For decades that fitness enthusiasts have discussed the question: Is it better to do cardio before or after lifting weights? Until recently, the answer was largely a question of preference.
One may have finally answered the order of order in training: should we first run or exercise to increase muscle mass?
According to the study, the order of your training significantly affects the amount of fat you lose. Participants who did training with weights before the cardio lost significantly more fat and became more physically active Throughout the day, compared to those who made cardio first.
Researchers recruited 45 young men aged 18 to 30, classified as obese. Researchers divided participants into three groups for 12 weeks. A group was a control group. This means that they maintained their habitual habits of life and made no changes to their exercise regime.
The other two groups were exercised during 60 minutes, three times a week. Participants also received sports clocks to objectively follow the daily movement. This has helped investigators avoid dependence on self-relate, which can often be inaccurate.
Both exercise groups followed identical training programs, differing only following the exercises. The strength training involved real weights, with participants to perform exercises such as the bench press, the earth survey, the biceps thread and the squat. Cardio sessions involved 30 minutes of Stationary bike.
Participants of both groups recorded improvements in their cardiovascular aptitude, muscle strength and body composition – Specifically, they lost fat mass while gaining lean muscle mass. Interestingly, improvements in cardiovascular aptitude were similar, regardless of the sequence, which reflects recent that the order of exercise has a limited impact on cardiovascular adaptations.
But the real differences arose when it was fat loss and muscle performance. Participants who raised weights first registered significantly higher reductions in total body fat and visceral fat – The type of fat most strongly linked to the risk of cardiovascular disease.
They also increased their daily steps of Passos by about 3500 steps compared to only 1600 steps from the group that started with Cardio. In addition, the approach that privileges weights increased muscle resistance and explosive force.
Why the exercise sequence is important
The reason underlying these results is related to how your body uses energy.
O Resistance training exhausts muscle glycogen reserves – Sugar stored in the muscles that acts as the quick access fuel of your body. Imagine glycogen as gasoline in your car’s fuel tank. When you raise weights first, this fuel tank effectively exhausts, forcing your body to change your energy source.
With the already low glycogen reserves, when it transitions to the cardio, your body has to resort more to fat reservations to get energy. It is as if a hybrid car would use the battery when the gasoline gets weak. This metabolic change helps to explain the greatest loss of fat observed in the group that started with weights.
The conclusions of this recent study are in line with a broader investigation. An exhaustive published in 2022 concluded that Resistance training alone can significantly reduce body fat and visceral fatthe type of fat associated with chronic diseases. The muscles are metabolic tissues, continually burning calories even at rest, which amplifies these effects.
On the other hand, Cardio first can compromise the effectiveness of your strength training. Cardio spends glycogen reserves, leaving the muscles partially exhausted before it even lifting a weight. Also induces fatigue and can reduce the ability of your muscles to produce strength and explosive power.
A recent systematic review on simultaneous training (the practice of combining resistance and aerobic exercises in the same program) corroborates this – noting that explosive force gains can decrease if aerobic and strength training occur in the same session, especially if cardio is first performed.
These results are in accordance with other studies on simultaneous training. A systematic and meta-analysis that examined the effects of the exercise sequence concluded that resistance protocols first produced significantly superior force improvements compared to resistance training first.
American Heart Association on Resistance Training confirmed that resistance exercise significantly improves lean body mass and reduces fat, especially when combined with other types of exercise. However, isolated resistance training was considered less effective in improving cardiovascular health. This underlines the importance of including cardio in its exercise routine.
One suggests that adaptations may differ from sex, indicating the need for further research involving various populations.
Curiously, resistance training increases confidence and energy levels, Naturally encouraging more movement throughout the day, further helping fat loss.
If the cardiovascular physical condition is its main objective, the sequence is not so important, since both forms also increase aerobic physical condition.
