Will doing aerobics after strength training cause muscle loss?

It’s not inevitable that you will lose it. As long as you don’t step into the core minefields of intensity, duration, and diet, it can actually help you control body fat and speed up recovery after training.

When I first entered the gym two years ago, many of the big guys who trained around me waved their hands when they mentioned strength and did aerobics, saying that the muscles they had worked so hard to train were "brushed" away. I had a friend who was preparing for competitions before who was even more extreme. He was afraid of standing for more than two minutes after training, until he later coached I adjusted the plan for him. After each heavy strength training, he would do 15 minutes of low-intensity elliptical training without any resistance. He just swayed slowly. After a month of training, he lost 1.2 points of body fat, and his arm and leg circumferences remained half a millimeter. The number of times he was so sore after training that he couldn't go downstairs was much less common.

Of course, this does not mean that there is no risk at all. After all, many people have lost muscle after doing aerobics after trying strength. Most of them have stepped on a trap - for example, after just lifting heavy weights for an hour and a half, the muscles are already in a state of energy deficit, and they turn around and go for 40. Minute interval running and high-intensity aerobics will naturally increase catabolism. If you don't leave room for energy supply to the muscles, it's like you have just driven hundreds of kilometers on the highway and drained the fuel tank. You still have to step on the accelerator and race. It's weird that you don't use "reserve fuel".

Many sports physiology studies have now verified that as long as the post-strength aerobic duration is controlled within 30 minutes and the intensity is maintained at 60% to 70% of the maximum heart rate, you can almost breathe without breathing too much and can chat with the people next to you. The impact on muscle protein synthesis is almost negligible. On the contrary, because aerobic accelerates blood circulation throughout the body, nutrients can be delivered to the muscle groups after training faster, and it can also help eliminate accumulated lactic acid, and the delayed onset soreness on the next day will be much lighter.

If you are a newbie, have little muscle mass, skimp on your daily diet, have a large calorie gap, and can’t even eat 1g of protein per kilogram of body weight every day, then even if you don’t do aerobics, your muscles will probably fall off. There is really no need to put all the blame on the ten minutes of aerobics after strength training. If you have been training for more than one or two years, eat enough protein daily at 1.6 to 2g per kilogram of body weight, and do not have an extreme calorie deficit, walking on an incline for 20 minutes after training will have no impact at all. For most of the past six months, I have walked for 15 minutes on the day after shoulder training, with the incline set at 3 speeds and 4, and occasionally I can watch two videos of fitness bloggers. My body fat has always been stable at around 15, and my deadlift has increased by 5kg, and I have not lost any muscle at all.

To put it bluntly, you don’t need to treat aerobic after strength as a scourge. You don’t have to be scared to touch it after hearing other people say it will lose muscles. Don’t rush to run for half an hour as soon as your brain is hot. Find the intensity and duration that suits you, keep up with your diet, and you won’t lose no matter what.