Weights and Cardio - which one first

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iwantniceabs
iwantniceabs Posts: 357 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am starting to add weight lifting to some of my cardio days, is it better to do cardio and then weight lifting, or the other way around? or does it not matter??

Replies

  • meghanspuppy
    meghanspuppy Posts: 28
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    According to what I've read, it's best to lift first and then do your cardio.
  • vettle
    vettle Posts: 621 Member
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    everyone is going to tell you what they think, but in the end try both and see how you feel. If I do weights first then I feel like I have more energy to do cardio. After I finish cardio I just want to lay down and sleep lol.

    But I do cardio monday, weds and friday, and weights tues, thurs and saturday
  • 06MustangGT
    06MustangGT Posts: 43
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    I'd say lift first then do cardio after. If you're doing a lot of cardio and you do it first it'll definitely take away a lot of your energy and you wont lift as well.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    It is best to do weights first then cardio.

    This is for a couple reasons:
    - you are able to lift more
    - you can keep your form better if you are not already tired
    - you will burn some of the cabs and glycogen stores, so you will burn more fat when you do cardio
  • Dave59
    Dave59 Posts: 28
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    Interesting question. I've talked to a few trainers that I know and the answers they give are varied. It also depends on goals. For example, if you are a runner and training for something specific, they seem to say to do the cardio (run) first.

    I'm a runner and one of my goals is to get faster, but my bigger goal is overall fitness and weight loss. I have been told to do a little cardio as a warm-up, then weights, and then the longer cardio. It is hard some days to run on tired legs, but back when I followed the plan it did work for me. I was losing weight and getting faster.

    (Then I made a couple of my goals and started eating too much again, but that is a different story.)
  • aschultz9
    aschultz9 Posts: 89
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    I agree you will hear different things from different people and will even read different "studies" on this topic. Try both and see how you feel. I find to really get the most out of my weight training I have to do it first, and sometimes will even do just weights so I can put all of my energy into it on those days and really go all out on my cardo (running) days. Experiment.
  • Fit4_Life
    Fit4_Life Posts: 828 Member
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    http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/topicoftheweek34.htm


    Weights first. Paste and copy link above
  • kasmir8199
    kasmir8199 Posts: 507 Member
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    I'd say lift first then do cardio after. If you're doing a lot of cardio and you do it first it'll definitely take away a lot of your energy and you wont lift as well.

    Agreed!
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    I'm a firm believer in lifting first and cardio second. I would worry far too much about my form and getting injured if I tried to lift after a hard cardio session.
  • iwantniceabs
    iwantniceabs Posts: 357 Member
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    Thanks everyone! Great advice! I really appreciate it!

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