Cardio vs Muscle: Will Running Kill Your Gains?

Will cardio decrease muscle mass? Should you do cardio before or after lifting? Does eating protein or carbs right after training promote muscle gain?This question comes up almost every single week — and the anxiety behind it is real. Women who are running and lifting, worried the miles are eating into the muscle they've worked so hard to build.The short answer is no. You don't have to choose. But the place where most women are getting it wrong isn't the training. It's the food. And specifically — the fear of eating enough to actually support both.In this episode Poppy breaks down why undereating is the real reason most women aren't building the muscle they want, what body recomposition actually requires versus what the fitness industry tells you, why your body cannot build something from nothing when it's in survival mode, and what the research actually says about cardio and muscle - including the interference effect and when it actually matters.Including the phone battery analogy for post-session glycogen that will change how you think about every session after a run, why the women who get the physique results they want are almost always the ones who had to eat more not less, and the one question to sit with this week that matters more than any session structure.📩 Comment HYBRID on Poppy's latest Instagram post for the full hybrid training and fuelling guide. DM @poppy.nfc with questions.