I'm curious does it matter if you do weights before cardio. I have started doing this and it does seem to work out better for me. Any suggestions or comments from people that do this.

A lot of people will say to separate the two, never do them back to back; but if you must, yes, do weights first. If you can, you might do two-a-days with cardio in the morning and lifting evening, or alternate days cardio/weights.

A lot of people will say to separate the two, never do them back to back; but if you must, yes, do weights first. If you can, you might do two-a-days with cardio in the morning and lifting evening, or alternate days cardio/weights.
If you say weights first, then why cardio in the morning then weights in the afternoon?

thanks

If you say weights first, then why cardio in the morning then weights in the afternoon?

thanks

There's a million different options and you'll get a million different responses.

Here are my thoughts.

It's always better to separate the two, but if you can't (I know there are days I can't) either skip the cardio or do a fast, intense workout after lifting. If you do cardio before lifting, you risk sacrificing the intensity and efficiency of your lifting workout which is far more important in the long run than a cardio session.

Now as far as splitting them in the same day. This would all depend on the type of cardio you do. If you do a low-intensity cardio, then it should be done in the morning so you can do it fasted. If it's any form of high intensity cardio, then you need to eat prior, so it doesn't matter which you do in the morning and which you do in the afternoon/evening, the weights or the cardio.

If you say weights first, then why cardio in the morning then weights in the afternoon?

thanks

I don't know about you, but first thing in the morning, I don't want to be holding something really heavy over my head.

It's important to be able to put maximum effort into your lifting. It's not important to be able to put maximum effort into your cardio. With cardio, it's more important just to put in the time. If you have to do one when you're groggy, make it cardio.

That's why you should do weights first if you're doing both in one session - it's hard to get maximum effort out of your muscles if you just ran five miles. You'll probably be tired, and your effort will have to be less.

For the same reason, lifting if you haven't eaten in a while is not great - it lowers the chance you'll be able to put in maximum effort. There's an added bonus to doing cardio if you haven't eaten for a while, which just makes the decision all that easier.

So, yeah, separating the two is best, weights first and cardio second is second-best, cardio first and weights second is third-best, but people have gotten great results with all three.

The benefit of doing them both usually outweighs the cost of doing them in the "wrong" order.

There's a million different options and you'll get a million different responses.

Here are my thoughts.

It's always better to separate the two, but if you can't (I know there are days I can't) either skip the cardio or do a fast, intense workout after lifting. If you do cardio before lifting, you risk sacrificing the intensity and efficiency of your lifting workout which is far more important in the long run than a cardio session.

Now as far as splitting them in the same day. This would all depend on the type of cardio you do. If you do a low-intensity cardio, then it should be done in the morning so you can do it fasted. If it's any form of high intensity cardio, then you need to eat prior, so it doesn't matter which you do in the morning and which you do in the afternoon/evening, the weights or the cardio.

I concur 100% with the above. From my experience the two a days are the best route, but it's hard to find the time to commit to this routine. If you have to combine them, I would strongly recommend against doing the cardio first-you just can't lift the kind of weight you need to challenge yourself. It's one thing to pre-fatigue the muscle ( like doing flyes before bench press to pre-fatigue the chest) but if you pre-fatigue your central nervous system you're not giving the weights enough intensity-you need to be at 90% or above in terms of your energy level for the day to have the best high intensity weight training session. As for morning or night, I say you should do the weight training when YOUR BODY AND MIND seem to have the greatest ability to perform. For me this is late at night. For most people it's not first thing in the morning because you've been fasting. Most people I know who work out very early do so out of convenience and they're usually stronger later in the day once they've had some food.

This topic has been beaten to death on the board but it's an important subject.

I understand the weights then cardio routine. I just wondered if you do them separately in one day why you would switch them. I guess it makes sense that cardio in the morning is just easier and more practical.

I only get to the gym once a day and its limited to a lunch period. I have been doing both together with weights first for about 2 months. Now that I have seen results and have all 5 days a week to work out now I am splitting them.

Yesterday I did back/Bi's and today I did an HIIT cardio session on the elliptical. (5 min warmup, 30sec sprint/30sec jog for 10 minutes followed by 5 minute cooldown) Tomorrow I will do chest/tris. Thursday cardio, finishing with Friday legs/shoulders/abs