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.
When it came to fat loss, the results were very similar. The Journal Of Strength And Conditioning recently commissioned a study which discovered that fat loss results were substantially higher by performing aerobic activity prior to resistance training.
Those facts may be controversial to many fitness enthusiasts, who opt to perform their resistance training first. The theory behind that method is that they don't want their muscles to be tired by aerobic exercise when they begin pushing out repetitions. This makes sense and it's an approach which does yield results. However, science suggests that switching them around is far superior for both fat loss and lean muscle development.
There are two key enzymes which play important roles here:
* AMPK (aka adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase)
* Mammalian Target Of Rapamycin (also called mTOR for short!)
You may have heard of these before. AMPK is the enzyme responsible for helping the body adapt to endurance exercise, while mTOR is considered an 'on' switch in the muscle building process. After you finish a weights workout, your mTOR levels surge for around one hour. This means consuming quality nutrition at this point will ensure quality lean muscle gains. After around six hours, levels of mTOR return to normal. []
The two enzymes aren't exactly the best of friends, in fact AMPK switches off mTOR substantially. So by staying in the gym after the end of your resistance workout to jog on the treadmill for half an hour you are missing most of your golden post-workout window for nutrition and also turning down the body's spike in mTOR.
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.
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. [
If you are trying to build muscle or lose weight, should you perform cardio before or after weights?
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.
When it came to fat loss, the results were very similar. The Journal Of Strength And Conditioning recently commissioned a study which discovered that fat loss results were substantially higher by performing aerobic activity prior to resistance training.
Those facts may be controversial to many fitness enthusiasts, who opt to perform their resistance training first. The theory behind that method is that they don't want their muscles to be tired by aerobic exercise when they begin pushing out repetitions. This makes sense and it's an approach which does yield results. However, science suggests that switching them around is far superior for both fat loss and lean muscle development.
There are two key enzymes which play important roles here:
* AMPK (aka adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase)
* Mammalian Target Of Rapamycin (also called mTOR for short!)
You may have heard of these before. AMPK is the enzyme responsible for helping the body adapt to endurance exercise, while mTOR is considered an 'on' switch in the muscle building process. After you finish a weights workout, your mTOR levels surge for around one hour. This means consuming quality nutrition at this point will ensure quality lean muscle gains. After around six hours, levels of mTOR return to normal. []
The two enzymes aren't exactly the best of friends, in fact AMPK switches off mTOR substantially. So by staying in the gym after the end of your resistance workout to jog on the treadmill for half an hour you are missing most of your golden post-workout window for nutrition and also turning down the body's spike in mTOR.
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:
Next Step: Uncover the easy, no-nonsense facts behind how to lose weight with Russ Howe PTI, the UK's most watched Personal Trainer on Youtube. His free video on whether you should do cardio before or after weights will help you to get started now.
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