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?  |
You can do a "warm up", such as 5-10 minutes on the bike/elliptical/treadmill/stairmaster before you lift, but you should do your resistance training before you do your cardio (i.e. an aerobics class).
The rationale: when you do lift first, you deplete the glycogen stores in your muscles & you are a bit tired This is not a problem when you are doing cardio, because you are not bearing a load (i.e. lifting weights). You are also getting into fat burning stores, rather than glycogen burning stores
If you were to do cardio first (like an hour STEP Class or something like that), you will have depleted the glycogen stores in your muscles, and THEN if you were to try to go and lift thereafter you are more tired, and you risk compromising your form and potentially injuring yourself.
A lil' warmup beforehand is fine, but then after you are warmed up, you should endeavor to lift before cardio. (i.e. A 10 minute warmup on the machines should not constitute "cardio").
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