Written by Team MD
16 March 2021

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Cardio or Weights First to Increase Muscle Mass?

 

Bodybuilders strive to increase muscle mass and reduce body fat as much as possible. The best way to achieve this is to train hard with weights and do cardio to burn off calories and cut fat. Unfortunately, strength and endurance exercise can interfere with each other. An age-old question is should you do cardio or weights first? Circumstantial evidence supports both training sequences.

 

Lifting weights and cardio both raise metabolic rate. Cardio and weight training cause fatigue, so if you run on the treadmill first, the quality of your weight-training program will suffer – and vice versa. Scientists from Brigham Young University, led by Micah Drummond, found that post-exercise metabolism increased most when people did cardio first and lifted weights second. The downside of the cardio/weight-training sequence is that you don’t have the strength for a high-quality weight workout. It’s difficult to do squats or lunges when your legs feel like Jell-O.

 

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Many bodybuilders like to jump on the treadmill or elliptical trainer exercises before they lift. They find it hard to do cardio for an hour after doing a monster squat and leg routine. However, Canadian researchers found this may be a mistake – doing intense cardio or interval training cuts down on the quality of the weight workout for at least eight hours.

Building muscle depends on developing peak tension and the time you maintain peak tension. Working to failure at submaximal tension is not as effective as doing it at higher muscle tensions.

 

If your goal is losing body fat, then cardio first might make sense. If your goal is to have large, strong, muscles and minimal fat, lift first and then hit the treadmill or elliptical trainer. Determine your goals and the answer is obvious.

 

For those with a goal of building muscle, researchers suggested doing cardio after you lift or do cardio in the morning and hitting the weights at least 12 hours later. (J Strength Cond Res, 17: 638-644; NSCA Performance Training Journal, 6: 6-7)

 

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