Cardio at night

[want2bhot]

Hey guys,

Some advice needed here...I have been switching up my work outs, I have been taking advice from our wonderful SuperQT...she is awesome...by the way, your advice is working, I am seeing more muscle size and losing alot of inches....
Ok here is my question....My husband is also a lifter and he works out in the morning and goes to work in the evening, we have decided to do cardio when he gets off work at around 11pm...I am doing my resistance training around 6pm when I get off work, do you think this break up of resistance and cardio is going to make it more difficult versus doing cardio right after my resistance training...We will probably be doing 30-45 minutes like 3-4 days a week....What do you think?

 

[The Shadow]

Splitting cardio and weights is typically "better" than doing them back to back - there are a lot of nutritional aspects which point this out.

 

[want2bhot]

Thanks Shadow,

I appreciate it...I don't know, I thought maybe you burn more when you do it back to back...

Splitting cardio and weights is typically "better" than doing them back to back - there are a lot of nutritional aspects which point this out.

 

[T-Cake]

Thanks Shadow,

I appreciate it...I don't know, I thought maybe you burn more when you do it back to back...

Weekdays, I do my cardio early morning on an empty stomach and then I go back to the gym at night to lift weights. The purpose of my empty stomach in the morning is that I know -- on empty -- my cardio is burning fat, not breakfast.

On weekends, I go to the gym on empty, lift on empty and then immediately do cardio afterward. Now I originally was doing this because I don't want to hit the gym TWICE on Sat/Sun too... but I do know that now, because I am STILL on empty when I finish lifting and move RIGHT on to cardio... my calorie burn is elongated. The chances of burning fat, if that is part of your goal, are higher, I feel.

Even with your lifting midday, I think this premise still stands. Now if you finish lifting, go home and have dinner, and go BACK to the gym to do cardio... you will essentially be burning off your supper. If you continue right through, your lifting may have already burned off your lunch... and the more time your heart rate is elevated the better.

Takes awhile for the body to warm up and really start burning calories... so if you get that warm-up burn in during lifting... and move right on to cardio, there isn't a starting-over period.

Hope that makes sense. That's just my $0.02

 

[cindylou]

Weekdays, I do my cardio early morning on an empty stomach and then I go back to the gym at night to lift weights. The purpose of my empty stomach in the morning is that I know -- on empty -- my cardio is burning fat, not breakfast.

On weekends, I go to the gym on empty, lift on empty and then immediately do cardio afterward. Now I originally was doing this because I don't want to hit the gym TWICE on Sat/Sun too... but I do know that now, because I am STILL on empty when I finish lifting and move RIGHT on to cardio... my calorie burn is elongated. The chances of burning fat, if that is part of your goal, are higher, I feel.

Even with your lifting midday, I think this premise still stands. Now if you finish lifting, go home and have dinner, and go BACK to the gym to do cardio... you will essentially be burning off your supper. If you continue right through, your lifting may have already burned off your lunch... and the more time your heart rate is elevated the better.

Takes awhile for the body to warm up and really start burning calories... so if you get that warm-up burn in during lifting... and move right on to cardio, there isn't a starting-over period.

Hope that makes sense. That's just my $0.02

on weekends when I go to the gym I eat 1/2 cup oats and some egg whites and then lift and do cardio after because on weekends I'd rather just get it out of the way if you know what I mean.

Buuut......I'd rather just do everything on empty. I'm wondering if I could do this one or two days a week? Lift and then cardio on an empty stomach.


Since you are doing this sometimes I'm wondering how this works for you ; I have not tried it yet.

 

[Sassy69]

The lifting & then cardio on an empty stomach - I usually start to feel sick - low blood sugar, so I dont' do it. I imagine if you condition yourself for it, you could possibly.

As far as cardio, the general idea is to do it in an "empty stomach state". You can be in this state by a number of methods:

- early AM -- you haven't eaten yet and have been 'fasting' all nite
- after training - you've burned up lots of the immediately available energy resources with the training but also have been able to put those energy sources towards building muscle / strength.
- if you haven't eaten anything for 2-3 hrs -- prior to starving but your body has metabolized most of the readily available energy sources.

But also a large part of it is just consistency. Make sure you get in & do the cardio - don't get too hung up on when is "the best" -- just make sure you do it. If "the best" doesn't fit into your schedule, do you just "not" do it? NOpe -- just get it in there. If something less than "the best" is all you can accommodate - then what happens- it takes you an extra week to accomplish your goals? Eh - "the best" is relative. "The best" could be compromised if say early AM cardio leaves you with not enough sleep - you lose whatever you gained from "the best" time to do cardio by less than good quality recovery. Or if you have to wait too long to eat to get "the best" time for cardio --- might be costing you some muscle catabolism instead. Its the sum total of your fitness lifestyle, not "the best" of parts of it.

 

[highoctane]

The lifting & then cardio on an empty stomach - I usually start to feel sick - low blood sugar, so I dont' do it. I imagine if you condition yourself for it, you could possibly.

As far as cardio, the general idea is to do it in an "empty stomach state". You can be in this state by a number of methods:

- early AM -- you haven't eaten yet and have been 'fasting' all nite
- after training - you've burned up lots of the immediately available energy resources with the training but also have been able to put those energy sources towards building muscle / strength.
- if you haven't eaten anything for 2-3 hrs -- prior to starving but your body has metabolized most of the readily available energy sources.

But also a large part of it is just consistency. Make sure you get in & do the cardio - don't get too hung up on when is "the best" -- just make sure you do it. If "the best" doesn't fit into your schedule, do you just "not" do it? NOpe -- just get it in there. If something less than "the best" is all you can accommodate - then what happens- it takes you an extra week to accomplish your goals? Eh - "the best" is relative. "The best" could be compromised if say early AM cardio leaves you with not enough sleep - you lose whatever you gained from "the best" time to do cardio by less than good quality recovery. Or if you have to wait too long to eat to get "the best" time for cardio --- might be costing you some muscle catabolism instead. Its the sum total of your fitness lifestyle, not "the best" of parts of it.

This is the best advice I've heard all day (probably week for that matter). I spend a lot of time trying to figure out what and when...but at the end of the day just getting it in sometimes is the difficult part. Thanks for the stellar advice again Sassy.

 

[T-Cake]

Yeah for real -- nice post, Sass Very true -- people do get caught up in it and then just forget it.

Someone asked about if empty stomach lifting/cardio are good for me -- yeah, I'm totally fine with it, but Sassy did mention it can be seen as an adaptation.

SO here's my take... during the week, I do cardio alone at 5:45, 6am almost daily. I don't lift this early in the morning because I'm sleepy and it's the workweek and I don't get the most out of my lifts. ANY sickness I've ever felt at the gym in my stomach or lightheaded has been during these sessions -- one was caused when I took big pills on an empty stomach and my tummy couldn't digest it. The other times have simply been because I wasn't well-rested enough, didn't sleep enough.

But on the weekends when I do back to back lift and cardio... I've slept in, lounged around a bit before heading to the gym... I feel great, high energy. No headaches or stomach pangs (especially Sunday mornings b/c Saturday is my cheat day and I ate a ton the night before) so it's no problem getting through it all.

Now AFTER I workout... man alive, get me to some food ASAP!

 

[want2bhot]

Thanks Sassy,
I appreciate the input, I see in a different way now...

The lifting & then cardio on an empty stomach - I usually start to feel sick - low blood sugar, so I dont' do it. I imagine if you condition yourself for it, you could possibly.

As far as cardio, the general idea is to do it in an "empty stomach state". You can be in this state by a number of methods:

- early AM -- you haven't eaten yet and have been 'fasting' all nite
- after training - you've burned up lots of the immediately available energy resources with the training but also have been able to put those energy sources towards building muscle / strength.
- if you haven't eaten anything for 2-3 hrs -- prior to starving but your body has metabolized most of the readily available energy sources.

But also a large part of it is just consistency. Make sure you get in & do the cardio - don't get too hung up on when is "the best" -- just make sure you do it. If "the best" doesn't fit into your schedule, do you just "not" do it? NOpe -- just get it in there. If something less than "the best" is all you can accommodate - then what happens- it takes you an extra week to accomplish your goals? Eh - "the best" is relative. "The best" could be compromised if say early AM cardio leaves you with not enough sleep - you lose whatever you gained from "the best" time to do cardio by less than good quality recovery. Or if you have to wait too long to eat to get "the best" time for cardio --- might be costing you some muscle catabolism instead. Its the sum total of your fitness lifestyle, not "the best" of parts of it.

 

[Sassy69]

Its all really just like the diet - if you want it to work it really needs to become a part of your lifestyle -- just like if you try to stick to a spartan diet that is full of food that is hard to prepare or choke down, what's the point? Its a diet, not DIE w/ a T for God's sake. The challenge w/ a training program, just like the diet, is spendign a little time preparign it & figuring out what works best for you and then it will become part of your lifestyle.

I'm not a big fan of cardio myself, but for my body it makes the difference if I want to make a significant dent in my bodyfat /weight. The thing is that once I get going on it, my body literally WANTS me to wake up in the morning and do it. So it must be a good thing. Try it late and see how that works for you. 11 pm is a bit too late for me -- I tend to get home somewhere between 9 & 10 pm w/ 5-6 am cardio to look forward to in the coming months. But find out what works for you, make sure you are still getting quality sleep and all that, and then it all starts to fall together. If you can make it fit into "quality time" w/ your loved ones, even better. Personally I just have to deal w/a cat who feels neglected sometimes. (He sleeps all day so I don't stress about it too much... )