cardio before weight lifting

if i do hard cardio for 20 min before and after my lifting sessions will this hurt my gains? or will it help me burn fat?

A little bit of cardio as warm up before lifting is great to lift your heart rate and it warms up your body before you shock it with lifting. If you want a balanced routine, you should do most of your cardio after your lift. Its ideal to split it up between a warm up (5-10 minutes) and 15-30 minutes after your lift depending on how much you are lifting and how many muscle groups you choose to work out. I got this routine from my friend who is a personal trainer and while it takes a lot of work, it has gotten me in shape over the last few months ever since I haven't had time to go hiking as much as I want. Hope this helps!

it is good and recomended as it gets your blood pumping.

Actually weight lifting utilizes sugar as the primary fuel and not fat. Fat is used for long term energy thus it is used for cardio training. Muscle tissue burns fat every single moment of every single day, thus the more muscle tissue you have the more fat burning potential you have.

Hicksville, New York.

I would personally recommend cardio after a workout, your first energy system used it ATP and Creatine Phosphte which is used for the short burst of lifting (as in weight lifting), if you do cardio previous to your weight lifting you will use your first energy source as in your CP, therefor you will have less energy for weight lifting. Now unless your diet is very bad you will not lose muscle of course, but if you have a normal diet that consists of proteins, carbs, etc then you will still have fine results if you start with cardio. I hope this helps, I start with weights everyday, and if I feel like having a bit of extra energy after a couple hours of weights I run a bit.

Guest wrote:

Guest wrote: If you want to gain serious muscle....do no cardio. Train right, eat right and rest............rest. No drugs or boose. you mean if you want to be totally weak but look like a muscle bound freak. Cardio= heart. No matter how bulging your muscles are, not doing cardio means you wont have any stamina. So if you want to look like a prize winning bull standing on a stage then fine. But if you actually want to be in good shape, cardio is the way to go.

I wonder if you really have to work to be this ignorant, or does it just come naturally to you?

Weightlifting improves cardiovascular health. Anything that gets your heart working improves cardiovascular health. I have had my heart rate just as high doing deadlifts and squats as it has been on the treadmill.

**edited by moderator**

[quote="Guest"]

Guest wrote:

I wonder if you really have to work to be this ignorant, or does it just come naturally to you? Weightlifting improves cardiovascular health. Anything that gets your heart working improves cardiovascular health. I have had my heart rate just as high doing deadlifts and squats as it has been on the treadmill. **edited by moderator**

You're right and wrong.Weightlifting gets the heart rate up, but for only a very short amount of time. Not nearly enough as good as cardio does. Cardio exercises gets the heart rate up much higher than weightlifting and for a much longer time. Besides, if you think that cardio makes you "weak", you are sadly mistaken. Just look muscular sprinters are. Cardio improves heart, kidney, lungs and other organ's function.