Why do cardio AFTER lifting?

[rob440]

OK, that makes sense. Thank you.



Light cardio to me is 30 minutes on the elliptical burning 600 calories. Heavy cardio to me is 3 hours on the elliptical burning 3500 calories or riding my bike 70 miles in one day. I lost 160 pounds doing the 3 hours of elliptical every night for 9 months. It worked. But it also burned off just about every bit of muscle I had before that. I started lifting after I got down to about 150 pounds. I now weigh 190. I have gotten fat again, and I promised myself that I wouldn't do that.

3 hours a night? Holy sh$%! I have to give you credit, whether or not that was the ideal method or not it took some kind of determination to accomplish that.That was a serious demonstration of will.

I think that your diet will be the determining factor in your body fat battle. I also think stimulating your muscles to grow a bit would help you in the long run. Cardio is a tool and used correctly it yields results as I am sure you know. Get your diet down to a science and hit the cardio after your weight training for a sensible amount of time and I am sure you will do fine.

[idk_bulletz]

I read if ur body building Carido and Lifting in the same day takes away from the muscle building recover process :/

[kdogg3270]

Doing cardio for fat loss requires you to burn off muscle glycogen BEFORE dipping into fat stores
Why not do this with the lifting FIRST
that way you have less glycogen to burn off and the first 20 minutes of your cardio aren't wasted buring just muscle sugar

plus, you lift better when your muscles are full of glycogen

IE.. 5 mins of "warmup cardio" is a good idea, especially if it's a heavy leg day
then lift, then finish up with the real 'effort cardio'

Just MHO

This is my routine in the gym. Especially on leg day. for me the 5 minute warm up gets my body ready for heavy lifting. I am one of those that gets that hip discomfort when squatting. But once i made the pre-workout warm up a priority, it never bothered me again.. I don't know about everybody else, but i lift MUCH better when i got a light sweat going.

i want to add that, in a general sense, i always do my regular cardio (usually HIIT) after lifting.

[The Gootz]

I do my cardio before I lift to get my blood pumping and just loosened up. I found that when I didn't do a warm up with cardio, I was injuring myself more often (pinching nerves to be specific). I have some old injuries from snowboarding which get more exacerbated when I just start lifting "cold". Gotta do what works for you OP.

[mr2gts]

when doing cardio for 20 minutes or more before any lifting...i've found out that it strips a lot of energy out of me...and i feel weaker when i lift...i've found out that the best result is just to do a quick 5 minute cardio just to get my body warmed up before lifting...then after lifting i'll go ahead and finish up the remaining 15 minutes of cardio.

[joenj07087]

I do cardio on non lifting days....how you guys manage to do both in the same work out?...my goodness! that takes a heck of a lot of energy, doesn't it?

[NeedPerfection]

I have what I hope is a simple question. I have heard and read that it is best to do your cardio after you lift vs. before. Can someone tell me why this is? I have not yet heard why it is better to do it after.

Thanks.

I've been wondering the same thing too. I always ran before I lifted, since I'm a runner and want to put most of my energy in it versus lifting. But I keep on hearing that I should run after I lift.

[M.Tupper]

I've been wondering the same thing too. I always ran before I lifted, since I'm a runner and want to put most of my energy in it versus lifting. But I keep on hearing that I should run after I lift.

Unless you're a competitive runner training for an event, always lift first then run. Resistance training should be the priority. Save all your energy for the weights if you choose to lift and do cardio in the same session.

Either split your session up morning (cardio) and afternoon'/evening (weights) or do cardio completely on a separate day.

Why deplete all your energy reserves doing cardio first before you lift. Makes no sense regardless if you consider yourself a runner.

[AKMass]

I lift to get stronger and gain muscle. Doing so requires energy. The amount of energy I have for a workout is not infinite, therefore I prioritize how that energy is to be spent.

Expending my energy before I hit the weights will impede my ability to get stronger and gain muscle, therefore I do not do that. Once I've worked on my primary goal, any energy I have left can be used for cardio if I think I want or need it.

What do you want to do, get stronger and have more muscle, or trim down everything including your muscle? Do whatever you think is priority, but in my opinion lifting before cardio is ideal if your going to do both. Another option is to split the workout into two sessions; cardio in the am and lifting pm for instance.

Noob lifters can violate this axiom and can gain strength and muscle doing cardio before lifting for awhile, but they will plateau eventually.

[oldsuperman]

Doing cardio for fat loss requires you to burn off muscle glycogen BEFORE dipping into fat stores
Why not do this with the lifting FIRST
that way you have less glycogen to burn off and the first 20 minutes of your cardio aren't wasted buring just muscle sugar

plus, you lift better when your muscles are full of glycogen

IE.. 5 mins of "warmup cardio" is a good idea, especially if it's a heavy leg day
then lift, then finish up with the real 'effort cardio'

Just MHO

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How it works and why.
_________________________________________________
There are 3 optimum times to do cardio and 2 basic reasons when you're bbing to do cardio.

Reasons to do cardio:

1: Fat burn

2: Cardiovascular to improve your heart rate/strength thereby given you better endurance to lift with better endurance and recovery.

Best time to do cardio. 30 to 60 mins depending on your goals.

1: Right after you rise outa be in the AM on an empty tummy.

2: Right after weight training on an empty tummy.

3: Bed time on an empty tummy.

One of the biggest reasons peeps waste their time doing cardio is because they do it at the wrong time, to short or too long of time, too much food in their belly and tooooo high heart rate. Just because you're burning calories when doing cardio doesn't mean you're burning FAT!! To have the optimum fat burn if your over 35 to 40 should be somewhere between 110 to 120 BPM. If your HR is too high, you most likely will stop burning fat, as your body goes into a protective state, and will store fat burn mass to protect it self from the over stress you're putting it through.

[orvieto]

I have what I hope is a simple question. I have heard and read that it is best to do your cardio after you lift vs. before. Can someone tell me why this is? I have not yet heard why it is better to do it after.

Thanks.

I save the cardio for after. This way I can maximize my lifting session. Every bit of energy you use toward cardio prior to lifting cannot be applied to muscle growth. As far as warm up not a bad idea, i have tried that I prefer to do low weight reps to force blood into the muscles I want to work prior to lifting. Personal preference I think.