Cardio Before Or After Resistance Training For Fat Loss?
Listen to the post, Cardio Before Or After Resistance Training For Fat Loss, on our Live Lean TV Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast!
Avoid these 2 common mistakes when doing cardio for fat loss
On today’s episode of Live Lean TV, I’m talking about if you should do cardio before or after resistance training for fat loss.
I also compare HIIT cardio vs steady state cardio and share my best tips when doing cardio to lose weight.
When it comes to fat loss and cardio workouts, there are two mistakes that I’ve been seeing at the gym.
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So be honest.
Are you making these 2 common workout mistakes when doing cardio to lose weight?
Let’s find out.
Mistake #1: 100% low intensity steady state cardio
Getting in the comfort zone of always doing low intensity steady state cardio workouts, a.k.a. LISS cardio.
LISS cardio simply means maintaining a heart rate at a steady continuous pace, over a long period of time.
This is usually accomplished by a fast walk on a treadmill or a slow jog.
Why is it a mistake to only do low intensity steady state cardio?
Well seriously, whoever got amazing results by only staying in your comfort zone.
Since you’re doing the same cardio workout over and over again, research shows your body can adapt to the same repetitive stimulus after only 6-8 weeks.
Remember, when your body adapts, fat loss slows down and eventually stops.
Here’s your Action Step
Switch to high intensity interval training cardio workouts, a.k.a. HIIT cardio.
However, if you’re new to the gym and out of shape, feel free to start with low intensity steady state cardio workouts for no more than 6-8 weeks.
After 6-8 weeks, switch to HIIT for your cardio workouts and watch how rapid the fat burns off your body.
Switching to HIIT cardio workouts is as simple as increasing the…
- speed
- resistance
- incline
…for approximately 30 seconds to raise your heart rate.
Then decrease the speed, resistance, or incline until your heart rate lowers back down to your low intensity training zone.
Depending on your fitness level, this could take approximately 60 seconds or more.
Switch up your cardio workouts and watch the fat burn off much quicker.
Mistake #2: Doing cardio before your resistance training workout
One of the questions I’m asked most frequently is should you do cardio before or after resistance training for fat loss.
Unfortunately a lot of people perform their cardio workout before their resistance training workout, i.e. lifting weights.
Here’s why you should do you resistance training workout before cardio.
When you lift weights, you empty your glycogen stores, which sets the body up for prime fat burning during your cardio workout.
Also, if you complete your cardio workout before your resistance training workout, you’re going to be weaker as your blood pH drops.
This will hinder your body’s ability to recruit your higher threshold muscle fibers, which are needed for a kick butt workout.
Bottom line on cardio before or after resistance training for fat loss
If you’re combining your cardio workouts and your resistance training workouts into one session:
Lift first. Cardio after.
In the comment section below, let me know what your favorite form of cardio is?
You probably already know this, but my favorite form of HIIT cardio workouts are from my Live Lean Sprint 2.0 HIIT cardio and LISS cardio program.
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Brad Gouthro is the founder of Live Lean TV, a media company focused on helping men and women “Live Lean” 365 days a year. Brad’s programs and content have helped millions of people all over the world learn how to get in shape, and more importantly, sustain it for life.
nice shirt….lol
How about lift – run – lift – run – lift – run, crossfit style……
How cute you are! <3
Thank for tip
I believe in facts(result), not theory. When I went oversea travel for 2
weeks, I ate more than usual, I came back losing weight and looked great. I
had never done any HIIT during my travel (!), but I had at least 4 hrs of
walk each day – comfortable pace as any traveller will do. I believe any
workout is good, as long as you are moving, you are good.
Wait I have been running for 4km before every workout session and it was
like an intense run. Is that what u meant by the second mistake?
man that voice really suits you in the end 😛 haha jks
Lift first cardio after !!
ill be sure to try that out today but the only problem is usually if i do
that by the time i get to cardio my body is drained and intensity doesn’t
stay the same
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Damn, I diden’t think I was doing this misstakes but… Yes.
So now forth, Weight lifting before my Cardio intervals. Thanks Brad!
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What would you recommend for people that workout in the morning and the night? Strength in the morning and cardio at night? Or cardio in the morning and strength at night?
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depends on the intensity. but if by “running” you mean sprinting intervals … i have to give it to sprints
Hey Brad, great info on your videos.
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Brad i make the expiriance that it yould be great if you do a interval 15min cardio before the strengh training. Because if you do intense strengh workout with supersets and dropsets etc. its a 45min fatburning workout to with an empty glycogen storrage because of the cardio you did before.
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2-3
how many days a week
thank u
how long should we do cardio for
how many minutes
I like jump rope for my cardio! If I don’t lift weights just target workouts like squats and butt lifting exercises does it still matter if I do cardio before or after? Thank u! 🙂
dont listen people saying steady cardio is bad cause its not. Do both HIIT ans steady, just do more of what you prefer. Fat loss will never stop simply because thermodynamics laws.
sounds good to me.
Quick question. What if I’m doing both at the same time? I’ve been on a plan of full body movement bodyweight exercises with no breaks in between. I leave the gym dripping in sweat and gasping for breath. Is this the wrong approach?
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Thank you so much Brad. I have just started training this week and was commiting these two mistakes. Fortunately I found your youtube channel and I will be able to change the way I work out.
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Hey Brad. I’m doing 10 min warm up cardio before my weight training and right after I’m done with weights I do 20 min interval cardio. You think it’s the right way ?
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Can you share some breathing techniques, I have major problems with that and how important is it?
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hey brad, i’ve been doing my cardio in the morning on a empty stomach but with a cup of black coffee in my system. After i finish i go straight home and have protein souce and carbs. I am loosing fat at the steady rate i would like to, is this the wrong approach though? Also i alter my macros every week doing 20/40/40 split
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depends on what your goals are…but if it’s to lose fat, i love this intense approach.
Hi Brad, what do you think about doing cardio in-between your lifting / strength training exercises? so for instance, you do a set of weighted dead lifts then you move on to doing a cardio exercise like burpees or mountain climbers then you move on to the next set of your strength training and so on. Hope that makes sense.
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Hi to you Brad from South Africa! I count CrossFit as my cardio sessions. Is that the right or wrong approach to adopt? I do CrossFit 3 times a week on average.
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that’s a great way to do it as well. nice!
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Did both.
You won, I subscribed. T T
good question…if you’re doing bike sprints (all out effort for 30-60 sec then normal speed to recover)…I’d say yes…but if you’re just cruising along at a normal pace, it’s more of a warm up.
Brad, I go to gym riding a bicycle and it takes me 30 min to get to it. Should I count those 30 min as a cardio session?
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I was nearly disappointed until you mentioned sprints at the end!! I don’t care who you are or what you are sprinting is the **BEST** fat loss exercise anyone can do. I’m not talking running either, all out full intensity sprinting. As a rule of thumb if you start slowing down even a little, STOP. get your breath back and repeat. Better to sprint uphill in my opinion, easier on the knees. Yes it’s Hard work but the results are spectacular.
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I see people running 30 minutes at the same speed on a threadmill and they wonder why they see no results. I run for 10 minutes in 30-45 seconds intervals and about 10.5 speed then take it down to 6.5 with the incline about 8-10 and do that for 10 minutes. Works for me and it burns fat
Can you gain weight by running?
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Those the same applied if your doing fasted cardio???
if you’re training specifically for a 5K that needs to be the focus of your training. Try splitting up you weight days and cardio days. So train cardio one day, and weights another.
Hey Brad, I’m training for a 5k, and currently doing cardio first to help increase my aerobic capacity. Would it be more advantageous for me to do strength training first?
Great info! My favorite form of cardio is spin class.
hey brad can you please share your experience with creatine?
I typically do cardio first and then weights in one session. I had no idea that I should do weights first, THEN cardio. Thanks so much for the information! I love to run for cardio training; however, because I have a bad knee, I alternate between that and walking. I also still like to do Tae-Bo for cardio. I try to switch up my routine each workout session. Thanks again! I subscribed.
Wat is cardio
Wat Ia cardio
Thank you for the info! I almost always do my cardio first, and weights after (though I don’t actually use weights, but resistance bands…is it the same??).
Oh great post as always! Luckily I got it down 😉 but only thru reading about fitness and really getting into the topic. I think its the lack of information and the lack of really researching for yourself about weight loss and all that what makes people do these kind of mistakes.
Not know that. Got cut off damnitt
Interesting thank you. I did
Good advice! My fave cardio is high intensity
hey Brad, great post! And I like how you suggest that you do strength training first and then cardio after. For a long time I followed this protocol:
45 min – 1 hour – lifting
15 min – intervals (45 sec hard / 90 sec recovery)
20-25 min steady cardio on elliptical
And it worked really well.
I would like to know what you would think about mixing lifting and steady cardio. For example, doing a set of squats (10-12 reps) to get your heart rate going and then follow that with 2-3 minutes slow jogging (70% of MAX HR) and repeating this for a various exercises. I would think that this way you could use the lifting to deplete the glycogen stores and also release fatty acids in the blow stream and then use jogging (or walking) to burn the fat.
I’d rather see you stick to strength training…then sprint cardio post-workout (or better yet, on opposite days or in the morning).
so you are fan of fasted cardio? this is exactly what I was doing last year. the hybrid of P90x and Insanity. I think I got some pretty good results https://www.ironwarriorsfitness.com/about/
Yes, I’ve found it works well for me. Great transformation!
Fabulous, Brad! just another of the many diamonds you’ve produced for us to help us achieve our goal. Thanks again
Thank you sooo much Brad for your weight loss routine.. I’m definitely going to follow it for the next 4 months (to loose weight) and i’ll try 100% to make the changes you said in the report. Hope I don’t get disappointed this time 🙁
you can do it…it’s not how you start…it’s how you consistently make it a lifestyle.
brad, i think your great but i have never subscribed to anyone because someone said “be sure to subscribe to my channel!” I subbed as you give good info, save the last 15 secs of your vid for more info rarther than telling us to subscribe! I do think ur great though x
Brad does this suggestion change for a leg day at the gym? A friend of mine did a heavy leg workout including squats. He followed up with 100 yard sprints and ended up injuring his hamstring. Would you agree that sprints and squats are an exception? that is always sprint first if you will squat heavy that same day?
I HATE CARDIO! So always only did intervals -get it over faster, only need to it 3x a week. Since my hip replacement, the muscle’s don’t work to let me do them.
Guess I’m going to have to force myself to get some steady state cardio in and hope the quads start catching up.
Funny thing is, I’ve always done cardio before my weight training (the weight training being the reward for staying on the damn machines). Never found a deficit in the training. Being really well warmed up always seemed to help. (though I know my blood ph was out of whack!)
I’m a competitive power lifter. My favorite cardio workout? Sandbag work.
Love sandbag training!
I usually begin with a light cardio warmup, followed by weight training, and then finish with a HIIT routine, but after reading an article recently about building a workout plan consisting of both cardio and strength training I began to question the way I workout. In this article it states that cardio and strength training should be done on different days or at least 8 hours apart from each other. They said that doing cardio right after your workout doesn’t allow your body to recover and start the growing process because it is delayed from getting glycogen back into the body. I am curious if you drink a protein shake after lifting weights or do anything to refuel your body before performing cardio? I get so confused sometimes with all the information that’s out there about working out and am finding it hard to stick with a routine because by the time I’ve established one I’m discovering a different idea about what someone says works best for our bodies.
Here’s the link to the article:
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/james4.htm
Hey Raychel, i’m fortunate enough to set my own schedule so I can split up my cardio from strength training. So I’ll either do HIIT one day and strength training another…or HIIT in the morning and weights in the evening. This is optimal but if you don’t have time, lift first, HIIT after. You could have a shake, but most people don’t do well with a shake in the belly while doing HIIT
Great post! I knew about doing intervals to keep your body guessing, but I never knew it’s good to get strength training in before my cardio. I love learning new things!
Love to hear it.
GREAT TIPS BRAD! I am definitely planning to add some sprints/speed work into my running routine.
sprints are king (or queen 😉
Tips like this is why I have kicked my body into “Afterburn” Thanks Brad!
Awesome Robert! Keep the momentum going. Consistency is king.
Oops, I also finish on lifting days with 10-20 minutes of interval cardio
Brad – I’m trying to bulk up and add some muscle. I lift 4 days a week, and two non lift days, I do 40 minutes of interval cardio. One day, I just rest completely. With a Gail of gaining muscle mass and strength, is this a good cardio plan?
Wow always did my kettlebell workout after cardio didn’t know i
we love interval cardio!!
I do both HIIT training and cardio after weights. But does research prove that you need to do cardio after workout? Or is that just your opinion? I don’t it after just b/c I’m weak and I need all the energy to lift. Thx =)
This video needs more views. This is good stuff.
Hi I have a question: Can I do circuits that will consist of Example: lat pull downs than burpees then back to lat pull downs? What is your take on that? Thanks love your videos
Hi Bernard, yes, for a warm up that is recommended
Hey YourBeautyBasics, yes jump rope is interval cardio and i love it!
Hi akaishia, yes, if you going to do tabata before or after a workout, always do it after.
5 mins of light cardio to warm up the cardiovascular system, and/or a bodyweight warm up (push ups/squats/etc) and/or 1-2 sets using lighter weight for the exercises to be performed.
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Can I do cardio for 10 minutes for warming up before carry out weight lifting..???
Do you do a light cardio warm up before starting the weight training? or just go straight to doing weights??
So true! My favorite form of cardio is sprint-rest intervals…they never get easy lol
I love you videos; keep em comin!
Is jumping rope interval cardio?
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for sure. that’s why you should keep changing the speed, rest/work ratio, resistance, type, etc.
Great info Brad… I was going to ask about those of us at the beginning stages and you answered it…
guilty for both…damn it.
Is it possible for your body to adapt to interval trainibg?