One of the biggest debates out there regarding your cardiovascular exercise (running, spinning, etc) is whether or not to do it before or after your workout. A lot of people, even many trainers, default to “whatever your personal preference is, do it.” I cannot tell you how many times I hear people say “I would rather warm up and get running and get my sweat on, before my actual workout”, or vice versa.
Enough is enough. Time to talk plain: I can’t let you be comfortable and not informed, simply to make you feel better about me. There IS a difference, and you need to be aware of the impact of your choice, no matter what other trainers may have told you.
FACT: When you look at the metabolic process of your body, it’s a lot better to do your cardio after—or even during—your lifting and resistance training (and there are more benefits for you, especially for fat burning) simply because of the energy source that your body is using.
FACT: When you begin resistance training, you want to make sure that your muscles are full of glycogen, which is basically stored energy. The food that you have eaten (proteins & carbs) is stored in your muscles as energy. When you go into resistance training workouts, you want your muscles full of energy, because your muscles are expelling energy as you move the weight.
Afterwards, when your body is depleted of the glycogen and you go do your cardio, the only thing that is left over as a fuel source is pure fat. This is the ideal way to ensure your body will burn the fat and not the energy (i.e., muscle)! This explains why you’ve probably wondered why so many avid runners don’t look nearly as healthy as you’d think they should for all the time they spend running. They’re burning a lot of muscle if they’re not doing resistance training along with their running regimen.
Consider the alternative: You decide to do your cardio first, you run, you’re using every part of your body. You’re burning up all the glycogen in your muscles for the cardiovascular activity so by the time you get to your resistance training, you do not have quite as much “umph” to push the weight around as you would if you had done your cardio afterwards. This means your workout suffers (you wont break down the muscles as much), so you wont get the same results as you would if you would have done your cardio exercises after your workout.
Your muscles cannot burn fat for energy because when you use your muscles (anaerobic vs. aerobic), they can’t use the fat as the energy source like your body could with the aerobic activity (which is with oxygen).
So, for ideal results, do your cardio after your workout.
on August 22, 2010, 9:10 pm
Rick said:
Shawn, this is good information as so many trainers still get this wrong as you alluded to. If I may, it may help to begin distinguishing for your clients the difference between “cardio” and “aerobics”. I always explain that any activity that challenges the heart and lungs is “cardio”. I know you understand this but I have found this to be a good way to impress on the average person that they get more bang for their buck with weight training for the time invested than any other form of exercise. Therefore if they do not have the time for a long workout they will emphasize resistance training, benefiting the “heart reserve”,protein synthesis, strong flexible tendons and ligaments, muscle tone, osteoporosis etc. Understanding the difference between “cardio” and “aerobics” wil help develop better training protocols for the biggest excuse out there…time. Keep up the good work. Rick