Weight training & Cardio on the same day

I've heard that while there haven't been any controlled studies done to show clear benefits of either order, that a lot of doctors believe that doing a warm up followed by weights will deplete your glycogen/glucose storage… so that your cardio is all fat burning. I'm not a doctor, so I don't know if any of this is true… but that's what I've heard. That's typically the order I do it in, but like you, sometimes after weights (particularly my leg days), I'm so worn out that cardio is akin to torture. I'm thinking I'll switch it up just on my leg days and do cardio first. Just to see how I feel.

Very few people will ever reach a point in a workout where they exhaust their glycogen stores. And if you do, you become so debilitated you can barely exercise at all--so that vaunted "fat burning" will never occur anyhow.

Ive heard you should do weight first then cardio. Thats how I do it because like you after cardio sometimes I dont feel like doing weights.

This x1000. If I'm doing the cardio "right" (high-intensity intervals) then lifting weights is the last thing I want to do after.

I don't think it makes any difference at all, but if I did them separately, I'd do the weights first because after the cardio, I just want to flop down for a bit.

I read cardio is supposed to be last so that's what I do weights first

Strength training first and then cardio. You burn FAT while doing cardio after you strength train, and your heart rate is the highest.

Strength training first and then cardio. You burn FAT while doing cardio after you strength train, and your heart rate is the highest.

Not true at all, but it gives people a warm and fuzzy to believe it, so please proceed.......

Strength training first and then cardio. You burn FAT while doing cardio after you strength train, and your heart rate is the highest.

Not true at all, but it gives people a warm and fuzzy to believe it, so please proceed.......

Oh really? And what's your way of burning fat then you professional? I've had several certified trainers with degrees tell me that that is how you burn fat, and I've lost 20 pounds by doing it.

There is no general 'truth' to this. It depends on your individual fitness goals and your knowledge about your body's response to exercise. Personally, for example, I'm not on a weight loss mission. I'm shedding a bit fat in the process. I'm lifting with a purpose. I go hard and heavy, eat accordingly....and sleep well aka muscle repair. Any extended cardio session on a lifting day would only postpone the healing process after training, and it would also increase my risk for injury. Running on the treadmill or otherwise with shaky and tired muscles isn't a good idea for me.
I set aside one or 2 days of the week for some steady state cardio, preferably and comfortably on my stationary bike, while watching a movie with well built guys in tight super hero suits....lol

If you are working out with a professional trainer, and it works for you, that it's great! Don't change a program that's working! However, you have to keep in mind, that a professional trainer will want you to log as much 'gym time' as possible. You are supposed to get the feeling, that you're getting your money's worth in any case. Whatever your trainer's strategy, in your case, he got lucky!

Happy Training!

Iv noticed at my gym that most of the people there to lift will do 5-10mins on either the bikes or treadmil then go and lift and then come and do a 15-20 brisk walk on treadmill

Quick question, on the days where my programme has me doing both cardio & weights on the same day, is it better to do the cardio 1st (but therefore tiring my body) or to do the cardio last (which can sometimes lead to skipping it because I am tired). Is there a rule?

Depends on your goals.

If you are planning/training to run a race in the future, then you'd want to do the cardio first and maybe the strength later in the day (especially if you are doing legs the same day).

If your main goal is body composition, strength increase and such, then you'll want to cardio last.

Agree with this^

I've heard lots of arguments and reasons for both. Personally I prefer weights then cardio because there's more risk of injuring yourself swinging around large heavy objects than running around the block a few times. Therefore because there's more risk of injury with the weights, I prefer to do that while less fatigued.

But that's just my logic. I can't cite any sources supporting this.

I always wondered if it's okay to do both in one day. I can't decide if I want to do cardio one day and strength the next and going back and forth.

If you must do them on the same day, do cardio after weights.

Resistance training uses glycogen (sugar stored in muscles) for it's energy source.

If you do the cardio first, you will deplete your body of the glycogen first and not have it available for the resistance training. Cardio can switch over to other energy sources rather than glycogen.

However, not doing them on the same day is even better that way you don't short change either one from an intensity standpoint.

this.

ETA: If I'm doing cardio and weights in the same day (which is rare, since I don't do much cardio) I have to do weights first or I just simply do not have the energy to lift heavy. If I have anything left in the tank, I'll follow up with some cardio. But I don't care for it, I just do it for my ticker health. I like to expend my energy on heavy weights.

I do not think there is a general rule, but probably more like self preference. I do feel that you should do weights first and then cardio. If you do cardio first than you cannot possibly push yourself at your hardest when lifting. Weights are more important and should take up most of your energy and then do cardio after.

Both strength training and running uses glycogen as fuel. One method I like to do is do my strength training first and then I would do a brisk walk on the treadmill for an hour. This brisk walk uses mainly fat as fuel rather than glycogen.

The reason the long cardio session dips into the fat reserves is because you've already used up glucose (free blood sugar) and glycogen (stored carbs) with strength training, and probably the beginning of the cardio session.

I do weights first so I'm not too tired, & make sure I have time. It's easy for me to rationalize cutting 10 min from the elliptical or treadmill so I'm getting to work on time, but I wouldn't want to not work some muscle group by missing part of the weight machines.

Cardio pretty much every day, weights every other day.
Works for me.

You can work out however you want, but the whole "I burn up glycogen lifting weights so I can burn more fat doing cardio" idea is just wrong.

People have a lot of stored glycogen--enough to run 2 continuous hours at a minimum. So no matter how brotastic your lifting routine, it is highly unlikely that you will use up your glycogen stores.

And if by chance you DID burn them up and went to "all fat", your cardio workout would suck dead bears. Because of the limitations of beta oxidation, the max effort one can produce when working out using all fat is about 50%-60% of VO2max--that's not only slow, but you feel like absolute crap while you are doing it. (e.g. marathoner "hitting the wall").

So, between the sharply reduced intensity, and the fact that you would probably stop after about 10 min because it's such an unpleasant experience, your calorie burn for your "fat burning" workout would be minimal, thus accomplishing very little, if anything.

Maybe you think that is an extreme example. So, let's say we go with "BroPlan Alpha": fasted workout, lifting weights first, etc. We are successful at manipulating the fuel substrate ratio so that we push the workout RQ from .9 to .75, showing a higher percentage of "fat" being burned. And you do cardio for 60 minutes. The result? At most, a difference in total fat burned of about 1/2 ounce.

Now here is the best part: we went to all that trouble and effort to achieve this awesome 1/2 ounce of increased fat burn, but, in fact, research has shown conclusively that, over the course of 24 hours, it makes absolutely no difference. The body will down regulate fat oxidation the rest of the day so that, after 24 hours, the individual who "burned more fat" during the workout will have burned the same amount of fat as anyone else.

Ooops.

As I and others have said--from the standpoint of fatigue, personal preference, workout goals, etc, etc, an individual can outline any number of valid reasons for sequencing their workouts a particular way.

But the most oft-cited reason for lifting first--i.e. that doing weights first will lead to increased fat burn when doing cardio--is thoroughly debunked by just about any physiologic measure available. The only possible exception might be someone who is already super-lean and temporarily needs to get super-duper lean. But that does not include 99% of the population.