WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO DO CARDIO?
Some people wake up at 5:00 a.m. just to do their cardio. Then later in the day they do their weightlifting routine. Others do their cardio before or after their workout routine. Some run at midnight to avoid heat.
When is the best time to do cardio?
Should cardio be done near the time of weightlifting or should there be a certain amount of hours between the two?
Can someone add cardio to their weight training and still gain size and muscle mass?
Is it better to do cardio after eating, or on an empty stomach? Why?
Cardio exercise without question is an essential part of any training routine whether it be a bodybuilding, strength training, sports training or most obviously a running workout schedule. It increases our endurance levels and is also an important factor in preventing all sorts of heart problems and diseases.
But its not as easy as just going outside and mindlessly running around for a few minutes and getting results. Its the same as weightlifting.
“CARDIO EXERCISE IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF ANY TRAINING ROUTINE”
You don’t just go in a gym and start curling the heaviest weight you see using horrible form. There are many different opinions on how to properly do cardio to achieve certain goals.
Some of these views are totally wrong and can mislead you and instead of moving you forward will actually set you back in the wrong direction. This is why it is so important to know what certain types of cardio are doing to your body and how to do it properly. Just like weightlifting.
WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO DO CARDIO?
There is no set time where you make the best gains to do cardio. It ranges for everyone. Always listen to your body. The best time for you to do your cardio exercise is when you feel it is the best time to do it, and stick to that time. But there is still more to this, there are still a few guidelines you should follow so that you don’t end up setting yourself back. These will help you understand when to perform your cardio for better results, or the results you want.
CARDIO IN THE MORNING ON AN EMPTY STOMACH
Cardio in the morning on an empty stomach is not good for you body. Let me enlighten you. Fat burn doesn’t occur during cardio exercise, but about two hours after. Instead your body will look at your tasty muscles for energy meaning. Bye bye muscles. This is a bodybuilders worst nightmare.
So unless your goal is to become scrawny and lose muscle then by all means do cardio in the morning. Its also common sense not to do it on an empty stomach.
You wont have a satisfactory amount of energy meaning decreases performance which = crappier results. And if you think about it, your body has just fasted for eight hours and it needs something to eat to refuel itself.
Not feeding your body and doing exercise is like going into war without any ammunition.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that doing cardio in the morning is bad, but doing it on an empty stomach is bad unless you want to lose muscle instead of fat.
So when you wake up at 5:00 A.M at least have something light to eat and wait at least 30-45 minutes before performing your cardio. Like I said earlier if you’re a morning person and you feel best in the morning then keep doing it in the morning, just make sure you don’t do it on an empty stomach.
CARDIO WORKOUT RIGHT BEFORE WEIGHTLIFTING?
Again this is also a HUGE NO! Not unless you dont want good results from pumping iron, then I guess you’re wasting your time in the gym if you go all out and perform cardio before your workouts.
But for a lot of people, especially women, they dont want to gain serious mass, so then if your weight workout is relatively low intensity and doesnt leave you feeling like you just got hit by a car, then by all means you can do cardio before your workout.
But for most of the guys, they want some serious mass, and let me tell you that the last few reps (Say the last 3-2 reps) where you struggle and sweat is where you stimulate your muscles to grow. But when you run before working out, an intense cardio workout totally or almost depletes your glycogen stores.
When weightlifting, you don’t use as much of your glycogen stores, but you still need quite a bit.
So if you have no glycogen stores which is your muscles source of energy and your pushing yourself to max, the energy wont be there to push those last few grueling reps meaning a way less effective workout.
Another reason why this is such a big NO is because during a hard cardio session, protein synthesis drops low and protein breakdown goes up. During a weight lifting session, protein synthesis either goes up a little or stays the same while protein breakdown goes up.
After your cardio session while protein synthesis drops (Your body’s ability to build muscle), and you hit the weights, the result will be that your body’s ability to build muscle will be impaired because of your cardio training depending on how intense your cardio was.
CARDIO RIGHT AFTER WEIGHTS?
Doing cardio right after weights is way better than doing it before weights. The reason being is that weight lifting doesn’t deplete your glycogen stores as bad as it does in cardio workouts depending on how intense you go.
So you still will have some of your glycogen stores left meaning that you can still get an alright cardio session. But for a more effective cardio session right after a workout, I recommend waiting at least 2 hours even more (If you have the time to do this) before doing your cardio.
In between this time it is important you replenish your glycogen stores quickly, and stop protein breakdown as fast as possible. But if you don’t have the time it is still alright to do it right after weights. Just be prepared to have a less effective cardio session.
FOR BEST RESULTS!
For best results in your cardio training, try to do schedule your sessions separate from your weightlifting program. So if you lift weights 4 times a week, then do running on the other three days that you’re not lifting weights.
Just remember try to schedule your cardio session as far away as possible from your leg lifting schedule, because running on super sore tired legs basically sucks. Doing cardio on separate days than weight lifting ensures that you have the proper energy to perform your best in either your cardio or lifting session. Then again it all depends on your training session and the intensity of it.
If you cannot then do your cardio after your workouts at least. You also have to do cardio after weights if you have 4-5 cardio sessions and are a serious weight lifter.
Remember you get the best gains when you have the most energy.