Cardio before or after
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bham6154
Posts: 14 Member
Does cardio work best or after weights?
0
Replies
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It depends what your main goal is. Whichever you do first will get your best energy stores. So weights first if weights are your primary focus, and cardio first if cardio is your primary focus.12
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Define what you mean by "cardio"?
Define "better"- better for the cardio element or better for the weights element?
Do you mean a gentle warm up to prepare you to lift? A moderate intensity session of fairly short duration? Going flat out for an hour leaving you absolutely exhausted?
And then you have your personal goals, priorities and capabilities.
And then you ask yourself would it be better for you personally to do cardio in one session and weights in another....
Summary - it depends.
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I do cardio on non lifting days. If you must cardio, probably best to do it after heavy lifting.4
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A little cardio before or after to warm up /cool down is fine. But if you do longer cardio before, your ability to lift will be diminished. And if you can do long cardio after lifting, you weren't working hard enough
Consider splitting it up, whether than be on different days or different times of the day. Personally, I like cardio at lunch time, which I do outside the gym, and lifting at night.4 -
@bham6154, I agree with @MikePTY. Define your goals clearly and the answer will present itself to you clearly. Also, the program has got to match the personality. I'm an anaerobic cardio conditioning junkie, that's my personality and the "program" I follow aligns with my personality. You're someone entirely different so, therefore, so must be your training approach for lasting success. Wishing you the best.6
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My main goal is weight loss. I’ve lost 25 lbs since the beginning of the year. I need to lose 15 more. Not trying to be a body builder but I do want to gain some muscle. All these comments are very beneficial. Thanks guys3
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@bham6154, based on your answer, my answer, if you must do both on the same training day, is begin with your lifting weights first and then close with cardio. You might prepare for the lifting by doing some brisk walking or the elliptical trainer for 5-10 minutes to "oil" the body and get it ready for work but save the heavy duty cardio for the tail end. My two cents.8
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My main goal is weight loss. I’ve lost 25 lbs since the beginning of the year. I need to lose 15 more. Not trying to be a body builder but I do want to gain some muscle. All these comments are very beneficial. Thanks guys
Although cardio can help create a calorie deficit cardio is really for building endurance and cardiovascular health. If your main goal is weight loss then I would ensure your in a calorie deficit, weight train and throw in some cardio after weights or non lifting days a couple times a week9 -
My main goal is weight loss. I’ve lost 25 lbs since the beginning of the year. I need to lose 15 more. Not trying to be a body builder but I do want to gain some muscle. All these comments are very beneficial. Thanks guys
Goal - Weight loss.
If you are using MyFitnessPal as designed exercise should have no bearing on your calorie balance - but can make adherence easier with a daily allowance boosted by exercise.
If you are doing cardio just for weight loss I think you need to have a serious think about that. Do you stop when you get to goal? Do you have enough training hours in the week to make a significant contribution to losing weight?
Goal - Gaining muscle.
Best thing you can do is follow a well structured lifting routine.
If doing cardio (you didn't expand on what duration or intensity you mean by that) before your strength training impairs that training (not enough time to hit right volume of lifts, impaired energy) then don't. If you are lifting effectively do you think you will have enough time and gas in the tank to do cardio effectively afterwards? (Some do, some don't so you have to make that judgement.)
On the other hand some people like a cardio warmup before lifting and it helps them have a better strength training session.
Personally I like to fully concentrate on the task at hand and completely split my very extensive cardio (cycling) from my strength training. My cardio is for fun and fitness, not for weight loss.8 -
pierinifitness wrote: »@bham6154, based on your answer, my answer, if you must do both on the same training day, is begin with your lifting weights first and then close with cardio. You might prepare for the lifting by doing some brisk walking or the elliptical trainer for 5-10 minutes to "oil" the body and get it ready for work but save the heavy duty cardio for the tail end. My two cents.
This is my routine. Typically I follow it for a few months & then something gets in the way for months at a time. Then I start over, which is where I am right now. The cardio isn't for weight loss, specifically, but my main interest is being more fit, which translates for me as stronger and with better endurance. I am eating at a very slight deficit to shed a bit of fluff. So I warm up for about 15 min on the treadmill, do a structured full body lifting routine, and finish with 15 minutes of intervals. Most of my energy is spent with the lifting. I feel pretty gassed by the end of that but press on, telling myself that 15-20 minutes is totally doable, and I vary the activity for interval work depending on how much my knees are complaining. This is 3 days a week - the others I am just living my life which includes a fair amount of walking. Typically, a month or two in I am noticing gains in both strength and endurance and keep increasing the work-load both with weights and with intervals.7 -
Both works. I did calorie deficit with strenght training and cardio. Cardio for 30 mins then strenght training for 1.5 hour. I am still in cutting process so I change my routine to cardio for 1 hour then strenght train for 1 hour about 3-4x a week max 5. I go slow, I try to keep my HR around 130's max.
I read once you hit that 30mins with cardio the body starts pulling energy from stored fats instead of carbs, so cardio works really well for fat burning. Also hiking works really well in using stored body fat, but I don't have time to walk 5 hours straight.8 -
Daisy_Girl2019 wrote: »Both works. I did calorie deficit with strenght training and cardio. Cardio for 30 mins then strenght training for 1.5 hour. I am still in cutting process so I change my routine to cardio for 1 hour then strenght train for 1 hour about 3-4x a week max 5. I go slow, I try to keep my HR around 130's max.
I read once you hit that 30mins with cardio the body starts pulling energy from stored fats instead of carbs, so cardio works really well for fat burning. Also hiking works really well in using stored body fat, but I don't have time to walk 5 hours straight.
If you're in a calorie deficit overall, that deficit will eventually be made up mostly by burning stored body fat. It may happen while you're exercising, it may happen while you're asleep, it doesn't matter.
What is burned during a workout may be important to fueling strategies (a concern for endurance althletes or for very long workouts), but it doesn't directly matter for fat loss. Neither does the "fat burning heart rate zone".
If you're in a calorie deficit, the fat will be burned eventually, because the deficit has to be made up from somewhere. It's a liberating thing!
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I lift weights to help minimize muscle loss while I'm losing weight, plus I like feeling strong, and I do cardio because it burns more calories and makes it easier for me to stick to my calorie deficit since I am a short woman. Once I am in maintenance I will scale back the cardio but keep doing some cardio for my heart health and because I enjoy running.
I try to do cardio every day. On lifting days I do it after lifting and on cardio only days I jog, I workout 6 days a week.
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pierinifitness wrote: »@bham6154, based on your answer, my answer, if you must do both on the same training day, is begin with your lifting weights first and then close with cardio. You might prepare for the lifting by doing some brisk walking or the elliptical trainer for 5-10 minutes to "oil" the body and get it ready for work but save the heavy duty cardio for the tail end. My two cents.
This is what I do.
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A 5-10 minute warm up with cardio is ok before heavy lifting but I’d avoid the heavy cardio work before a lift session since it’s practically begging for injury. I do heavy lifts first and light cardio immediately after...OR heavy lifts in the morning and heavier cardio much later in the day. Best of luck!1
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I keep my heart rate in check while doing cardio for an hour since I don't wanna over exert myself. Don't want rhabdo on my case. I do weight training very minimal reps but max weight as I can tolerate.4
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I do cardio and weights on alternate days. I run 4 days a week, and lift 3.0
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Unless you are training for an endurance event, I suggest cardio after weights, or on different days. lifting weights while tired can set you up to lose form or injury, especially if you push yourself or lift heavy. And since muscle building is part of your goal more so than somehting like getting a PB in a triathlon, weights first fits with that.3
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Daisy_Girl2019 wrote: »Both works. I did calorie deficit with strenght training and cardio. Cardio for 30 mins then strenght training for 1.5 hour. I am still in cutting process so I change my routine to cardio for 1 hour then strenght train for 1 hour about 3-4x a week max 5. I go slow, I try to keep my HR around 130's max.
I read once you hit that 30mins with cardio the body starts pulling energy from stored fats instead of carbs, so cardio works really well for fat burning. Also hiking works really well in using stored body fat, but I don't have time to walk 5 hours straight.
Just FYI since this is misunderstanding often repeated.
You burn fat from resting all the way up to anaerobic point (and beyond actually, just not for long anyway).
The % of fat burned depends on intensity. Around 90% while resting and less and less as you go more intense.
When you first starting exercising, the ratio of carbs to fat burned is slightly higher than what happens at about 30 min in if you maintain intensity level.
The difference isn't that great (say 60% to 40% carb), and it really only matters to endurance workout/event, where the carbs required to merely finish is very important to have, so burning extra at start is no good for the ending to be kept as intense.
This is also what leads to the myth about doing cardio fasted burning more fat - you generally skip or lessen that 30 min delay and start at the lower carb ratio. But again it's not much, and only matters if endurance training is your goal.
At the end of the day for either misunderstanding - it doesn't matter.2 -
Daisy_Girl2019 wrote: »Both works. I did calorie deficit with strenght training and cardio. Cardio for 30 mins then strenght training for 1.5 hour. I am still in cutting process so I change my routine to cardio for 1 hour then strenght train for 1 hour about 3-4x a week max 5. I go slow, I try to keep my HR around 130's max.
I read once you hit that 30mins with cardio the body starts pulling energy from stored fats instead of carbs, so cardio works really well for fat burning. Also hiking works really well in using stored body fat, but I don't have time to walk 5 hours straight.
Just FYI since this is misunderstanding often repeated.
You burn fat from resting all the way up to anaerobic point (and beyond actually, just not for long anyway).
The % of fat burned depends on intensity. Around 90% while resting and less and less as you go more intense.
When you first starting exercising, the ratio of carbs to fat burned is slightly higher than what happens at about 30 min in if you maintain intensity level.
The difference isn't that great (say 60% to 40% carb), and it really only matters to endurance workout/event, where the carbs required to merely finish is very important to have, so burning extra at start is no good for the ending to be kept as intense.
This is also what leads to the myth about doing cardio fasted burning more fat - you generally skip or lessen that 30 min delay and start at the lower carb ratio. But again it's not much, and only matters if endurance training is your goal.
At the end of the day for either misunderstanding - it doesn't matter.
I also find that fasted you can't go as intense or for as long, so, if your intake for the day is the same you will actually lose less body fat overall if you burn fewer cals fasted.0
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