Should You Do Cardio Before Weights While At The Gym?

Many people who come to the gym have the attitude that they have a list of exercises they want to do and it doesn’t matter what order they do them in. Many people come to me for advice on how to organise their gym routine as this is one of the most valuable areas to work on, it requires no additional effort on the part of the exerciser and it can be immensely beneficial for your overall health.

It is all too easy when in the gym to pick and choose machines and weights on the basis of whether they are occupied or not and whether they are something you simply fancy doing at that moment. It is important that you realise what a difference the order your work out can make and that waiting for a machine is part of going to the gym and should not detract you from your set workout routine.

Many of my clients are men who want to put on weight and they see cardio is something that is important but is capable of tiring them out and making them less efficient when weight training. Realistically though this is not something that they need to be worried about, even if you do around 45 minutes of exercise at a moderate rate you are not going to affect your performance at weightlifting very significantly.

So What Comes First?

My personal recommendation to anyone who wants to do a combination of cardio and weight training is to do the cardio first. This is because one of the main problems people face when exercising is that after a weight training session the muscles are exhausted and getting on the treadmill is a very unappealing prospect. If you tackle this at the start you are feeling fresh and once you have finished on the treadmill your muscles won’t feel as exhausted as they would after a session with some weights.

Several recently completed studies have backed up my initial thinking and have shown that the most efficient use of energy is done when cardio is conducted first. Another study showed that those who are exercising also faced psychological barriers to doing cardio exercise after weightlifting. Anyone who has finished an intense lifting session will know how hard it can be motivate yourself to jump on the treadmill after 30 minutes of hard running.

Here’s a video on benefits of cardio both before and after exercise -

My view is by no means universally accepted and it is important to mention that some weight trainers believe that doing cardio training produces a type of hormone that can break down muscle stores and therefore affect the power left. However, as long as you eat a careful diet and make sure your body has all of the requirements then this is not going to be an issue for you, and it is important that you do not underestimate the importance of cardio exercise even if you are going to the gym solely to put on muscle weight. Cardio exercise increases the amount of blood that can be fed to your muscles and improves your overall performance.

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