Weights Before Cardio:
 Stop Working Against Yourself

Makes sense. Carb energy is better for shorter high intensity training, being that it's easier to access for fuel while tapping into fat energy requires an extra step. So with fat's greater energy potential, it's better geared for endurance type training. So goes to show, how you work out should also be considered when choosing your macro nutrients ratio!

The info makes sense. But on the other hand, my personal trainer told me that a pre-weight training warm up of 15 to 20 minutes of HIIT on the treadmill is beneficial in that it releases some chemicals in the body that help you lift and recover better during the weight training.

Why do people over-simplify body functionality. I agree about doing cardio after your weight training, but I doubt your body will go catabolic because you exhausted some glycogen stores. First off, assuming you ate pre-workout, there is energy in your digestive tracks and in your blood sugar. As you do cardio, you do expel glycogen but your body is refueling your muscles using blood glucose (which is replenished by the food in digestive system), glycogen in liver & fat stores. When it comes time to the weight training, I doubt your body is producing Cortisol to breakdown muscle. At WORST, you will be a little weaker and won't get as much out of your weight training because your not tearing as many muscle fibres.

This

Your body holds more than 30 minutes of glycogen.

"an active 150 lb man can hold ~2000 calories of glycogen, about 1500 in muscle fibres and 500 in the liver."

From text written by Edmund Burke, Ph.D

People who regularly engage in endurance training will adapt to hold more. It is also directly related to body weight and muscle mass. so you could see how someone like a 170 lb athelete will hold far more, and a morbidly obease person will probably hold even more.

Have fun burning through 2000 calories of glycogen in 30 minutes, have fun burning through far more if you are a realistic person.

The only way you wouldnt have full glycogen stores is if you do low carb, which your body will adjust to by converting protein to glucose.

My understanding is that the body will use macronutrients in this order; carbohydrates, fat, and then if those two primary sources of energy are unavailable, it will begin to break down muscle tissue. I regularly trail run with heavy inclines and declines from 1-1.5 hours on a low carb diet. My body fat percentage has gone down while muscular tone, size, strength, and endurance has increased. I've learned that just because some "expert" says this and that, it doesnt necessarily apply to everyone.

Yes, I agree that lifting first is better just on the fatigue issue. No one hits PRs after running 5 miles.

I know glyocgen is the main fuel source, what I was getting at is that your body will more or less adapt to your daily energy expendature, and hold around enough glycogen to hold you over for about a day.

There is just so much misinformation out there about glycogen stores and the metabolic process, I'm trying to help some of the people here out with linked studies and accredited papers. I meant no disrespect to you personally at all.

I agree with you Mark, it's just the idea that your body will go catabolic which is crazy to me. There is a lot of energy in the tank, and if you ingest enough protein, your body will have no reason to breakdown muscle because of 30 mins of cardio. I still prefer HIIT and I do it for 15 mins.

I'm adding you, I like studying the science of health and fitness..you know a thing or two

Actually, I hit an awesome PR one time after running 5 miles. Actually, it was after running more than that.. I PR'd a 10K, I PR'd a half marathon........ Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Unless I missed the fine print and this thread is just for those trying to 'bulk muscle,' I think the bottom line comes down to what your goal is...

Hang on, I'm having some déjà vu here, I know we've had this conversation before... Oh yeah - it was this post..
Weights/Cardio - which one first?

Hi,
Its the chicken or the egg or who can pee the furthest.
As Scoobys workshop explains.


What the folk who pump weights neglect is, if you belong & travel to a gym then you will all ready have done X amounts of cardio to get there, hence cancelling out the weight argument.