Last Updated on the July 7, 2020

One of my friends who is rather thin has just started building muscles, and his primary aim is to put on weight. He has just a little bit fat on his gut, and that is all.

He asked my help to put together a diet that will support his weight gain aims. I also made him a workout routine that contributes to put on muscles.

However, he was a little bit surprised when I told him that he should also do cardio training. Since he has already read a lot about how to gain weight, he thought that aerobic exercises will interfere with his weight gain purposes.

I told him “You need to do cardio no matter how skinny you are. It has a lot of benefits besides burning calories.”

Here is what Omar think about it.

Cardio for skinny guys benefits

First and foremost cardio workouts improve your cardiovascular system. Your lung and heart will be stronger, and that leads to better weight lifting and stamina. I have seen many huge guys carrying a lot of muscles on themselves, but after breast walking for 10 minutes, they were out of breath. It is not what we want.

Another good thing about cardio is that it increases the metabolism level of the body. This not only helps to maintain the proper body fat level but also has several other benefits on your health and wellness.

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A not so well-known fact is that cardio changes the hormone profile of your body. Cardiovascular training releases hormones that regulate your appetite so that you can pay attention better to your diet. Besides, other hormones are released that make your feel good.

Finally, moderate cardio help to recover from the weight lifting workouts because oxygen-rich blood is pumped to the muscles supporting the rebuilding processes of the muscle fiber.

And these are just some of the fantastic benefits.

But since he is a skinny guy, he does not have to do long cardio workouts and not too frequently since the aim is to build muscle and to keep the body fat level at an optimal range.

So, I recommend him to do short but intensive training about 2-3 times a week besides his skinny guy workout. Doing HIIT for 15-20 minutes will not ruin his weight gain, but he will enjoy all the mentioned benefits.

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