CARDIO VS WEIGHTS
Cardio is excellent for burning off calories and dropping body fat. Cardio activity speeds up your heart rate, increases oxygen intake, and amps up your metabolism. When trying to maintain a balance between cardio and strength training, many people may not completely be sure which to do in what order.
Weights before cardio is the best way to optimize results as the lift will enhance the benefits of your cardio. After finishing your strength training, there is more glycogen in your cells that will give you a stronger and powerful lift. Glycogen is important for training because it helps to shuttle protein into your muscles post workout. The protein bonds & and the sugar molecules work together to shuttle the amino acids into your muscles to help rebuild and repair your muscle tissues.
If you perform cardio beforehand, you will be depleting your levels of glycogen which will not give you proper energy for your form or pump during your lift. By doing cardio first, you’re taking away from your weight training and you’re taking away from your fat loss. Cardio causes the lowering of your pH levels which creates more acidic blood levels. This will in turn cause your muscles to be more fatigued and have more difficulty contracting. No surprise, this will decrease your performance levels if you plan to lift afterwards.
Starting with strength training helps to optimize performance as it will intensify your fat burning ability. Weight training is vital as it helps to burn calories both during your workout and up to 48 hours afterwards! Supplementing this with cardio afterwards will allow for your body to properly burn fat, gain muscle, and maximize its use of energy.
Tip- If you’d still like to incorporate some early morning cardio, that’s okay! If you plan to complement this with strength training, I would recommend to space it out a few hours to allow your body to recover from its limited amount of glycogen and create for a more effective lift later in the day.
