One of the most controversial subjects when we talk about the gym and weight training is whether to do cardio before or after weight training. After all, each of these exercises has a different purpose, but they are equally important for anyone looking to improve their quality of life and health.
Cardio is nothing more than an exercise that aims to strengthen the cardiorespiratory system such as the heart, lungs and the muscles of this region and other parts of the body. In general, these are endurance workouts, such as running or cycling.
Meanwhile, bodybuilding is strength training, which is usually done with extra weights, such as bench presses and dumbbells, and its main objective is to increase the amount of lean mass. But it can also increase calorie expenditure and help burn fat.
Because of these differences, many people who are just starting to exercise end up wondering whether they should do cardio before or after weight training, and what the best time is to get the most benefits.
To clear up your doubts on the subject, we’ve put together a complete post about it. Check it out!
Cardio before or after weight training?
Before doing any physical exercise, it’s very important that you warm up, and always do a cooldown after finishing your workouts.
For those who don’t know, cooldown is nothing more than a low-intensity exercise that helps burn off some substances that remain high after physical activity. It is also a regenerative exercise.
With this in mind, cardio can be used as a warm-up before weight training in a light way, such as less intense pedaling at a slower pace or even walking to warm up the joints and protect the cartilage from heavy impacts.
After weight training, you can do light cardio to strengthen your cardiovascular health and help your body recover from the workout, if your focus is on gaining muscle and benefiting your health.
If you are in the process of losing weight and need to do more intense cardio training for greater energy expenditure, always do it after weight training.
That’s because in strength training you need to be energized enough to be able to perform the exercises correctly and give more results.
Cardio before or after weight training for those who want to gain muscle mass?
Combining weight training with cardio is an excellent strategy for those who want to gain muscle mass. This is because, according to experts, cardio can speed up the muscle recovery process, promoting accelerated mass gain.
The benefits of cardio before weight training for those seeking hypertrophy were analyzed in a study published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.
In the article, the scientists observed that after training combining cardiopulmonary exercises and weight training, the athletes’ muscles were more likely to increase in size.
In addition, in the process of building muscle, it is important that you respect the recovery time of the tissues to avoid injury. Doing cardio after your workout and every other day helps keep your muscles from overworking.
That’s why it’s recommended to train each muscle group every day, to avoid overloading.
In this respect, cardio before weight training is not recommended as it can cause you to use up too much glycogen, the source of energy used by our body. When glycogen stores are low, muscles don’t perform properly during weight training sets, which can even result in injuries.
You can opt for some light cardio to warm up before you start exercising, but nothing too energy-intensive.
Does doing cardio before weight training help increase endurance?
Cardio can be done before weight training by those who are training for races and endurance activities to strengthen the cardiorespiratory system, as this type of exercise helps to improve oxygen distribution, as well as helping to lose calories.
The more energy you have and the more trained your cardiorespiratory system is, the greater your endurance capacity will be for long-term activities.
Before or after weight training to lose weight?
If you want to lose weight, cardio can be a great way to increase your energy expenditure. However, weight training also plays an important role in this process: it releases growth hormone and increases lean mass, which helps to speed up the metabolism.
In addition, doing cardio after weight training releases noradrenaline and adrenaline into the bloodstream, causing fat cells, which are the cells that store fat, to release energy that can be used to burn even more calories.
How important is it to do the exercises in the right order?
Whether you do cardio before or after weight training depends on your training goals. In fact, there is no right or wrong when it comes to resistance training before or after weight training, but bear in mind that doing resistance training beforehand can result in injuries due to lack of energy.
It will also have an impact on your results, as you may not be able to exercise properly due to low glycogen levels as a result of cardio.
It’s worth remembering that, as well as knowing the sequence of exercises for gaining muscle mass and burning fat, it’s also important to take care of your diet and protein intake during your muscle-building process.
After all, the body needs quality proteins to recover and build muscle without running the risk of catabolism.
Now that you’ve seen whether you should do cardio before or after weight training, make sure you train both if you want to burn fat and gain lean mass, as both exercises are important for this process.
You can also combine the two for better training results and to improve cardiovascular health and endurance.