Hot answers tagged cardio
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Your question is in some ways quite broad, but in the narrow sense: yes, long distance slow paced steady-state cardio like marathon running absolutely reduces muscle mass, and has a distinctly diminished return on investment after you've been doing it for a while. That is, if you work yourself up to running X miles every week, staying at X miles each week ...
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At your size (height/weight), if you want a six pack (or more accurately, if you want to see your six pack), then you'll need to gain some muscle. There's plenty of info on this site for doing so, so I won't reinvent the wheel there. 5.5% bf is fantastic, however you have very little muscle which is why you're not seeing any muscle definition.
When talking ...
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So, to the extant that endurance training makes you lose muscle mass, it will likely be noticeable as its happening. If you WANTED to do distance running, it might make sense to combine it with a basic strength workout once or twice a week. That way, as you lose strength, at least you'll be able to see it happening, and track its progress.
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