Weights first ... cardio second

Do you lift weights and do cardio in the same session? If at all possible, try to break 'em up to different sessions. But if you're busy like most folks, perhaps you find yourself having to do weights and cardio at the same time.

Here's a mistake that many people make: they do cardio and then do their weight lifting. If your goal is to get firm and burn fat, you should do weights first and THEN do cardio.


Why?


Because by doing weights first and then cardio, you're ordering them in such a way that you get maximum benefit.

The goal of weight lifting is to build some muscle, right? Well in order to lift heavy weights and stimulate muscle growth, you need energy. And one good form of energy is the glycogen in your liver (this is basically the result of eating energy-packed carbohydrates). The glycogen will give you the energy you need to have a good, heavy workout. Afterall, if you aren't pushing yourself to your limits while lifting those weights, your muscles won't grow. Simple as that.


Now stick with me here, it gets better: once your glycogen stores are depleted, your body starts burning fat for fuel.

Ding, ding, ding...that's what you want, right?

Well yes. So THAT'S why you need to do weights first, and then cardio...


You see, when you do weights first, your body will use the glycogen so you can get a heavy workout. That's good. By the time you get to the cardio portion of your session, the glycogen is probably depleted and your body is now burning fat for energy. Hence your cardio session becomes a fat burning sesssion nearly immediately!

Weights before cardio -- that's the *right* way to do it.

So what happens if you do it the other way? You're almost wasting your time -- or minimally, your workout isn't as effective as it could be.

You see, if you start off with a cardio session, it will probably take 20-30 minutes before your glycogen stores are depleted and you're burning fat for energy. So chances are, you spent most of yoru cardio session just trying to deplete your energy stores before you even got to the fat burning part of your workout!

Now here you are with depleted glycogen stores (read: depleted energy) and you go hit the weights. What happens? You're not lifting to your full capacity. And when you don't lift to your full capacity, you aren't doing your body any favors. You need to constantly push yourself under the weights if you want to stimulate muscle growth.

So if you do cardio and then weights, you have a cardio session that burns glycogen rather than fat, and a weight session that's probably inadequate.

But if you do weights and THEN cardio, you'll be strong and fresh for the weights, and you'll be burning fat during cardio.

[note: yes, you CAN and should do a "warm up" cardio session before weights. But in that case, I'm talking about 5-10 minutes, not a full-blown session)