Cardio before or after weight lifting?

GoingSaiyan

So ive been working out with a bud of mine for about a month and our thing has kinda been "stretch, interval training on treadmill for 30-45 min, weightlifting."

I feel maybe the cardio workout is dampening my lift? Anybody have insight?

ChrissalmonPT

I tend to do my cardio in the morning and weights in the afternoon after I have fuled my body in preparation. If I do them at the same time I opt for light cardio before weights as a warm up, especially on leg day as my legs would not take any treadmill work afterwards lol

musicfan68

I do it before and after. I do 15 minutes on a Nu Step machine - it's basically a recumbent stair stepper, then do my weights, then walk for about 15-20 minutes.

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

I've always been told cardio AFTER weightlifting so your lifting doesn't suffer, but I'm curious to see what others say.

BrianSharpe

If you're doing them one after the other weights first if you're doing it in 2 separate sessions with time / meals in between the order is less important (in a nutshell you don't want to be depleting glycogen before doing your weights)

cwolfman13

Usually when I train cardio and resistance on the same day I will do one in the AM and one in the PM...and even then, I'm usually looking at my rides on those days as more of a perfunctory thing to get some miles in...i.e. I don't do hill climbs for example on a lifting day...or a tempo ride on a lifting day...I'm just trying to get in the mileage and they're pretty light days as intensity goes...even though I have a break, I'm still looking at my lifts on lifting days as my primary emphasis.

If I were going to do them in succession, I'd lift first...again, my primary focus on lifting days is lifting. Often on Saturdays I take a nice little spin to the gym to lift and then a nice little spin home...it's done at a relatively easy pace and it's about 5 miles each way which makes for a good warm up and cool down, but definitely not a training ride.

bathmatt12345

It depends what you want to do, cardio right after weights will reduce your size and power gains, cardio before will also do this. Cardio after weight will optimize your weight loss, but it is a minor effect. From what I hear, cardio before weights will improve your heart efficiency.

I tend to lift and do cardio on different day or really different times.

SonyaCele

cardio after, or never.

Yi5hedr3

Yep, if doing cardio it should ALWAYS be done AFTER lifting. You'll always burn glycogen first, which is what you need for lifting. By the time you finish lifting and have burned off the sugar, you can do cardio to burn off fat. To do otherwise would be counter productive.

maasha81

I do a brief warm up, lifts and then cardio if I am doing both on the same day.

Hornsby

Depends on your goals.

rileysowner

Generally I found doing cardio before weight lifting negatively affected my lifting, while doing it the other way did not negatively affect my cardio.

DopeItUp

Neither.

cgvet37

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage wrote: »

I've always been told cardio AFTER weightlifting so your lifting doesn't suffer, but I'm curious to see what others say.

Lifting uses up your glycogen stores.

GoingSaiyan

So I went with what most of you said and physically I feel like I'm able to get in a better workout if I lift before my cardio. Not a definitive answer because I'm sure it depends on who you are but I see the lift before cardio working better for me. Thank you all for your help!

mjwarbeck

Cardio after....after 30-35 minutes on the bike, I am soaked in sweat and drained....not the time to start with weights

rankinsect

I'd say do the one you personally care about most first, and then do the one you don't care quite as much about.

I do strength then cardio - heart health is important to me but strength training aids with muscle preservation, and my heart health is already pretty good.

Willbenchforcupcakes

Prioritize first what's most important. For me, that's lifting, with cardio a very distant second. So lifting comes first, and cardio, when programmed is almost always the very last thing with only extra mobility work ever being programmed after.

yesimpson

I'd have to do lifting first because I don't like that type of training, so I'd save cardio for a 'treat' after. Yes that is a sad notion of a treat.

Seriously though I'd have to do lifting first because I think my technique would suffer if I was a little bit tired from cardio.

Packerjohn

Hornsby wrote: »

Depends on your goals.

This.

I would suggest though, that if you are working out for general fitness, and doing both in 1 session, I would do the weights first. Lifting is going to be a bit more technical than most cardio so I would want to be fresher to help avoid sloppy form due to fatigue.

LKArgh

In my personal experience, an intense cardio session means that strength training afterwards is going to be a half hearted attempt. I do however manage to have a strength workout first and then do some decent cardio. Maybe not "perfect" but still decent.

sijomial

Depends on your goals, depends on the intensity of both the cardio and the weights.

For the majority of people it's just personal preference.

lavrn03

sijomial wrote: »

Depends on your goals, depends on the intensity of both the cardio and the weights.

For the majority of people it's just personal preference.

I've tried both ways and I actually need the energy boost from my 20 min cardio session to do my best with lifting. I periodically try to do weights first and feel the lack of energy. My friends tell me I'm doing it wrong but I feel like my body likes it this way. I get a good mod intense interval cardio session in and still do a good heavy sets lifting session too. The only difference is how I feel while doing it.

SezxyStef

sijomial wrote: »

Depends on your goals, depends on the intensity of both the cardio and the weights.

For the majority of people it's just personal preference.

Yup this.

When my goal was getting as much weight on the bar and lifting it I did that first.

Now that I have been lifting for almost 3 years and my goal is to maintain what I have I do what I want to first.

Except on DL day...I do those first always...and sometimes my squats first depends no how I am feeling.

cor306

Just my logic but, weights first...you don't want to be drained trying to lift something that could hurt you. Cardio second...Once the sugar is gone from your muscles then your body will look to fat for the energy. Time of day and what you eat makes a difference in your performance as well.

nossmf

If I do cardio first, I guarantee I'm still going to lift.

If I do lifting first, I pretty much guarantee I will NOT do cardio.

So if I want to get cardio in, I have to do it first. But then, I don't do cardio to exhaustion, just an easy jog of a mile or a couple km on the rowing machine, just enough to warm up muscles, get the heart moving a little bit, start to breathe a little harder. Aka warm up for lifting.

megzchica23

A personal trainer told me to do a small warm up of like 5-10 min on treadmill just normal pace. Then weights and then regular cardio. But idk...I went to the gym like 3 times. I just do like work out videos and stuff now because it is easier and on those it kind of mixes it up. Like some cardio, some weights, more cardio, more weights, more cardio.