Cardio and weightlifting, bad mix?

[Lexforce]

First of all i wanna thank everybody that writes on this forum! I just recently joined, but woah, a WEALTH of information / inspiration, thanks!

 

I want to ask what people think about cardio and weightlifting.

I've heard that doing cardio and weightlifting after oneanother isnt a good idea if you're interested in mass gaining.

But what if you just do one in the morning and one in the evening?

My situation is that i want to loose maybe 10-15 pounds but i dont really feel the need to completely go into "deff mode", if i dont have too.

 

I also have the time to work out a lot, so my question is. Would it hurt my muscle gaining to maybe do weightlifting in the morning, and then later after several meals etc, do some cardio in the evening?

Maybe this is hard to have a yes or no answer too, but i would be interested in what people think!

 

Thanks

/ Lexforce

[xjohanx]

They sort of send mixed signals so yes cardio will hurt your mass gains. Try to separate them as much as possible. Morning and evening is good but separate days would probably be better.

[Dietrich]

I was wondering about this too. I ride a bicycle to work almost every day. The trip takes about 25 minutes each way, and is really enjoyable.

 

Some days are easier than others, but I really feel it when the wind is against me (as it is on the 'going to' trip). This is in the early afternoon. Weights are usually done late at night, after work, between 2 and 3 am. I work nights, so there is no adjusting this.

 

The bike riding helped me get and keep a trim stomach (and I'm 41 years old). Now I want to start gaining some muscle mass, so I'm eating for that and hitting the weights. But I have no choice. The bike rides must stay. But it must be possible. There are certainly worse things that I could be doing.

[medman]

They exist on a spectrum, if you could picture

 

Cardio---------------------------------------------------------Mass

 

Now, you can sit anywhere along there that you want. Go hardcore on cardio, and you will not gain much mass. Go hardcore on the weightlifting and you won't be able to train for a marathon.

 

You can, however, strike a balance that you're comfortable with. For example, moderate cardio will mean you will not gain mass as fast as if you would with less cardio, but you'll have better endurance than if you focused purely on mass. That might be exactly what you're looking for. I went from one extreme (marathoning, no weightlifting) to the other recently (3X powerlifting weekly, very little cardio). I just started a cutting phase in order to increase my cardio fitness because having decent cardio is important to me. I do this understanding that this will slow my gains for the time being, but right now that is in line with my fitness goals.

[Dietrich]

Hmmm. I guess I will just have to leave for work earlier, and ride the bicycle at a slow pace (maybe?). I used to love the rush of trying to cut minutes off my trip, and the burn in my legs is great. But I do prefer to put some mass on.

 

I guess I'm doing approximately an hour a day of cardio (50 minutes of bike riding plus whatever else I accidentally do) 5 days a week, March to November. Does this seem excessive?

 

Keep in mind, this is just how I get to work. I didn't really consider it 'exercise' for a long time, and then I started reading this board and saw that (as you explained above) the cardio competes with the mass gains.

[VelvetVoices]

Thanks for posting this Lexforce, I was wondering the same thing.

I'm in the same boat as Dietrich, I ride my bike to and from work (25mins each way) 5 days a week, well hopefully this doesn't hinder my weightlifting much.

 

*EDIT* Should I be increasing my intake of calories if I continue to ride my bike and lift weights?

[Adena]

Thanks for posting this Lexforce, I was wondering the same thing.

I'm in the same boat as Dietrich, I ride my bike to and from work (25mins each way) 5 days a week, well hopefully this doesn't hinder my weightlifting much.

 

*EDIT* Should I be increasing my intake of calories if I continue to ride my bike and lift weights?

 

If you want to get bigger and/or stronger, then yes, definitely.

[ambetious]

The best time to do cardio is either first thing in the morning or right after a weight training workout because our body runs low on carbs at these times and it has no where to go but to burn the body fat for energy.

[MartinVegartin]

I haven't read all of this study yet. I found it when I was looking for something else. It might be of interest to those who want to combine cardio with their weight training.

 

It doesn't talk about mass. It was designed to test vascular function in people who do aerobic exercise either before or after resistance training. But it also found something interesting about 1RM increases.

 

Some studies have shown that resistance training can cause arterial stiffening. Some others haven't found that. I think I read of one that said low volume resistance training won't lead to stiffened arteries. I forget now without checking but I think the resistance training = stiff arteries idea might have come from studies done with powerlifter-types. Or it might not have been.

 

Aerobic exercise can protect against age-related stiffening of the arteries and can undo much of the damage already done by aging.

 

The present study I've mentioned tested people who did aerobic exercise either before or after resistance training. Only those who did it afterwards showed an improvement in vascular function. In fact, a measure of arterial stiffness was shown to be reduced in the 'after' trainers but there was no change to it in the 'before' trainers. The 'after' trainers also had a greater increase in !RM than those who did aerobic exercise before resistance training.

 

The kind of resistance training I do has a large aerobic/cardio component to it as my heart and lungs don't get a chance to recover properly before the next set starts. I'm huffing and puffing from start to finish. But, I am probably going to do about 15-20 minutes of cardio-type exercise after my weight training from now on. At least on every other training day.

 

------

The percentage increases in 1RM were as follows:

 

Aerobics Before Resistance Training

shoulder press 13. seated rows 15. arm curl 33. leg press 16. leg curl 16. chest press18.

 

 

Aerobics After Resistance Training.

shoulder press 17. seated rows 16. arm curl 52 leg press 39. leg curl 29. chest press 20.

 

Obviously, these were the average for the whole group but most individuals must have had significant gains or there would have been mention of those who didn't gain much.

 

The authors say that aerobic exercise before resistance training reduces growth hormone response. Perhaps this explains the differences in the 2 groups' !RM gains.

-------

Journal of Applied Physiology 103: 1655-1661, 2007.

 

Combined aerobic and resistance training and vascular function: effect of aerobic exercise before and after resistance training

[Ted Trendy]

They sort of send mixed signals so yes cardio will hurt your mass gains.

^^^

this is a good quick answer.

 

ive always had trouble really bulking up, since i do triathlon and the key is to be as light as possible and build long lean muscles with lots of endurance. in the off season i cut back on the cardio, increase the food load, and i can put on muscle mass no problem. right now though, its impossible for me to gain mass, burning anywhere from 2,000-5,000 calories a day.

[apriltrainer]

I was wondering about this too. I ride a bicycle to work almost every day. The trip takes about 25 minutes each way, and is really enjoyable.

 

Some days are easier than others, but I really feel it when the wind is against me (as it is on the 'going to' trip). This is in the early afternoon. Weights are usually done late at night, after work, between 2 and 3 am. I work nights, so there is no adjusting this.

 

The bike riding helped me get and keep a trim stomach (and I'm 41 years old). Now I want to start gaining some muscle mass, so I'm eating for that and hitting the weights. But I have no choice. The bike rides must stay. But it must be possible. There are certainly worse things that I could be doing.

 

I'm in the same boat. I bike to work - it takes me between 30 min on a good day...45 if the wind is really kickin it!

 

So I know I get a good cardio workout just biking, although I do try to take it easy while commuting. But still I do cardio seperate from biking. I get to work. Train a few clients. Then I have to train myself.

 

During that block of time I will do wts first, just so I have enough strength for my weight routine and then cardio afterwards.

 

I find that when I do cardio first, my strength routine isn't as good.

 

But that's just me. Even when i was in the military we would do our pushups, situps, etc. before our runs.

[Ducati]

45 if the wind is really kickin it!

 

That is all those damn politicians:)

 

 

Wouldn't cardio first then weight training later in the day be better? It seems like recovery from cardio is very quick, but weight training needs more time to repair.

[RobertK]

I'm still kind of new to all this but when I first started I would get up early and do cardio before work and then after work return to the gym to lift weights. Gradually (mainly because my wife complains if I get up before 6am) I tried doing both after work and found that after a 30 minute cardio session I couldn't lift weight to save my life.

 

I've just now started to alternate days and it seems like I can already tell a big difference in my weight training regiments.

[Fallen_Horse]

Alternating days is great too if you are doing full body routines. That way you have a day of cardio for your muscles to recover....

[apriltrainer]

45 if the wind is really kickin it!

 

That is all those damn politicians:)

 

 

Wouldn't cardio first then weight training later in the day be better? It seems like recovery from cardio is very quick, but weight training needs more time to repair.

 

As a pt I sometimes don't have that option! Sounds odd, right? I work right in a gym.

 

But I have clients in the am...a small window of time to train myself...and then back to training clients. As a pt I have to be careful that I don't forget to take care of my own fitness.

 

I am sometimes in the gym from 6 am....to 9 pm!!

 

So yeah, I do wts first and then cardio in one block of time. No two a day workouts for this chic.

 

But my body seems to be compatible with that mix.

 

When people ask me how long I work out...they are dumbfounded. not to toot my own horn...but people think I spend hours at the gym. Well...I do training clients. As far as my own training- 20 min to 45.

 

That's it.

 

My abs are the proof...