I saw a presentation of health and fitness by Dean Rosson. His content was largely nothing new, but it was very well presented. The one thing that was new to me was his suggestion to lift weights first to deplete the glycogen in your muscles and then do some cardio. That way the cardio is burning fat, not glycogen, That seemed to make sense. Would you agree? Matt
I think it is lot more complex than that. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscles. So two questions--is your lifting depleting the glycogen in the same muscle groups that you are using for cardio, and are you lifting hard enough and long enough to deplete your glycogen stores (the answer is probably not)? A quick internet search actually had several hits recommending cardio (especially HIIT) before weights. There is also something about ATP stores, muscle physiology, etc. I work out quite a bit, and I don't tend to combine the two, but some of my lifting days have my heart rate in the cardio training range. A lot of folks suggest a 5-10 minute cardio warm up before hitting the weight room, and that is probably a good idea for many folks. I do find that if I do a hard cardio work and try to lift afterwards my lifting is both sloppy and I cannot do as much weight versus not doing cardio. Bottom line is that you probably need to experiment and see what works best for your specific workouts.
It all depends on the person I think. I would never do cardio and then lift weights, but I almost every workout do cardio after weights. Minimum 20 minutes, sometimes I'll go an hour. Varying degrees of intensity.
Back when I first started on my fitness goals, I did cardio then weights. I certainly lost weight and was in far better shape than before just because of all the activity. That said, I think it is best from a hormonal standpoint to separate your cardio and lifting, and that’s exactly what I have done for about twenty years. Works very well, just keep your intensity up when you lift. Added bonus is you’ll get out of the gym faster!
Same - I never do cardio and weight training on same days. I find the suggestion interesting, but after 35 years of working out, not about to change much now.
I always do weights then cardio, as I don't lift as much after hard cardio as too tired. However you wont even dent glycogen from lifting weights, there is enough glycogen to run for approx. 2.5 hours (20 miles) stored in muscles / liver etc. The body will generally burn the easiest form of energy first so mainly glycogen and a small amount of fat, providing you stay in aerobic state. I run marathons competitively and one of the things you try and do is get the body to burn more fat and raise the level you can get the body to train in the aerobic state by completing LT / threshold sessions. Off season I weight train. In response to the question I don't think it really matters, and is more a personal choice.