Cardio before or after lifting

ninerbuff

whmscll wrote: »

For weight loss it doesn't matter. However, everything I've read about lifting (which I've just started) says that to reap the most benefit from lifting and to maintain proper form you should lift first and do cardio after if you are doing both on the same day.

Well unless you split them the same day. Then it doesn't matter what you do first.
I will do cardio first thing in the morning, then after my morning sessions, I lift.
If it's same SESSION, and you want your lifting to be most efficient, I would then agree with you.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

ninerbuff

cronus70 wrote: »

If your looking to include cardio on lifting days, instead of big blocks of cardio before or after your lifting, why not do some during your routine, it's called cardio acceleration.
A typical example would be after you complete all your reps of a set, instead of sitting and resting before your next set you do some cardio for 30-60 seconds I.e jumping jacks, jump rope, butt kicks, high knees etc etc etc.

Actually that's just a variance of an "old school" ACTIVE RECOVERY method.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

cronus70

ninerbuff wrote: »

cronus70 wrote: »

If your looking to include cardio on lifting days, instead of big blocks of cardio before or after your lifting, why not do some during your routine, it's called cardio acceleration.
A typical example would be after you complete all your reps of a set, instead of sitting and resting before your next set you do some cardio for 30-60 seconds I.e jumping jacks, jump rope, butt kicks, high knees etc etc etc.

Actually that's just a variance of an "old school" ACTIVE RECOVERY method.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Thanks for the info, up until last year I had never done any serious exercise/resistance training in my life and I'm now 45 so it's all new to me, steep learning curves.
What ever it's called, I can't speak highly enough about cardio acceleration

ScreeField

I like to do cardio before lifting (like running or riding my bike to the gym). It seems to help warm up my muscles (and clear my mind) which is nice before lifting. When I take my bike or run, I get a bit more cardio (or a cool down) on my way home--although, if I ran to the gym, I might be walking home depending upon how hard the workout was.

When the weather is nice, I skip the gym and go swimming instead (with a bike ride to and from the pool). Today the weather was nice so I rode, ran, rowed, in that order.

tiggerlove

it depends on the person..some ppl are too tired after cardio to do strength training and vice versa. I would say try both ways and see what works for you..Good luck

piperdown44

Can't tell you what's best for you, only what works for me.
If, that's if, I have time for cardio it's always after lifting. Tried it the other way around and simply did not have the energy to lift after cardio.

cdahl383

I prefer cardio after lifting. I feel stronger lifting first and doing cardio afterwards.

120poundstogo

I switch it up mostly after but sometimes if I have the energy before.

barryplumber

I use to do cardio first then lift but found during my lifting i would get tired easy. I find it better to do 2.5 miles before lifting which lays about an hour then do another 3 - 4 miles after.

Maggieba

I've found I'm less sore the following day if I do a quick 15 min HIIT workout right after my SL5x5 workouts.

Azdak

Just to repeat, as I always do, that doing weights first solely for the purpose of "burning more fat because you're glycogen depleted" is pointless. This is true for two reasons: 1) the actual amount of fat one burns in a workout is fairly trivial anyhow, and the difference between a "fat burning" workout and any other kind is only a fraction of that trivial amount. 2) even if you do burn more fat during a workout, the body regulates itself during the rest of the day, so that there is no difference.

There can be reasons to lift weights first in a workout, but "extra fat burning" isn't one of them.

TnTWalter

i do it both ways but i prefer to lift first because i get so sweaty from the cardio. ;o)

hamptontom

i sure am thankful for you guys, as i find that coming here and reading threads like this are enlightening.

i've been going it alone since i started this process a few months ago, and i've been going to the gym less than a month...and most of the guidance and feedback i've collected during that time has been from here.

i don't know why it never occurred to me to do strength training first before cardio - but i've been doing cardio first for purely circumstantial reasons (the step counter on my phone clicks over to the next calendar day at midnight, and I hit the treadmill first to get my 10K steps in before the counter resets...and THEN moving on to the weight training), but I'm going to go early enough from here on out to flip them around and see if my results change at all.

I've actually been making solid progress with increasing weight across most of the spectrum of stuff I'm doing, but I'm interested now in seeing if there's a change if I flip it around.

Thanks, everybody.