Is It Better To Do Cardio Before Or After Resistance Training?

Today's question is one of the most popular among those who are trying to learn how to lose weight, should you perform cardio before or after weights? Today you'll discover the factual answer to this often debated topic.

For many years, this was a subject which was usually answered with personal opinion. There was no real proof whether it was more effective to perform cardiovascular activity before or after a workout, so most people would simply do what worked for their own body and pass on their findings to others.


Now science has provided the answers people were previously unable to get. We'll be looking at the findings of two studies in particular and analyzing why performing cardiovascular activity before a resistance workout was recently proven to be far more effective. []

Participants in a study at the James Maddison University were subjected to an exercise program over a number of months where one group followed a cardio/weights spit and the others followed a weights/cardio split. The muscle growth in those who did their resistance training first was substantially lower than those on the opposite routine.

Furthermore, the Journal of Strength and Conditioning recently carried out a study on this topic to discover the fat loss benefits, too. Their findings were similar. Those who performed aerobic exercise before hitting the iron were able to increase fat loss results considerably over the group of case studies doing it the opposite way around.

Most folks at the gym base their opinion on this subject on what works for their own body. While there is nothing wrong with that approach at all, science suggests that those who insist upon working out with weights as soon as they hit the gym could increase results further by switching up their routine a little.

The main findings of recent studies focus on the effects of two enzymes:

* AMPK

* mTOR (aka mammalian target of rapamycin)

While mTOR is the enzyme responsible for kick-starting the body into the muscle building process at the end of a tough resistance workout, AMPK gets released during aerobic activity to adjust the body for endurance. For around 60 minutes after a workout you'll have a surge of mTOR, meaning the golden window for nutrition is this period if your goal is to gain lean muscle and burn excess fat. This surge lasts around 6 hours. []

By spending that crucial hour still working hard in the gym on a bike or treadmill you do two bad things. Firstly, you waste that golden hour of mTOR release. Secondly, you'll release more AMPK which actually blunts the release of mTOR, too.

Although you can certainly achieve a fitter physique regardless of whether you do cardio before or after weights, recent studies seem to weight heavily in favor of performing your aerobic activity before you begin using dumbbells and barbells. In order to learn how to lose weight, getting past common myths like this is part of the battle. You've just done that today and can now apply this new knowledge to your own training.

About the Author:

Need More Tips? Uncover the simple, straightforward facts behind how to lose weight with Russ Howe PTI, the UK's most watched Personal Trainer online. His free video on whether you should do cardio before or after weights will clear up this common issue for you.