Weights before or after cardio?

[AppleBag]

Hello all,

New to this forum. I know the ideal plan is to do weights and cardio on separate days, but sometimes due to alot of variables, I have to try and squeeze my weight lifting day into the same day as my 30 mins on the treadmill.

To complicate the question slightly, I also always try to have my PWO shake (2 scoops of 22g whey protein, 10g creatine + ~60g dextrose) within an hour of lifting weights, for the insulin spike, etc.

My goal is to look more like a ripped underwear model that is also fairly big, rather than just being a huge guy.

So which is the correct way to do it? Should I do my hour of intense weights with PWO shake before the treadmill? Or should I do the treadmill first to burn off fat on my empty stomach, rest a bit and then do my hour of weights and take the shake when it seems the calories would be most beneficial in repairing and growth?

It feels a little weird to me to hit the weights hard, skip the shake and sweat on a treadmill and then take the shake. I almost feel like I'm burning away all teh muscle I just did the weights for, and I'm missing that "zone" the shake needs to be drank in for maximum benefits.

Huge thanks in advance for any advice.

[sbrown_c4l]

I always do it after because I feel if I do it before I dont have the energy to get my lifts up

[buckest]

Do your full cardio workout after you are done lifting weights. You will want all the energy you have to lift, then just push and do the cardio after. Before you do your workout, you should warmup with 5-10 mins of light cardio and stretching, this will increase your heart rate and body temp, so that you are warm for the workout, and reduce the risk of injury.

[leakyshakercup]

You've got about a 30 minute window of opportunity with the PWO shake. Do not postpone it!

[AppleBag]

So if I do weights first, should I drink the PWO shake before I get on the treadmill?

The shake has about 450 calories in it. Would I still be burning my fat stores since I'm in the process of burning the calories in my stomach from the shake?

And is it a good thing to exercise while I'm digesting and my body is using the nutrients to repair what I just did to my muscles in the weight workout?

[AppleBag]

bump =)

[Rachel_n_SD]

ideally, you should do them on different days, for the sake of intensity as well as postWO nutrition.

if you do it first, not only are you wasting your time with cardio because all you burned was stored glycogen, but then you hit the floor with no energy to lift. do cardio after, use your stored sugars to lift. then, when you start cardio, you may dip into your fat stores more readily b/c you burned through the stored sugars already.

that leaves no room though, for post workout meal, so ideally, different days is best.

[Ski]

Train,cardio,shake....... in that order.

Don`t worry about timing, as long as you`re only doing 30 minutes of cardio,you aren`t going to melt away muscle size.....trust me on this.

You have a much longer window of opportunity than 30 minutes to eat PW.

[AppleBag]

Thanks for the replies all.

I will take everyone's advice and do Weights>Cardio>Shake.