The Best Time To Do Cardio
When you do your cardio in relation to your weightlifting matters.
Researchers from RMIT University worked with well-trained athletes in 2009 and found that “combining resistance exercise and cardio in the same session may disrupt genes for anabolism.” In laymen’s terms, they found that combining endurance and resistance training sends “mixed signals” to the muscles. Cardio before the resistance training suppressed anabolic hormones such as IGF-1 and MGF, and cardio after resistance training increased muscle tissue breakdown.
Several other studies, such as those conducted by researchers from the Children’s National Medical Center, the Waikato Institute of Technology, and the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland, came to the same conclusions: training for both endurance and strength simultaneously impairs your gains on both fronts. Training purely for strength or purely for endurance in a workout is far superior.
Cardio before weightlifting also saps your energy and makes it much harder to train heavy, which in turn inhibits your muscle growth.
Therefore, I recommend that you separate your weightlifting and cardio sessions by at least a few hours if at all possible. Personally, I lift early in the morning and do my cardio after work, before dinner.
If there’s no way that you can split up your cardio and weightlifting, do your weight training first, as cardio first will drain energy that you’ll want for your lifting. While this arrangement isn’t ideal, it’s not a huge problem. You can still do well on the program.
If you can, I recommend having a protein shake after your weightlifting and before your cardio as this will help mitigate the muscle breakdown.
How Often You Should Do Cardio?
In terms of frequency, here’s how I do it:
When I’m bulking, I do two 25-minute HIIT sessions per week.
When I’m cutting, I do three to five 25-minute HIIT sessions per week.
When I’m maintaining, I do two to three 25-minute HIIT sessions per week.
I never do more than five cardio sessions per week, as I’ve found my strength begins to drop off in the gym if I do.
Many people are shocked to learn that I do no more than 1.5 to 2 hours of cardio per week while cutting but am able to get to the 6 to 7 percent body fat range with ease. Well, the idea that you have to do a ton of cardio to get shredded is a complete myth. It’s not only unnecessary but unhealthy as well.
You don’t have to do cardio to lose fat, but if you want to get down to the 10 percent range or below, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll have to do at least two to three sessions per week.
If you’d like to stick with steady-state cardio or include it in your routine, stick with the frequency recommendations given above. You can mix and match modalities (HIIT vs low-intensity steady-state, or LISS) but I still wouldn’t do more than five sessions per week.