPH-833 and 200mg of caffeine taken on an empty stomach can really produce amazing results. I would take this stack right before leaving my home to go to the gym for my morning cardio work. Following cardio I took 1 more Energy Reserve and 6 Muscularity to make certain that I did not start burning lean muscle for fuel.

One of the most important things you can do is to set a goal for the total calories you will burn per week with cardio. Most of the cardio machines will give you calorie readouts so you can keep track of how many calories you burn during a session. Setting this weekly goal will ensure that you do the right amount of cardio, and you can increase your goal as the contest approaches. Some weeks, you may not need to increase your cardio; it all depends on what kind of progress you are making. Here’s the exact cardio program I used in preparing for the Natural East Coast Classic.

12 weeks out until 8 weeks out: 1500 calories 


7 weeks out: 1650 calories 


6 weeks out: 1815 calories


5 weeks out: 1996.5 calories


4 weeks out until 1 week out: 2197 calories

I’d like to present a research study relating the effects of a HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) cardio program versus a more traditional cardio (TC) program.

One group (TC) performed uninterrupted cycling on a stationary bike for 20 weeks. They started at 30 minutes; 4 days per week and at the end of 20 weeks had increased to 5 days per week at 45 minutes.

• Exercise intensity was 60% MHR at the beginning of the study and by the end it had increased gradually to 85% MHR
• TC performed an average of 90 cardio sessions over the 20-week period
• Over the 20 weeks the TC group lost an average of 5 points on the sum of their skin folds or about 1% bodyfat. The HIIT group performed the following cardio program for 15 weeks (5 weeks less than the TC group)
• Twenty-five 30-minute sessions of Moderate Intensity Cardio (70% MHR)
• Thirty-Five HIIT sessions
• Intensity of HIIT sessions was increased by 5% every three weeks

The HIIT sessions were broken down as follows:

• 19 short interval sessions consisting of an easy 5-minute warm-up at 50%, then 10-15 sets of short interval work (15-30 seconds each followed by a one minute rest)
• 17 longer interval sessions consisting of an easy 5-minute warm-up, then 4-5 sets of 60 – 90 second interval work each followed by the same length rest period. Note: Rest periods are not stop pedaling, but pedaling at an intensity level of 50-60% MHR
• HIIT performed a total of 60 sessions over the fifteen-week period. The HIIT group lost an average of 14 points on the sum of their skin folds or about 3% bodyfat

The caloric expenditure for the (TC) group was actually more than double that of the HIIT group, yet the HIIT group lost nearly triple the amount of fat!

Tremblay, A, et al: Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism 43, No 7:814-818, 1994

In Summary:
Cardio is good for your health! But as practiced by most bodybuilders it is not necessarily best for fat loss or keeping your lean muscle mass. Forty-five minutes to an hour of low intensity cardio often will cause you to lose muscle. Yes, it’s true that during low intensity cardio more fat (not necessarily bodyfat but lipids in the blood and from the muscle as well) is burned as fuel than at higher intensity levels. However, we have found that it’s not just during, but also after cardio that fat may be burned. High intensity cardio seems to be better suited to the competitive bodybuilder than the more popular low intensity method.

Here’s why:
=>> A favorable hormonal environment is created by high intensity cardio including a growth hormone response (Dave always took his GH Factor prior to his cardio sessions to enhance this effect)
=>> High intensity cardio causes the "fat burning" response to last for hours after completion of your cardio session
=>> High intensity cardio takes less time and yields better results