Why I'm not for cardio and resistance concurrently

depends on the strength routine, if it's a few exercises at max weight you can do for 4 sets of 5, and then you do cardio , you should be able to do both.....

If it's a full body workout or 2 body parts with 12 exercises with isolation, then no, you will probably or should be exhausted..

No need for those though.... squat, bench, row and deadlift, that just about covers it !!

no, in fact this is the exact worst time to do both. Any time you're going to failure you're creating microtears that require repair. Repair requires not only testosterone, HGH, and IGF-2, but also an increased level of energy for extended periods (8 to 24 hours, longer for the really large muscle groups in the legs), doing weight training first, means you should be done for the day. If you wanted to do both with an 8 or more hour gap, I would strongly advise doing cardio first, then weight training, cardio has no repair time, thus when your energy is replenished (usually within an hour) and your hormones are recovered (usually within 2 to 4 hours) then you should be fine to do resistance.

I love Bank's posts!

Since I'm a little dense sometimes, I have a quick question: I typically lift heavy 2x/week (full-body). I warm-up with about 10 minutes on the stairmaster, do my weights, and then I like to finish off with 10 minutes on the exercise bike. The first 1 minute is steady-state, then 4 minutes of intervals, then a 5 minute cool down. I just really like feeling like I'm zapping out the last of whatever energy is left in me by doing this. I does leave me with the "I'm practically crawling to my car" feeling and I love ending this way.

Since I'm only really doing 4-30 second intervals, in light of your research, is this a bad thing? Or is this minimal enough to be OK?

If it matters, I'm a post-menopausal 54 year old. Thanks in advance!

first of all, good for you lady, that's awesome!

Second, 5 minutes of most things probably won't bother you much, but I'd probably stay away from 5 minutes of anaerobic work at the end of your routine, just because weak, fatigued muscles are prone to injury far easier than fresh strong muscles.

I'm sure there's SOME rise in cortisol with it, but that really depends on you. I like to keep them fully separate myself, but remember, this is all a game of gray areas, none of this is line in the sand stuff, you can (and should) remember that you can improve by degrees (I.E. 6 minutes won't flip some kind of cortisol switch that 5 minutes wouldn't), so just keep this stuff in mind when you work. Always have a goal for each workout, if your goal is heavy lifting to failure, then really, what is 5 minutes of hard cardio doing for you besides making you FEEL better (maybe that's worth it to you , that's a personal choice).

I agree, but studies aside, it makes sense to me that if you are working hard enough at one, you should not have any energy for the other.

I keep seeing diaries where someone will do 45 minutes of strength followed by an hour of cardio. Neither is being done effectively. 45 mins of strength training should leave someone wanting to take a nap, not take a zumba class.

I am fairly new to understanding and intergrating the physiologic / metabolic soup that you talk about. So forgive my naive approach thus far and the fairly simple questions that I ask.

First, does your supposition that doing both exercises in the same setting (less than 8 hours apart) assume that one wants to "bulk up" by weight training? I personally started lifting a month ago and have used it more for tone and cardio than to add mass. I don't see any problem with adding it to the elliptical or swim. In fact, those exercises warm the muscles up and get me going. If I do the elliptical I do arm work with weights. I make sure to eat a good meal mixture of complex and some simple carbs and protein at least 2 hours prior to my extended workout replentishing stores.

To the best of my knowledge, in weekend warriors like me (not really, I work out 5 days a week) I understand our glycogen stores in the liver to be about 100 grams. We use about 1 gram a minute and therefore have about 90 minutes before we exhaust our liver stores and start grabbing glycogen from muscle (stores there about 280 grams in non-elite atheletes). My intense work-outs (weights cardio and swim/elliptical cardio) are about 45 min for each exercise (ie 90 minutes total). I then replace protein within 30 minutes of completing the exercise with a mixture of carbs/protein in liquid form (easiest when at the gym and not headed home to eat right away). Skipping the arguement over whether a mixture of complex proteins/carbs mixed with some simple fast absorbing is best in various ratios....for the non-elite athelete...one would think this is probably enough. If I were training for the Olympics and in that kind of shape, the story might be different...and the whole story does change depending on the type of exercise (swim, row, run) and effort etc. Elite atheletes actually reportedly carry less stores in the liver and run around with an average of 55 grams in the liver at baseline (not the 100 grams in my liver). By carb loading they can increase muscle stores up to 800 grams (mine are probably stuck at 280). So for them, they can store even more and go harder longer. All this is to say that I do believe while the arguement of not combining exercises of resistance and cardio on the same day apply to some, it probably doesn't apply to all. Just depends on what you want out of it and how long you do it and how hard you are doing it. Yes? or am I down a creek without a paddle?

Lastly, why is it that we say cardio exercises don't build muscle? or need a positive testosterone balance to improve muscle synthesis and slow breakdown? Bikers have big quads and hamstrings. Aren't they building muscle too?

Just asking....as I said....this is all new to me...I've been reading for a week or two and realize I know enough to be dangerous. So educate and convince me.