Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Should You Do Cardio Prior To Weight Training?

By Russ Howe


At some stage, everyone who wants to know how to lose weight finds themselves in a situation in the gym where they are getting conflicting advice from everyone they talk to. One of those situations involves this question - should you do cardio before or after weights?

The facts behind this question are very clear so today you will discover the answer.

If you were to ask most experienced gym users for their opinion on this matter, you would probably be overwhelmed with the conflicting information in many people's views on the subject. You would also be shocked that despite the fact someone may look good, it appears they may merely be training instinctively and without any real knowledge of why they are doing things a certain way. Most people believe that doing cardio after weighs is superior as it allows you to hit the weights while your energy is peaking.

This particular belief stacks up well from a common sense point of view, but when you look at the latest scientific research available you will be surprised at the findings.

You see, in order to get to the bottom of this popular gym myth we have no choice but to look at things on a scientific level. The body makes several noteworthy changes during your time on the gym floor, some of which are hugely important in answering this question. The first of which is m-TOR release.

The more gym savvy readers here will notice this word from many protein supplements on the market. That's because this enzyme is thought to be responsible for switching on the body's muscle building recovery process following a gym workout. It is released in a spike which can last for up to six hours and, naturally, you want to enjoy the maximum benefit from this spike if your goal is to build more lean muscle tissue.

During aerobic activity, such as a bike or treadmill, the body adapts by releasing an enzyme called AMPK.

Despite being perfectly natural, AMPK has one flaw - it kills off m-TOR!

So by jumping on a treadmill after your weights workout and doing half an hour of cardio exercise, you are actually causing your body to release a spike of AMPK and shut down much of the increased m-TOR you caused by working hard on the iron in the first place.

It is also worth noting that several studies have looked into just how much pre workout cardio can zap the muscles of strength, too. One study tested this theory by having subjects do a tough aerobic session followed by a bench press and squat session. The cardio only affected the squats, which prompted the conclusion that you can get around this issue by simply avoiding cardio activity before leg day - this allows you to get the full benefits of cardio without missing out on the full benefits of the spike in m-TOR brought about by a heavy weights session.

If you are searching for the best explanations on how to lose weight then it makes sense to go with the most logical scientific answers rather than buying into the wealth of gym myths which are out there. Should you do cardio before or after weights? The latest science is massively in favor of doing it before.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment