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advantages/disavantages of cardio before weight training?

mr.nitrofish

Registered User
May 5, 2005
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well I bought a bike for my girlfriend and I so that I can get her more motivated to exercize, I figure we can do some bike rides together.

anyway I decided to ride my bike to the gym today and figured it was a decent cardio workout but I was wondering if I should save that energy for lifting weights? what do you think? ill be starting m first cycle in a few weeks and plan on lifting very hard.
 

max lift

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Feb 24, 2005
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I would limit my activites to lifting , eating and sleeping while on cycle and pct and get the cardio after thats all done if its a bulking cycle you are after.
 

kell11

AnaSCI VET
Mar 1, 2005
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mr.nitrofish said:
well I bought a bike for my girlfriend and I so that I can get her more motivated to exercize, I figure we can do some bike rides together.

anyway I decided to ride my bike to the gym today and figured it was a decent cardio workout but I was wondering if I should save that energy for lifting weights? what do you think? ill be starting m first cycle in a few weeks and plan on lifting very hard.

No man, a good cardio is always great prior to lifting.
I've always done it to "warmup".
keep doing it you'll get the energy(if energy is the problem) by doing prelift cardio regularly.whattaya peddlin' uphill all the way?hehe
this message sponsored by the american heart association.
 

kell11

AnaSCI VET
Mar 1, 2005
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max lift said:
I would limit my activites to lifting , eating and sleeping while on cycle and pct and get the cardio after thats all done if its a bulking cycle you are after.
Max makes a good point.I have a bad habit of looking at the overall picture.
 

Ironaddict

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Apr 20, 2005
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In my own world
bike riding and lifting are two differnet things. Riding a bike would be beneficial because it will increase your endurance. Which will help with overall ability to perform more reps, perpetual pump, heart rate, etc...
 

mojo

Registered User
Feb 1, 2005
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I always do my cardio post workout or early in the day if I am lifting in the evening.
 
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wolfyEVH

Guest
cardio before OR after weights is a big no no......this articles makes it seem that cardio after a workout is ok, however remember your body goes into catabolism after workout and you need to replenish your glycogen stores with some dextrose or gatorade after a workout so you dont destroy your muscle tissue......stick with cardio first thing in the morning IMO

by Larry Pepe

It kills me every time I see it. One person after another shows up at the gym, raring to go. They check in at the front desk, put their gear away and make a beeline for the cardio equipment. Somewhere between 20 and 60 minutes later they drag themselves off that treadmill and on to the gym floor to start the weight training portion of their session. This may be the most common training mistake I have seen in roughly 15 years of training in gyms from New York to California. There are a number of reasons why this training sequence can not only minimize your results but also holds the potential for injury.

Let's make a few things clear before we get started. If you want to warm up by doing 5 minutes of cardio before you hit the weights, power to you. If it makes you feel better prepared to train hard and get the most out of your weight training, great. In colder climates, especially with the fall and winter seasons upon us, this may even be advisable. But remember, we're talking about a cardio warm-up before training, not a cardio session aimed at burning fat. That will come after you train, not before, if you are sequencing the workout properly.

NUTRITIONAL REASONS
Ever heard that you will burn more fat if you do cardio on an empty stomach? Wrong. You will burn more fat if you are depleted of carbohydrates when you do cardio. Protein and dietary fats don't affect the equation. If you wanted to, and it didn't bother your stomach, you could drink a high protein/very low carb protein drink or eat a chicken breast or a piece of lean red meat minutes before you started cardio and you'd still burn the same amount of fat. But, if you have a piece of fruit or a cup of rice before that same session, you won't.

When you eat carbohydrates, the body stores them in the form of glycogen in your liver. Then, as you need to use them for energy, the glycogen stores are used until they are depleted. The problem is that the body will not burn fat until the glycogen stores are depleted. In other words, until you burn all your stored carbs, the body will not turn to your fat stores for energy and no fat will be burned. Now for the really bad news. Studies have indicated that it can take as much as 29 minutes of cardiovascular activity to deplete your glycogen stores. So, when you did that 30 minute cardio session after eating carbs sometime within several hours of beginning the session, you burned fat for a whopping minute--ONE MINUTE.

Does that mean that the session was a total waste of time. No. There are two benefits to cardiovascular work. In addition to burning fat, you elevate your metabolism every time you do cardio, which enhances your body's ability to metabolize food and burn fat for several hours after the session. You'll get that benefit regardless of whether your glycogen stores are full or depleted. But, if you are going to spend the time doing cardio in the first place, why settle for only half the benefit? You're going to work just as hard and spend just as much time either way.

While glycogen (carbs) will deprive you of the full benefit of your cardio, it has the opposite effect on working with the weights. Remember that the benefits to weight training are building/maintaining lean muscle tissue and elevated metabolism. This is anaerobic activity, not aerobic activity like cardio. Therefore, you don't weight train to burn bodyfat. Rather, you do it to build muscle.

When you weight train (anaerobic activity), the body's preferred energy source that enables you to train hard and be and stay strong for the workout is--you guessed it--carbohydrate. So, if you train before you do cardio, the glycogen necessary for productive workouts is both available and used. As you train the glycogen is used for energy and depleted. Ah! Depleted glycogen. Exactly where you want to be when you start cardio (aerobic activity) so that you can BURN FAT!

PRACTICAL REASONS
In addition to the nutritional reasons we've covered, there are other practical considerations that dictate doing your weight training before your cardio. Have you heard about or witnessed many people injuring themselves walking on a treadmill or stairmaster or riding a bike? Me neither. In the grand scheme of things, cardio may be tedious at times, but the risk of injury is pretty slim. Now, how many times have you seen or heard someone talk about pulling this or that or experiencing some discomfort because of something they did while weight training? Hopefully not too often, but a helluva lot more than with cardio. So, you'd have to agree that between the two, there is a greater risk of injury with weight training than there is with cardio. Given that fact, doesn't it make the most sense to weight train when you are in your freshest, strongest condition, both physically and mentally? Obviously, you are going to be in that peak condition when you get to the gym, not after you've done cardio for a half-hour or more at a high enough heart rate to burn fat.

The bottom line: Weight train first, when you have everything in your favor. You'll be mentally and physically fresher and stronger. You'll be in the ideal physiological environment as a result of your nutrition and appropriate use of your glycogen stores for the activities your're engaging in and the respective benefits they offer. Barbells don't just come before bikes in the dictionary. For the MAXIMUM RESULT, they should be sequenced that way in the gym too.
 
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wolfyEVH

Guest
oracle said:
How the Hell you get all them points "THIEF"!! anyways no cardio during cycle!


lol...and i thought i had a lot of points!
 

Nomad

Registered User
Feb 9, 2005
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Bump Wolfy's advice...save the cardio for a.m. sessions...if your trying to put on muscle/add strength...work as hard as possible for an hr w/anaerobic exercises (not much more) & then get home & eat/rest.
 

Ironaddict

Registered User
Apr 20, 2005
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Okay lets hit the major point of cardio. If you need cardio and your carrying some gut fat or a tire, then you should be doing cardio AM or PM either way. If your solid lean and your wanting to gain some major muscle. Than yes cardio should be saved for your cutting phase. Cardio will not effect your gains if your trying to rid some stomach fat and add some muscle.
 

mr.nitrofish

Registered User
May 5, 2005
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that helps a lot, thanks.

ps. if this was a cutting cycle would this still apply?
im doing a bulking cycle, so ill stick to lifting "heavy things"
 
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pincrusher

Guest
mr.nitrofish said:
that helps a lot, thanks.

ps. if this was a cutting cycle would this still apply?
im doing a bulking cycle, so ill stick to lifting "heavy things"
for a cutting cycle you could ride you bike to the gym prior to your workouts because the workouts themselves should be much different than the ones you do when bulking.
for a cutting cycle workouts should be more of an aerobic style in natur with shorter rest periods between sets and lower weights being used. the whole idea during a cutter is to keep your body in a fat burning mode as often as possible during the day without overdoing it and burning off muscle instead.