Should you do cardio before or after weights? Find out the answer below.
Exercising is great for your health, losing weight, and improving your fitness level. When it comes to working out, there are mainly two major roads to take: a more endurance-like training known as cardio, or a strength-based session where you lift weights to get stronger.
There are many reasons why doing cardio or cardiovascular exercise is beneficial for your health and overall well-being. Here are a few of them:
- Improved Heart Health: Cardiovascular exercise helps to strengthen your heart muscles and improve circulation, reducing the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke.
- Weight Loss: Cardio burns calories and helps to shed unwanted body fat. Regular cardio exercise can be an effective way to maintain a healthy weight.
- Reduced Stress: Cardio releases endorphins in the brain, which can help to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.
- Increased Energy Levels: Cardio exercise increases the efficiency of your body’s oxygen usage, leading to increased energy levels throughout the day.
- Improved Sleep: Regular cardio exercise can help to improve the quality of your sleep, leading to better overall health and well-being.
It is recommended that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise per week.
Strength training, also known as resistance training or weightlifting, involves using weights, resistance bands, or bodyweight exercises to build muscle and strength. Here are some of the benefits of doing strength training:
- Increased Muscle Mass: Strength training helps to build and maintain muscle mass, which can improve overall body composition and increase metabolism.
- Improved Bone Health: Resistance training has been shown to improve bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
- Increased Strength and Endurance: Strength training helps to build strength and endurance, improving overall physical performance and reducing the risk of injury.
- Improved Joint Health: Resistance training can improve joint stability and flexibility, reducing the risk of injury and improving overall joint health.
- Improved Mental Health: Strength training has been shown to improve self-esteem, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, and improve overall mental health.
- Improved Metabolic Health: Strength training can improve insulin sensitivity, reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, and improve overall metabolic health.
Strength training is an important component of overall fitness and health, and it is recommended that adults aim for at least two sessions per week, focusing on all major muscle groups.
As you can see, doing both cardio and strength training has its perks for your overall fitness, athleticism, health and longevity.
But is there a difference to do one before the other? If you want to add them both to your training day, should you do cardio before or after weights? Max Posternak decided to talk about this posing issue.
Max Posternak is the founder of Gravity Transformation, a website focused on giving tips and training guidance for people looking to improve their fitness and lose weight. His YouTube channel has over 5 million subscribers.
Check out what he had to say below.
Cardio Before or After Weights?
So, cardio before or after weights? Usually, the answer is “it depends,” but not in this case, as Posternak explains.
“Doing the cardio before your workout, unless you’re working out on an empty stomach, is going to burn a mix of carbs and dietary fat. That means that you’re essentially going to be burning what you ate earlier that day during your cardio workout not fat. In fact, it’ll probably take you a full half hour to just start burning body fat, especially with steady-state cardio.”
Scientific studies concluded that to burn fat, the best approach is to build muscle tissue in your body which will, among other things, increase your metabolism. After an hour of running, it will be difficult to do heavy squats, for example. In this and many other cases, doing cardio before your strength-training session will actually impact negatively how much weight you can lift.
And those are some of the main reasons why you should not do cardio before lifting. Almost exclusively, cardio before training in the gym is detrimental to your goals.
If you want to have a fuller explanation of whether do cardio before or after weights, click on the video below from Max Posternak himself.
VIDEO – Cardio Before or After Weights?
Differences Between Training for Size and for Strength
The Science Behind Light vs Heavy Weights for Muscle Growth
5 Methods To Force Muscle Growth.
How To Perform Reps for More Muscle Growth
The Ultimate Muscle Building Guide
What Happens If You Eat Nothing For 3 Days?
7 Ways to Boost Metabolism and Burn Calories According to Science
5 Cardio Methods To Burn Fat 3 Times Faster
5 Ways To Burn More Fat At The Gym
Image Sources
- Barbell curl: Dollar Gill on Unsplash
- Running: Greg Rosenke on Unsplash