Cardio before or after?

EllaLeahB

Any insight on whether cardio is best to do before or after lifting weights?
Thanks in advance

berrios96sean

It really just depends on you and what feels right for you. When I was younger I liked doing cardio beforehand because I could warm my muscles up before a workout. Now I do cardio afterwards because I feel like when I lift first I can do heavier weight. Honestly everyone will go back and forth on this so just do what makes you feel gives you the best workout in the gym.

EllaLeahB

Thank you.

natasor1

It depends what's your goal. If u want to concentrate on lifting, muscles building, then do your cardio after weight. Running requires much less concetration. It's more on autopilot.

BhangraPrince

Normally I will lift first then cardio however today I did a 30minute treadmill run first then did squats and it felt light and easy. Can't really explain it .

nomorepuke

I like to do it before lifting but my boyfriend argues I should do it afterwards. I think it's another controversy, people argue back n forth.

Ready2Rock206

For me, after. If I'm tired from cardio I'm not going to do well in the weight room. Like others have said it probably depends where your focus is. Whichever is more important to you do that first when you're fresh and focused.

AnvilHead

EllaLeahB wrote: »

Any insight on whether cardio is best to do before or after lifting weights?
Thanks in advance

"Best" for what?

For weight loss? It doesn't matter one bit. You're burning the calories either way.

For training performance, it might matter. What is your main focus, improving your cardio or weight training? How intense is your cardio? If weight training is your main focus, does cardio interfere with your weight training if you do it first? How intense is your weight training program? If cardio is your main focus, does weight training first interfere with your cardio sessions?

Prioritize it for your workout goals and what works best for you. For me, weight training is my main priority and if I do cardio first it takes away from the energy I can dedicate to the weights. I'd rather get my lifting done first and do cardio afterward.

MeanderingMammal

EllaLeahB wrote: »

Any insight on whether cardio is best to do before or after lifting weights?
Thanks in advance

With any of this, as well as understanding your own goals you need to think about the context of any advice you're getting.

With this there is no right answer there is only right for you.

Personally my focus is running performance, so I prioritise that. My resistance training is largely plyometrics, not significantly heavy.

For me, I'll warm up by running 2 miles or so on the treadmill before doing resistance training if I've driven to the gym. If I'm running I'll do a 6 mile run to the gym and then home again.

For me, 2 miles is a warm up, for someone else that may be their CV workout.

Unknown

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BobbyLively1961

I do 30 min of cardio then weights and then finish up with 30 minutes more of cardio

giovanna8830

1Lifting weights... 2cardio

sfa90

I usually do 10 min cardio as warm-up, then weights, and after 30-40 min cardio.

Cherimoose

Lifting weights takes a lot of energy to do safely and with the proper effort level. That's a solid argument for doing it first. If you're training for a particular cardio goal, like a half marathon, for example, consider doing it in a separate session.

Commander_Keen

A few years ago, there were studies on when to do cardio.
i think it they said to do cardio after wl but i don't remember why
you may want to look at menshealth.com for some answers

ajwcyclist2016

Cycling is my main goal when I go to the gym for strength I will do a 5 mins warm up then 1 hour strength. I don't do after but my guess is do after acts as recovery session so a zone 1 easy to promote good recovery by flushing the body of toxins. I certainly wouldn't want to do 1 hour weights, then do 90 mins plus of hard intervals after

EllaLeahB

Thank you for all of your input, it's much appreciated.

bbell1985

After. I'm not gonna do cardio then go squat over 200lbs. Then again, I don't do cardio.

tarothelp

Before to warm up. Or you could split your cardio session in half a bit before and a bit after

carmatiz

I do both actually

fattothinmum

I can lift heavier after a run. No idea why, but perhaps it's being warmed up.

fizzie5

I always kick off with 5 minutes rowing then on to the weights. I do two days only at the gym as doing more I just add bulk that I don't need. So my cardio is three other days on the bike which I can work a good sweat up and it's paid dividends on the weight front as people are commenting that Ive lost loads! When in reality Ive lost "loads" of fat that's been the mission

EllaLeahB

I am trying to work on both building strength/muscle and stamina on the treadmill. (I would love to be able to run 5 miles). I definitely want to decrease my body fat%. I was measured a few weeks ago when I joined the gym and I was right under 30%.
Because I am recovering from surgeries, I'm limited right now to lifting 10 pounds, but allowed to increase my weights as I go along as long as I don't push myself too hard and increase slowly. I will definitely be increasing soon because 10 pounds feels like nothing! I've been more focused on the treadmill because I'm not allowed to lift too much right now. I'm not quite sure how much strength or muscle I can build with such lightweights.??
I have about 10-15 lbs to lose.
The weight that I have put on is from recovering from surgeries and also I quit smoking. As for the body fat, I have no clue where I was body fat wise before I put on the extra pounds. Either way, I'm here to improve my overall health. Thanks to all of you who've taking the time to respond to me, I'm learning quite a bit from you guys. My apologies if I sound clueless, this is all new to me

stanmann571

10ish before and 20ish after. Just enough to get the blood flowing and then long enough to cool down.

BlueHorse8

When I do cardio it's before I eat anything. When I lift I need to eat or have a protein shake about an hour before. If I still have energy after lifting I will usually do 20 mins of cardio after.

CrabbyCancerMama

I lift first then run 3-4 miles. just what I prefer no specific reason

davidtcharron

The correct answer is whatever you enjoy doing.

Orphia

You don't have to do both on the same day.

Quite a few runners, for example, run and lift on different/alternate days.

ozgurvh

Cardio reduces your glycogen rapidly so you can do short cardio for warm up than lifting than cardio

MeanderingMammal

ozgurvh wrote: »

Cardio reduces your glycogen rapidly....

This is where you get into context and priorities. If you're warming up for 90 minutes or so then that'll have enough of an effect on your glycogen levels to matter.

Azdak

ozgurvh wrote: »

Cardio reduces your glycogen rapidly so you can do short cardio for warm up than lifting than cardio

Differs w/the individual, but most people have more than enough glycogen to do cardio and weights in the same workout.

The average exerciser substantially overestimates how hard they actually work when they exercise.