Cardio: Before or After Lifting?

[CSimmsSU]

What do you guys think? Is it better to do cardio before or after you lift? Does it make a difference for what you are doing cardio for? Personally I am doing cardio to keep my bf% low and to just stay in overall good fitness/cardio shape. I had been doing cardio before lifting, but then heard it is better to do it after because of something about what you are using for energy, and after lifting, once you start cardio your body is already using the fat cells to burn for energy rather than glycogen or something which it is using when you first start a workout. Can anyone explain this or why it is better to do cardio before or after lifting?

[AMG]

Originally posted by CSimmsSU
What do you guys think? Is it better to do cardio before or after you lift? Does it make a difference for what you are doing cardio for? Personally I am doing cardio to keep my bf% low and to just stay in overall good fitness/cardio shape. I had been doing cardio before lifting, but then heard it is better to do it after because of something about what you are using for energy, and after lifting, once you start cardio your body is already using the fat cells to burn for energy rather than glycogen or something which it is using when you first start a workout. Can anyone explain this or why it is better to do cardio before or after lifting?

Do it after lifting. This way you save your core energy for the weights. If you do too much cardio before lifting your weight training could suffer.

Hope this helps.

[Sychokid]

I don't do cardio before or after working out. This way I will still have enough energy to workout and it will prevent muscle loss since you won't go straight from your lifting to cardio. I also take a protein shake before cardio too (15-25 minutes before).

[bigdun]

Do your cardio before your workout. It gets your body warmed and ready. Stick to 8-10 minutes just to get your heart rate up and just starting to get a sweat going.

[BRIT_BEEF]

I would recommend doing it at a different time to your weight training otherwise you can compromise your performance.
I do mine on my non-weight training days in my split.

[Zen_Lifter]

do cardio afer lifting.....weight training will deplete your glycogen stores....and then you can burn some fat on the treadmill and then hit your protein shake.

[Zen_Lifter]

when donig cardio and weightraining in the same session...still try to keep total workout time to an hour tops.