Building Muscle and Cardio At The Same Time...

One comment made to me by a coach I had years ago was “The slower you go, the bigger and faster you’ll grow” 

He was referencing time under tension when lifting weights. 

In my opinion it’s the thing that’s most often overlooked with group fitness and online programs these days. I feel it’s shifted this way because of the hype around high intensity interval type workouts and our busy lives making us want to get in and get out of the gym as fast as possible.  

So while higher fitness is brought about by doing faster movements with lighter weights bigger muscles will come about when you perform slower movement with more weight and more time under tension. 

If your goal is to build lean muscle, stay injury free and learn new movements the slower approach will work best. 

If your goal is to simply build cardio fitness and not necessarily build muscle then increase the speed of your workouts, do them in a shorter space of time and you will definitely get just that.  

If you want both which I feel is the holy grail of fitness then you need to have a mixture of both. Lift heavy weights slowly some days to build strength and muscle then on the other days move more quickly with lighter weights to build your cardio fitness.