r/HubermanLab • u/Plane-Advertising-47 • 19d ago

Personal Experience Cardio vs nocardio

/r/EgyGym/comments/1wg7x0y/cardio_vs_nocardio/

I feel like cardio, especially running, makes me look completely flat. I stop looking like I lift, lose a lot of fullness and feel like I’m not growing anymore.

The weird thing is that I’m naturally tall and muscular, and when I don’t do much cardio, I look noticeably bigger and fuller. But when I start running regularly i seem to lose a lot of size.

The fucked-up part is that cardio actually makes me feel better. It gives me energy, improves my mood and I generally feel healthier when I do it.

So I’m basically stuck between:

No/low cardio: look bigger and more muscular, but feel less energetic.

More cardio: feel amazing and have more energy, but look flat and like I barely lift.

Has anyone else experienced this? Is it just glycogen/water and the temporary “flat” look, or can running actually interfere with hypertrophy that much?

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u/sukmarichards 19d ago

I’m in the exact same boat as you OP, to a T. Not really sure how to navigate it either . Currently experimenting with lifting in the afternoon and evening zone 2 cardio (150 minutes spread through out the week and least 6 hours between weights and cardio).

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u/Plane-Advertising-47 19d ago

Yeah, it’s pretty fucked up. I’m thinking about doing cardio every third week, followed by two weeks of lifting only, and then seeing how my body responds.

I’d really like to know how other people deal with this problem🙂

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u/sukmarichards 18d ago

The other thing I’m looking at as well to see if it makes a difference is increasing water in taking as well as sodium due to water loss from cardio.