Quote:
Originally Posted by jwright25
This is intriguing. I always heard the opposite - and that you should do cardio first to get the blood flowing to your muscles and to "warm" them up. Would you mind to elaborate on the physiological reasons why it is best to do cardio second?  |
There is competing evidence, but most agree that it's better to lift after having a little bit of an increase in body temperature - there's actually increasing evidence that stretching is differently important than we thought (it might be better for lifting than running, for example), but sweating a little might improve pliability and make your lifting more effective (and safer).
However, there are noted advantages to lifting first (IIRC, mostly related to ATP replenishment and etc. being better at that point, plus metabolic benefits), then doing cardio, so most suggest a brief warmup, then weight work, then cardio work.
Realistically, if you're a novice, you should probably start with the one you're most serious about - the percentage gains at first won't really matter a ton. After a while, you can get with recent research and tailor your program a little better.