Queries relating to fitness regimes.
Is it good to do cardio everyday?
Weights then cardio or cardio then weights? And why?
The above questions were shot at me, and I thought others would benefit from my views, for instead of personally answering my client, I have wrote my thoughts here in the blog.
To answer the first query, I believe that Cardio(High intensity interval training) (HIIT), which we perform on certain days, should not be performed everyday. I have always thought that weight training should take the center-stage, and all other forms of exercises like HIIT, flexibility drills, running, and slow paced cardio should assist weight training . Performing HIIT everyday can be detrimental to build muscle, for if performed everyday it surely taps into your energy reserves and taxes the central nervous system. Repeatedly performing high intense cardio will also bring down your strength level, which is a requisite to gain more muscle. Perhaps, in certain contexts more prominence can be provided to HIIT sessions. But in the long run, it can be detrimental to ones health and well being, as muscular atrophy may occur, and all other forms of over training symptoms can occur such as fever, common cold, sleeplessness, and irritability. So, one should monitor the situation with absolute care by considering all the factors.
To answer your second question, weight training should generally precede cardio. If at all your performing HIIT, which I don’t recommend performing everyday, then cardio sessions should always come after weight training. But performing low impact cardio before weight training can actually enhance your performance, for they can thoroughly warm up your body, as warm ups help in raising the body temperature to increase neuro–muscular firing potential, reduce joint friction in specific joints, and reduce injury prevention. But again absolute care has to be taken in planning the warm up/ cardio routines as they can easily sap into your energy reserves, for you don’t want to lift weights with depleted energy.
I would recommend you to experiment with the above mentioned components relating to fitness regimes. For, the above findings generally apply to an individual whose eating habits, genetics, recovery capabilities are average/below average, but may not apply to an individual who is eating healthy, particularly consuming good amount of protein, genetically gifted, and so recovers soon.