Cardio pumps you up better

Flex, July, 2009 by Jim Stoppani

We know you dread jumping on the treadmill and going through the motions for 30 minutes just to keep lean. Would it help your enthusiasm about cardio if we told you that it can boost your nitric oxide levels, thus encouraging muscle growth? We bet so--and we're not just talking about NO levels in the legs. Researchers from Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) reported that subjects who endurance trained by running had forearm blood flow of 950 milliliters per minute; those who did not train only had a blood flow of 550 ml per minute. So, even though they only trained their legs, it still enhanced blood flow in the upper-body muscles. The take-home message for you is that doing cardio is not only important for fat burning, but it can help to keep blood flow to all of the body's muscles optimal by enhancing NO.

Reference: J.R. Libonati, "Aerobic run training improves brachial artery flow-mediated dilation," Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(4): 1291-95.2007.

--Jim Stoppani, PhD