Have you ever wondered why you always hear trainers like myself, recommend lifting weights before doing cardio? Assuming your goal is to lose fat/ build muscle/ get lean, here is why.
1. When we show up for our daily workout, our muscles are all nice and loaded with glycogen (sugar we store in our muscles, assuming we eat starchy carbs) and we have energy to burn! We need to prioritize that on lifting weights so we can go as heavy as possible and maintain proper form.
For example.. think about when you are trying to do a dumbbell overhead press. When are you most likely to arch your back or not press all the way to lockout? When you are tired! Lifting requires a lot of energy – we need to use what we have on lifting if our goal is to get lean.
2. When we are strength training we are creating neural adaptations between our brain in our body to execute a lift with coordination. We have motor neurons that are nerve cells in our CNS (brain and spinal chord) and end at our muscle fibers. The brain signals the motor neurons to get our muscle fibers to contract.
A new lifter really and truly does have to focus more because you are creating neural pathways whereas an experienced lifter can potentially rely more on muscle memory as a pathway has been established (however if you consistently execute poor form, you are doing yourself a huge disservice here.) So as you can imagine, that takes energy, which again, is why lifting should generally come before cardio.
3. Studies have shown that moderate intensity cardio over 30-60 minutes can cause your body to utilize protein (your muscle) as fuel if it cannot draw upon your stored glycogen. It may also utilize fat as fuel, but this is something to be mindful of.
4. You may mentally check out after 30 minutes and that’s not safe for lifting heavy weights. If your goal is to get lean, that requires building muscle, which requires lifting weights, so that should be your priority for your daily workout, and I’d rather you mentally check out on cardio as it’s not as important as lifting.
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