Cardio or lifting first?

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2

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  • rduhlir
    rduhlir Posts: 3,550 Member
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    I don't do my cardio and lifting on the same day. At least not yet. When I get to my second stage then I start doing HIIT after my lifting. But...from everything I have seen and read, do what works for you. Some people will say before, some will say after. This is another one of those....


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  • carrieous
    carrieous Posts: 1,024 Member
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    i do cardio first since you need to warm up before lifting anyway. Plus i look more impressive lifting when i am all dripping in sweat:)
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    it depends on your goals..

    I would say lift first..

    but if you are still trying to lose weight or get to goal weight then three days a week total body lifting regimen with cardio is probably best....

    if you are trying to add some muscle then backing the cardio down would be a good choice..

    either way good luck to you!
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    Definitely lifting!!! Otherwise you won't have it in you to lift heavy!

    amen sister!
  • Rhonnie
    Rhonnie Posts: 506 Member
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    I don't lift so I'm only putting out an opinion that makes sense to me... I think it would depend on your goal. If gaining appreciable muscle (heavy lifting say) is your goal then I would think doing the lifting first (after warm up) would allow you to push your muscles more so you would want to lift first. If you are more interested in reducing body fat % and/or toning you'd want to do the cardio first so you can get your heart rate up. Your heart rate would stay up higher while you were lifting and therefore would add at least a little bit more to your fat burning efforts.
  • JustJennie1
    JustJennie1 Posts: 3,843 Member
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    Definitely lifting!!! Otherwise you won't have it in you to lift heavy!

    I do hard cardio for 30 minutes before I lift and have yet to be too tired to lift heavy afterwards.

    Cardio before works for me because I won't do it after.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,662 Member
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    i used to do it before because i was affraid i wouldn't do it after.

    if you really wont then i guess you have your answe

    lifting depletes muscle glycogen, and supposedly this causes you to burn fat as fuel sooner... so if your looking for a reason to do one before the other that might be it.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
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    i used to do it before because i was affraid i wouldn't do it after.

    if you really wont then i guess you have your answe

    lifting depletes muscle glycogen, and supposedly this causes you to burn fat as fuel sooner... so if your looking for a reason to do one before the other that might be it.
    I've read this, and heard it repeated a zillion times. Does anyone know if there is any current science to support it?
  • Pipil503
    Pipil503 Posts: 56 Member
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    i used to do it before because i was affraid i wouldn't do it after.

    if you really wont then i guess you have your answe

    lifting depletes muscle glycogen, and supposedly this causes you to burn fat as fuel sooner... so if your looking for a reason to do one before the other that might be it.
    I've read this, and heard it repeated a zillion times. Does anyone know if there is any current science to support it?

    Honestly I don't think so, just anecdotal references. I guess the main thing is that if they had figured something factual and concrete by now, everyone would be doing it. So many different ways to do things work for many DIFFERENT people.
  • No_Finish_Line
    No_Finish_Line Posts: 3,662 Member
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    i used to do it before because i was affraid i wouldn't do it after.

    if you really wont then i guess you have your answe

    lifting depletes muscle glycogen, and supposedly this causes you to burn fat as fuel sooner... so if your looking for a reason to do one before the other that might be it.
    I've read this, and heard it repeated a zillion times. Does anyone know if there is any current science to support it?

    Honestly I don't think so, just anecdotal references. I guess the main thing is that if they had figured something factual and concrete by now, everyone would be doing it. So many different ways to do things work for many DIFFERENT people.

    your asking if glycogen depletion will cause you to burn more fat during cardio?

    not sure if its been proven to do that or not. also not sure if anything other then the utter basics haven been 'proven' beyond the shadow of arguable doubt when it comes to fitness.

    Its surprizingly difficult to find real peer reviewed research articles on the web without knowing exactly what your looking for. this at least discusses the issue but i'm not sure if it answers your question (didn't read it because its not much of an issue for me).

    http://courses.ucsd.edu/rhampton/bibc102/addn_reading/fat_burners.pdf

    In Brief: Endurance athletes and dieters are eager to burn more fat during exercise; athletes
    hope to conserve carbohydrate stores, while dieters wish to decrease fat stores. This article
    briefly reviews the role of fat as an energy source for physical activity, discusses how exercise
    intensity and duration affect fat and carbohydrate metabolism, and assesses the nutrition
    strategies athletes are most likely to use in attempts to promote fat burning during exercise:
    caffeine ingestion, L-carnitine supplements, medium-chain triglyceride supplements, and highfat
    diets. Of this group, caffeine ingestion is the only strategy scientifically proven to enhance
    athletic performance.

    To be honest, the last thing i read on the subject said that you can burn more calories in fat durring the work out when your muscle glycogen is depeleted, but that you will have less of an 'after burn' effect where your body is burning calories for maintenance work following tough workouts.

    I'd say in the end its a wash and your better off doing it when you feel you have the most energy for whatever is more difficult for you.
  • EvilDollee
    EvilDollee Posts: 386 Member
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    Thank you everyone for your input and suggestion. My main goal is to burn fat but at the same time I don't want my upper body to be nutty putty either. I will try what most of you have suggested., warm up, lift and then cardio to see how I that works out for me. <3
  • dixiewhiskey
    dixiewhiskey Posts: 3,333 Member
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    I'll walk then run around the indoor track a few times to warm up. I lift afterwards then do HIIT on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes.
  • taylorwaylor
    taylorwaylor Posts: 417 Member
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    Whatever your main focus is, do that first.
  • RelativeChaos00
    RelativeChaos00 Posts: 33 Member
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    Studies have shown that lifting before Cardio does not affect your Cardio performance but that Cardio before lifting will affect your lifting performance, so lift first, Cardio second.
  • greyoutside
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    It depends on where you want to put in the most effort. Do that one first.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    i used to do it before because i was affraid i wouldn't do it after.

    if you really wont then i guess you have your answe

    lifting depletes muscle glycogen, and supposedly this causes you to burn fat as fuel sooner... so if your looking for a reason to do one before the other that might be it.
    I've read this, and heard it repeated a zillion times. Does anyone know if there is any current science to support it?

    Honestly I don't think so, just anecdotal references. I guess the main thing is that if they had figured something factual and concrete by now, everyone would be doing it. So many different ways to do things work for many DIFFERENT people.

    your asking if glycogen depletion will cause you to burn more fat during cardio?

    not sure if its been proven to do that or not. also not sure if anything other then the utter basics haven been 'proven' beyond the shadow of arguable doubt when it comes to fitness.

    Its surprizingly difficult to find real peer reviewed research articles on the web without knowing exactly what your looking for. this at least discusses the issue but i'm not sure if it answers your question (didn't read it because its not much of an issue for me).

    http://courses.ucsd.edu/rhampton/bibc102/addn_reading/fat_burners.pdf

    In Brief: Endurance athletes and dieters are eager to burn more fat during exercise; athletes
    hope to conserve carbohydrate stores, while dieters wish to decrease fat stores. This article
    briefly reviews the role of fat as an energy source for physical activity, discusses how exercise
    intensity and duration affect fat and carbohydrate metabolism, and assesses the nutrition
    strategies athletes are most likely to use in attempts to promote fat burning during exercise:
    caffeine ingestion, L-carnitine supplements, medium-chain triglyceride supplements, and highfat
    diets. Of this group, caffeine ingestion is the only strategy scientifically proven to enhance
    athletic performance.

    To be honest, the last thing i read on the subject said that you can burn more calories in fat durring the work out when your muscle glycogen is depeleted, but that you will have less of an 'after burn' effect where your body is burning calories for maintenance work following tough workouts.

    I'd say in the end its a wash and your better off doing it when you feel you have the most energy for whatever is more difficult for you.

    The problem with all of these discussions -- and even many of the studies -- is that they focus on the trees and miss the entire forest.

    For the most part, the fuel substrate you burn during exercise has little to no effect on permanent loss of stored body fat (outside of the effect of the contribution of the exercise to maintaining a calorie deficit).

    Even if you do "exhaust you glycogen stores (highly unlikely for the avg person)" and burn a higher percentage of fat, a) it is only a tiny amount of fat to begin with and b) the body changes its fat oxidation rate the rest of the day so that, over 24 hours, there is no difference in total fax oxidation, regardless of what happened during the exercise session.

    This changes somewhat when people are at relatively low levels of fat and want to get lower, Then the issue likely becomes more one of fat *mobilization* rather than fat *oxidation*. At that point, emphasizing more fat-burning during a workout or low-carb eating might have a more significant effect. (Which is another reason why average people trying to lose weight usually need not try to emulate the practices of more advanced or elite athletes).
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    Definitely lifting!!! Otherwise you won't have it in you to lift heavy!

    I do hard cardio for 30 minutes before I lift and have yet to be too tired to lift heavy afterwards.

    Cardio before works for me because I won't do it after.

    Agree--I have done PB lifts and routinely lifted at 4RM-8RM weights, after doing 45-60 min of hard cardio (tempo/threshold intensity). Not something I would want to do all the time, but there was absolutely no issues with form or weight lifted (compared to days where I did only lifting and no cardio). The only negative effect was that I would tend to cut short the lifting workout because I ran out of energy (or interest), but the lifting was not my primary focus, so I didn't care.
  • savbentley
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    I'll do 10 minutes of cardio to warm up, then lift... and if I'm feeling crazy, I'll follow up with another 30 minutes on the arc trainer or running.

    ^ditto
  • trud72
    trud72 Posts: 1,912 Member
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    i always cardio first that takes most of my energy then "take it easy" on a lift,abs ect! :drinker:
  • tndejong
    tndejong Posts: 463
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    5-10 min warm up with cardio. lifting. then 20 or more so minutes after.