Cardio after weightlifting workout?

[shoreman1782]

1. Resistance training and aerobic activity both work best when done with maximum effort. Doing after one another simply forces the body to adapt by lowering intensity; result, you dwell with mediocrity in both.

What about lifting after cardio? I'm not a dedicated enough gym rat to maintain a serious lifting regimen (I know, everyone just stop taking me seriously right now), but I like to lift after my cardio (typically when it's too cold outside to run, 45 mins-1 hr of moderate-speed running on a treadmill, or mix of running intervals, or work on an ergometer).

Am I pretty much not going to see strength gains if I do an hour of cardio first?

 

[Philosoph]

Speaking for myself, if I really worked myself doing an hour of cardio, I would be completely incapable of getting through a lifting session. I would be fatigued and have 0 intensity.

I would rather separate cardio and lifting so that I can work as hard as possible at each rather than compromising the effectiveness of my workout for the sake of efficiency.

 

[A Canuker]

I do some cardio after lifting as a bit of a cool down, something like 20 mins on a bike.

Like the above poster I would be dead if I did a hour or more cardio before lifting. I have found that I can do a set of lifting then 20 mins cardio then back to lifting sometimes. Guess it resets the body or something.

 

[shoreman1782]

Maybe I'm just not working hard enough on my cardio!

 

[imageWIS]

At the end I decided against it, after a great work out, I'm too fatigued to do cardio. I just do cardio on different days.

Jon.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by whacked

re: fasted cardio, for the 3443th time: Dissecting the myth
Please stop posting that ludicrous article. It jumps everywhere and cites studies from trained to untrained individuals to advanced athletes to people with higher percentages of body fat to lower percentages, articles devoid of any kind of information regarding macronutrient ratios, calories consumed, etc. It's a massive amalgamation of data that's thrown at the reader for no reason; everyone who's read the thing has already nodded or shook their head at the title. Francis Bacon rolls in his grave every time that garbage gets posted. re: cardio after weightlifting, My answer is no, and the reasons are 2 fold:

1. Resistance training and aerobic activity both work best when done with maximum effort. Doing after one another simply forces the body to adapt by lowering intensity; result, you dwell with mediocrity in both.

That's if you exclusively do cardio after lifting. We're discussing if it burns a higher percentage of fat as a substrate, not giving a sprinter's workout program.

 

[Philosoph]

Originally Posted by why

We're discussing if it burns a higher percentage of fat as a substrate, not giving a sprinter's workout program.

Low-intensity cardio burns a higher percentage of fat than any other activity I can think of offhand. But if this were optimal for fat loss, then all those soccer moms and their fat husbands reading magazines on the elliptical machines would look 100x better than they in fact do. Despite the fact that low-intensity cardio burns a higher percentage of fat, the overall amount of fat it burns is negligible compared to more effective forms of exercise. High-intensity activity, whether it's sprints, complexes, HIIT, or something else will significantly raise your metabolism and increase EPOC, and over the course of a day will burn a greater amount of fat.

If you're doing fasted cardio, you either won't have the energy available to really kick up the intensity to effective levels, or if you can somehow summon the energy the overall effect over the course of the day will be exactly the same as if you had eaten something first. Most people won't have the necessary energy without food.

 

[whacked]

Originally Posted by why

Please stop posting that ludicrous article. It jumps everywhere and cites studies from trained to untrained individuals to advanced athletes to people with higher percentages of body fat to lower percentages, articles devoid of any kind of information regarding macronutrient ratios, calories consumed, etc.

It's a massive amalgamation of data that's thrown at the reader for no reason; everyone who's read the thing has already nodded or shook their head at the title.

Francis Bacon rolls in his grave every time that garbage gets posted.

Hmmm okay, I'd like to hear your opinions on the this particular research (referred to by Aragon):

Febbraio MA, et al. Effects of carbohydrate ingestion before and during exercise on glucose kinetics and exercise performance. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Dec;89(6):2220-6.

Better yet, do you have suggestions on readings which similarly try to comprehensively tackle this subject? And not the T-Nation roundtable please, for it's hard to navigate past the marketing BS John Berardi churns out these days.

Originally Posted by why

That's if you exclusively do cardio after lifting. We're discussing if it burns a higher percentage of fat as a substrate, not giving a sprinter's workout program.

Sorry, I don't get what you're saying.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by whacked

Hmmm okay, I'd like to hear your opinions on the this particular research (referred to by Aragon): Febbraio MA, et al. Effects of carbohydrate ingestion before and during exercise on glucose kinetics and exercise performance. J Appl Physiol. 2000 Dec;89(6):2220-6.
I don't have access to the article; I have some anonymous Internet personality's word.

Better yet, do you have suggestions on readings which similarly try to comprehensively tackle this subject? And not the T-Nation roundtable please, for it's hard to navigate past the marketing BS John Berardi churns out these days.

No, and I don't care enough to look up studies because I can find 10 studies that say one thing and 10 studies that say another. There's no use in studying this subject because it's almost impossible to pin down anything for certain individuals. One method isn't 'better' than another because people have different goals. I have no idea what the people in the study ate, how old they were, how much they weighed, their exercise history, what equipment was used for testing, if they had any medical conditions, etc. Hell, I don't even know what Alan Aragon means when he tries to summarize the study. Individuals had increased performance? Excuse me, what? Their heart rates were identical. 'Increased performance' is undefined and ultimately useless. And if fat oxidation was identical between both groups, then what was the point of eating? The entire study flies in the face of every study done on the human endocrine system to begin with. Glucagon and insulin are opposing hormones. When insulin is raised, glucagon depletes. No glucagon, no fat oxidation.

Sorry, I don't get what you're saying.

Alan Aragon's article doesn't mention individual goals. He's using studies that measure fat oxidation overall as well as fat oxidation as a percentage of total substrates oxidized. In other words, he gives no goal and throws out a ton of data that's meaningless.

Originally Posted by Philosoph

Despite the fact that low-intensity cardio burns a higher percentage of fat, the overall amount of fat it burns is negligible compared to more effective forms of exercise. High-intensity activity, whether it's sprints, complexes, HIIT, or something else will significantly raise your metabolism and increase EPOC, and over the course of a day will burn a greater amount of fat.
Awesome! Read the original post again and get the red herring out of here -- it's beginning to rot.

 

[Philosoph]

Originally Posted by why

Awesome! Read the original post again and get the red herring out of here -- it's beginning to rot.

I did, thank you very much. The OP was asking about the best way to burn unwanted fat. That is by doing various forms of high-intensity activity. And to achieve the proper intensity, the vast majority of people need to have some fuel in their systems. So for most people, fasted cardio is not optimal and quite possibly counterproductive.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by Philosoph

The OP was asking about the best way to burn unwanted fat.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

 

[Philosoph]

Originally Posted by why

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

How insightful. Would you mind posting something that would either be relevant or helpful?

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by Philosoph

How insightful. Would you mind posting something that would either be relevant or helpful?

Wonder why the OP stopped posting?

Jon.

 

[whacked]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Wonder why the OP stopped posting?

Jon.

Because he decides that bulking up might be too much work after all? Or that he's just an asshole?

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by imageWIS

Wonder why the OP stopped posting?

Jon.

Doing cardio after lifting killed him.