Fitting in cardio with mass building?

[MuscleBound]

I am a 6' 173 pound skinny guy trying to gain mass. I am on a workout schedule already for this but wondering where cardio should come in, how often, how long, and how hard?
Thanks.

[CAchief]

not much at all. Limit it to 30 min sessions if you are for good health. Do a search of the forums on HIIT, that will help also. Good luck.

[MuscleBound]

Isn't HIIT pretty intense though and a huge calorie burner? I am a hard gainer so I do not want to counteract any gains I may be able to achieve, but for health and endurance reasons feel I still need some cardio. I am not sure about this which is why I ask. I really need muscles! I am a upper body twig, lol.
Also you mentioned 30 minute sessions, but how often a week?
Thanks!

[Ogedei]

HIIT is intense, and will burn calories, but due to it's nature they should mostly come from your fat. From what I understand if your heart rate sits at a steady state for to long, you will essentially start tapping your muscle reserves for energry. HIIT prevents this from happening, by incorporating intense periods with rest periods, while keeping calorie expenditure fairly high due to the short intense periods.

I am sure some of the boys here can offer a more technical explanation of how HIIT works.

From what I understand from posts here, although I haven't read the book is that they don't tpyically recommend alot of cardio in Scrawny to Brawny, which would be your goal in the end, to go from scrawny to BRAWNY!

Og.

[eastcoastsurfer]

You need to keep some cardio (HIIT) in even when mass building to stay healthy. The main thing when mass building is eating enough. I don't think doing HIIT a few times per week is going to hinder you much as long as your packing the food away.

[Jimbo]

HIIT/Sprinting recruits and stimulates the right types of muscle fibers to provide for optimal muscle growth. Whereas long distance running only recruits slow twitch fibers which have less potential for growth. This is one of the topics discussed at the retreat this past weekedn at JP's in Little Rock. Refer to the thread "Knowledge gained form retreat"

If you want to do some cardio it needs to be some type of HIIT if you are concerned about adding muscle mass.

However, most "hard core" body builders avoid cardio all together. So I guess it depends on who you ask..Personally, I feel that the benefits I gain from doing some type of cardio is worth it. I have, however, decided to do only intensive cardio that also challenges the muscles...HIIT/sprints. Long jogs/walks/runs are not on my program.