Should You Do Cardio Before or After Weights?
Contents:
Pros and Cons of Doing Cardio Before Weights
Pros and Cons of Doing Cardio After Weights
When trying to get leaner, stronger, and healthier, doing both cardio and weights is a great strategy. But should you do cardio before or after weights?
Whether you’re an athlete, fitness enthusiast, or just looking to live a healthier life, implementing both cardio and weights can greatly improve efforts to achieve your goals.
However, most of us are only willing to train once a day, which implies doing both cardio and weights in the same session.
And that begs the question: should you do cardio before or after weights? Well, let’s find out.
What is Cardio?
Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise.
Since cardiovascular refers to the heart and blood vessels, cardiovascular exercise is any exercise which “trains” your circulatory system.
That involves exercise which increases the heart rate and blood flow.
Consequently, your respiratory system will also be engaged, increasing your breathing rate to increase the oxygen supply.
3 Reasons to Do Cardio
Cardio has a range of benefits, here are just three.
1. Improved heart health: It’s in the name, training your cardiovascular system can reduce susceptibility to heart problems such as heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes.
2. Weight loss: Perhaps the most common reason why people engage in cardio is to lose weight. Cardio can augment a calorie deficit, assisting your weight loss efforts.
3. Mood: Exercise in general releases endorphins, and cardio is no exception. You will have heard of the commonly used phrase: “runners high”. This refers to the good feeling a person experiences after going for a run.
Cardio Exercises
Since cardio refers to any exercise that increases the heart rate for a prolonged period, there is a vast number of options. Read this article to decide which form of cardio is best for fat loss.
Walking
Running
Cycling
Swimming
Climbing
Hiking
Sports (football, cricket, rugby, etc.)
Circuits
What is Weight Training?
Weight training is a popular sub-group of strength training.
Strength training refers to any exercise that increases a person's ability to generate explosive muscular power.
Weight training achieves that objective through the use of weights.
Weight training includes the use of free weights, such as dumbbells and barbells, as well as cable and plate-loaded machines.
3 Reasons to Weight Train
Like cardio, there are a great number of benefits to weight training. And that number is seemingly ever-expanding as research goes on.
1. Increase muscular strength: by progressively increasing the load or number of repetitions, weight training forces muscular adaption, leading to strength gains. This isn’t just for young lads, anyone can benefit from strengthening their body.
2. Increase muscular size: While you can optimise your weight training program to focus on strength or size, the two almost go hand-in-hand. Through weight training, you can shape your body to how you see fit.
3. Building mental resilience: going to the gym, putting yourself through adversity in every session, and then doing it all over again the next day. That process not only strengthens your body but also your mind.
Weight Training Exercises
The number of weight training exercises rivals that of cardio, especially when you include every different version.
However, there are what people consider the “main” lifts.
Bench press
Squat
Deadlift
Shoulder press
Pull-ups
Dips
Rows
Why do both?
Well, that’s simple, you’d do both to get the benefits of both.
Imagine if you weight train optimally, strengthening body and mind, whilst also doing cardio, improving heart health and mental well-being.
You’d be in peak physical condition whilst maintaining a positive mindset.
This combination can be used to achieve a multitude of goals too, from losing fat to training for a sports event.
And if you’d like to learn how to implement weight training and cardio into a successful fat-loss program, Cutting Concepts may interest you.
However, once you’ve implemented both into your routine, you may begin to wonder what’s better: doing cardio before or after weights.
So, let’s dive into the pros and cons of both.
Cardio Before Weights
Pros
Cardio before weight training can serve as a warm-up.
The increased blood flow and rising heart rate prepare the cardiovascular system, whilst the act of doing cardio itself can improve short-term flexibility.
Also, cardio pre-workout may increase endurance.
After completing cardio, your muscles may already be tiring, weight training thereafter may then serve to increase muscle endurance (rather than hypertrophy).
Cons
Cardio before weights results in less energy for weight training as it eats into glycogen stores, which are also required for intense exercise.
This results in a lowered power output, impairing your ability to lift heavy weights.
In addition, since you’re already fatigued, the risk of injury increases due to sloppy form.
Cardio After Weights
Pros
By doing cardio after weights, your energy for weight training is preserved.
Therefore, your mind and muscles have the energy it takes to perform intense weight training exercises correctly and maximally.
Also, low-intensity cardio post-workout can serve as a cool down, steadying the heart rate and even reducing the likelihood of muscle soreness.
Cons
Cardio post-workout may delay recovery.
As weight training causes marginal muscle damage, additional cardio on top of that may extend the time required to repair muscle fibres.
What’s more, if you’re already tired after weight training, you may put less effort into cardio sessions, reducing the effectiveness.
What Should You Do?
What you decide on depends on your goals and preferences.
Is your priority to increase endurance? Do cardio before weights.
Is your priority to increase muscle size and strength? Carry out cardio afterwards.
Does cardio help you warm up? Assign cardio before.
But maybe you’re preferences overrule optimality in achieving your goals as doing so may aid consistency.
In that case, experiment with both and opt for whatever order you enjoy doing.
If, however, your goal is fat loss, it’s imperative to tie weights, cardio, and nutrition together. You can see the full picture by reading Cutting Concepts.
Bottom Line
There are a range of benefits to cardio and weights, so do both
The order in which you perform cardio and weights depends on your goals and preferences
Cardio before weights can increase endurance but may increase the risk of injury
Cardio after weights allows for full focus on weight training sessions but may delay recovery from said sessions
Choose whichever option fulfils your goals most effectively
You May Also Like:
