Lift first, do cardio second

mike_gee15

cardio burns away at muscle gains...so combining cardio with weight training, on the same day, seems counterproductive..

I hardly ever do cardio and have gone from 16% to 13% body fat over previous four months...

for a beginner program you are better off hitting total body workouts three days a week and cardio on other two days and eating at about 30% deficit..then once you melt off the fat, go for more weights and less calories and eat at abut 25% deficit...

or so my experience shows...

I messed around with cardio and circuit training for so many years and never understood why I did not get bigger until I finally realized all the cardio was costing my muscle gains...

Doesn't necessarily burns away muscle unless you're huffing and puffing, but walking at a slow pace your body looks to fat to burn instead of muscle. I used to do HIIT cardio like three times a week and I'll admit I wasn't eating properly therefore not growing and training efficiently. But to say it melts away muscle gains is completely false as it's hard to even pack on at least 5-9 pounds of solid lean muscle in a year, what you saw was glycogen storage deplete but just gotta eat carbs and you'll puff up again. But I'm not knocking your experience, just saying it doesn't KILL muscle gains.

Not sure where you get your information from ..but excessive cardio will eat into muscle mass and you will lose muscle. Any mass building program involves limited cardio ...

I got a few good friends of mine who are natural bodybuilders man, we do cardio on a cut and don't see any muscle lose. It's more fat and glyco stored around the muscle. Get down to low bf %s and you'll see. But from your diary, you might want to up the carbs a little if you're looking to seriously put mass on your body man, I'm just saying. I've done my own diets, bulked up, cut down, done it all man. But alright, look into research and you'll see. If you're cutting, of course you're gonna look depleted and fat, just doesn't mean you've lost muscle man, alot of people have that misconception of losing muscle mass when in fact muscle hasn't been grown enough to significantly be seen on the body unless sculpted and shredded to low bf %s. I'm just saying man, I know my stuff..

mike_gee15

It really won't matter at the end of the day if you're eating in a caloric deficit

EXACTLY.

eillamarie

The science behind this claim seems legit...but I just can't do proper cardio after I lift. Maybe I'm weird, but I can't run or use the stepper nearly as well after I've lifted. But if I give myself a good 20-30 mins on the stepper or treadmill before lifting it seems to warm me up quite nicely! (true middle-distance athlete here-I need a warm up before I can go all out, but don't expect me to maintain that drive forever!)

mike_gee15

When it comes down to it, it's really whatever works for you. More muscle means more fat loss really. Eat a gram of protein per body weight, couple of good healthy fats and fill the rest up with carbs. Mix up a couple of HIIT cardio sessions with LISS sessions and you'll be good. Don't worry about how much you lose because you can burn 200 calories on the treadmill or just cut out 200 calls in carbs or fats. Just mix it up a bit, you'll be fine.

ixa73

cardio burns away at muscle gains...so combining cardio with weight training, on the same day, seems counterproductive..

I hardly ever do cardio and have gone from 16% to 13% body fat over previous four months...

for a beginner program you are better off hitting total body workouts three days a week and cardio on other two days and eating at about 30% deficit..then once you melt off the fat, go for more weights and less calories and eat at abut 25% deficit...

or so my experience shows...

I messed around with cardio and circuit training for so many years and never understood why I did not get bigger until I finally realized all the cardio was costing my muscle gains...

You are quite right. My work colleague has a degree and a masters in exercise science and he is has trained international athletes as a strength and conditioning coach, as well as having 25+ years of weighlifting experience. He actually said the same to me only a month ago (after i joined the gym and told him the trainers set a cardio/weights circuit every day), stating that numerous research studies have shown that combining weights with cardio diminishes both, that is neither are of a long enough duration or intensity to have as much benefit as doing them separately. high intensity cardio and long duration cardio will burn muscle so if you are aiming to bodybuild this is not the solution for you. Having said this I now lift 3x a week and run, swim and bike ride on the other days, so I do both weights and cardio - I'm also not looking to get big and buff hoping for lean and feminine. Unfortunately my colleague moved on last week and I can't ask him for the research papers which would support this... but I suppose if we really wanted to know we could google scientific journal articles regarding the benefits of circuit training.

Azdak

Unfortunately, this topic tends to be dominated by people with agendas, or by those engaged in the more extreme end of a sport.

For the average person, and certainly when it comes to overall fat loss, it makes no difference--it's purely a matter of personal preference.

This is one of those topics about which it truly can be said: never was so much attention paid to a subject so relatively unimportant.

Azdak

cardio burns away at muscle gains...so combining cardio with weight training, on the same day, seems counterproductive..

I hardly ever do cardio and have gone from 16% to 13% body fat over previous four months...

for a beginner program you are better off hitting total body workouts three days a week and cardio on other two days and eating at about 30% deficit..then once you melt off the fat, go for more weights and less calories and eat at abut 25% deficit...

or so my experience shows...

I messed around with cardio and circuit training for so many years and never understood why I did not get bigger until I finally realized all the cardio was costing my muscle gains...

But is it different for guys? Women are more prone to storing fat so should they do both? I'm asking because I'm new to weights.

someone can correct me if wrong...but it does not matter if you are male or female...cardio will eat away at muscle gains...

i was running like six miles on sunday and doing HIIT on off days and plyo/weight lifting combos and I LOST muscle..four months switched up and almost completely eliminated cardio and have seen strength gains, and body fat reduction...

It depends on your emphasis. It seems to me, you are making the mistake of taking an arbitrary reference point (e.g. maximizing muscle mass) and using that as the standard that everyone should follow.

So what you are saying makes perfect sense for someone with your specific goals, but is mostly irrelevant for anyone else.

The fact that high volumes of endurance cardio can *inhibit* (not stop) muscle gains doesn't mean that cardio is "bad" or that it "burns muscle". It's only a negative if there is a mismatch between one's goals and one's workout plan.

kennethmgreen

Unfortunately, this topic tends to be dominated by people with agendas, or by those engaged in the more extreme end of a sport.

For the average person, and certainly when it comes to overall fat loss, it makes no difference--it's purely a matter of personal preference.

This is one of those topics about which it truly can be said: never was so much attention paid to a subject so relatively unimportant.

^Yes. Thank you again for consistently providing truth and perspective.

Cardio vs. lifting matters when one interferes with another, depending on your goals. That is, if you are going for strength gains (read: not necessarily weight loss), and you are doing heavy cardio before lifting, you can make yourself tired and not see the same gains in strength as you would hitting the weights "fresh." This is why some people recommend little to no cardio on strength training days, then full cardio on lifting days off. And many people focused on lifting will not do cardio at all (and vice versa). Different goals.

taso42

"Exercisers who pumped iron 20 minutes before cycling melted more fat than those who didn't lift or those who waited longer between lifting and doing cardio. So move right from the hand weights to that bike or treadmill."

I read this article on boosting your metabolism. What are your thoughts or experence with the above statement?

sounds dubious

the main reason i would advise lifting first is so that you don't waste glycogen on the cardio and have a crappy lifting session.

AntWrig

"Exercisers who pumped iron 20 minutes before cycling melted more fat than those who didn't lift or those who waited longer between lifting and doing cardio. So move right from the hand weights to that bike or treadmill."

I read this article on boosting your metabolism. What are your thoughts or experence with the above statement?

sounds dubious

the main reason i would advise lifting first is so that you don't waste glycogen on the cardio and have a crappy lifting session.

End of thread.

1Fizzle

"Exercisers who pumped iron 20 minutes before cycling melted more fat than those who didn't lift or those who waited longer between lifting and doing cardio. So move right from the hand weights to that bike or treadmill."

I read this article on boosting your metabolism. What are your thoughts or experence with the above statement?

sounds dubious

the main reason i would advise lifting first is so that you don't waste glycogen on the cardio and have a crappy lifting session.

End of thread.

How does this end the thread?! I have seen nothing concrete one way or the other rather than generic mentions of personal preference. How can muscle gains during one workout session be significant enough to even be voided by cardio or vice versa?!

ndj1979

I was always told that as long as your nourish your body with a recovery drink (cough cough 20g of protein and about 30g of carbs) immediately after lifting, you shouldn't have to worry about muscle breaking down.

Also, cardio after lifting helps remove the lactic acid build up in your muscle cells. If you're really pushing yourself, you should probably do your cardio after lifting and nourish your body with the proper amount of protein and carbs. This is what I have read as well as feel from experience.

well in my experience that is just not accurate. I used to slug down about 60 grams of protein after a work out and I got smaller, not bigger...If you look at any kind of strength building program they recommend limited cardio ...as in no more than 30 minutes a week....

yeah . . . you're only supposed to take 20 g of Protein immediately, cause that's all your body can absorb at once : /

says who?

Kmenczynski88

It seems as if most people don't understand the difference between a "warmup" and actual cardio. A warmup wont really impact your lifting session in terms of strength or anything. Go run 3 miles and then try to lift heavy and see how your strength is lessened.

martinh78

"Exercisers who pumped iron 20 minutes before cycling melted more fat than those who didn't lift or those who waited longer between lifting and doing cardio. So move right from the hand weights to that bike or treadmill."

The only "reference" I can find for this is on CNN or Health.com, none of them actually give a reference to the study that I can see. So it's a magazine article, and a poor one at that.

martinh78

It seems as if most people don't understand the difference between a "warmup" and actual cardio. A warmup wont really impact your lifting session in terms of strength or anything. Go run 3 miles and then try to lift heavy and see how your strength is lessened.

Also seems a lot of people don't know the difference between "killing muscle" and "not increasing muscle mass".

It's possible to maintain and develop musule without having to focus on building muscle mass. It depends on what your goals are.

It is an increasingly boring song in these forums now. There are those who are building muscle mass and those who are wrong. Maybe there needs to be a forum dedicated to bodbuilding, liek bodybuilding.com or something? And maybe this one can concentrate on FITNESS. Just a thought.

714rah714

Lift one day, cardio the next, otherwise I would do a half-*kitten* job with both if they were done on the same day..

nikkiv16

Hmm I can see positives and negative either way...thanks for all your responses!

AntWrig

"Exercisers who pumped iron 20 minutes before cycling melted more fat than those who didn't lift or those who waited longer between lifting and doing cardio. So move right from the hand weights to that bike or treadmill."

I read this article on boosting your metabolism. What are your thoughts or experence with the above statement?

sounds dubious

the main reason i would advise lifting first is so that you don't waste glycogen on the cardio and have a crappy lifting session.

End of thread.

How does this end the thread?! I have seen nothing concrete one way or the other rather than generic mentions of personal preference. How can muscle gains during one workout session be significant enough to even be voided by cardio or vice versa?!

From the standpoint of having ample "energy", better yet glycogen to fuel a workout, it should be a no brainer. That being said it's up to person and their goals. MY goal has always been weights first than cardio. My reasoning is with weight training you get aerobic and anaerobic. With just cardio you're getting aerobic.

Then again, that's just me. Do whatever you want to do.

ashleypeha

I prefer to do a 10 min cardio warm up, then go and do weights because I have more strength and energy - that way I have good form and I can put more effort into it, and then go and do my cardio work out.

pinkraynedropjacki

I do cardio first then weights. What a load of crap the article is. You will find others that state not to do cardio & weights on the same day even.

What a load of codswallop. I've been doing carido & weights at once for all my year long journey.