What we all know about cardio is that it is a type of exercise that helps burn calories leading to weight loss. That is why most people who are trying to gain weight wonder if it will be right for them to do cardio. Although this fact is generally true, there are other benefits of cardio that makes it a very important part of a healthy life. You should do some cardio while gaining weight for three important reasons.

Cardio helps in recovery

Weight and strength training are exercises that produce large amounts of by products which make recovery take longer time. The longer you train, the more byproducts the body produced naturally. On the other hand cardio helps reduce recovery time. That is why those training for weight should do cardio to reduce the recovery time between training days. Cardio leads to an increase in circulation helping to remove byproducts that create problems during recovery.

Muscle gain is leaner with cardio

There is no doubt that when people gain muscle, they necessarily gain some fat in addition. It is only a very few people who are exempt from this. Naturally, a third of the muscles people gain is made of fat. By following a well planned nutritional plan and doing cardio, the amount of fat that accompanies muscle gain can be reduced appreciably. This helps a lot when it comes to putting the muscles in shape. Losing fat leads to leaner muscles which are more sustainable than fatty ones. Cardio is what makes this possible.

Cardio ensure general fitness

It is possible to gain muscle and still remain unfit, and there is nothing worse than that. There are some well built people who are constantly gasping for breath when they do simple physical activities such as climbing the stairs. This is because they forget that the heart is also a muscle that needs to be trained to be healthy too. Cardio simply means cardiovascular exercise which has the primary aim of keeping the heart healthy and in good condition. A well built body without a healthy heart cannot survive.

Finally, the issue with cardio and weight gain is how intensely it is done. Doing high intensity cardio over very long periods will lead to depletion of calories needed for building muscles. What is recommended is about 20 to 30 minutes of cardio two times a week. That should help keep the whole body fit. There should be a good balance between weight training and cardio.