I Think I'm Going to be Sore Tomorrow

Today I went to the gym and did an upper body workout.  I started with bench press.  I warmed up with 135 lbs and then did 10 reps each at 155 and 165.  It wasn't the most I've ever lifted but I am just starting to work out consistantly after not weight training for a while. 

After doing bench press I moved to inclined bench press with 35 lb dumbells.  I did 3 sets of 10 with those and then moved to working out my shoulders. I did front raises and shoulder presses and finished off with doing some work on a machine that works out the rear deltoid muscle.

I also did some work on tricep pull downs using a rope.

I then did some cardio work on the treadmill.  I started off slow and then did a small HIIT workout.  What is HIIT?  That is an acronym for High Intensity Iterval Training.  One of the best ways to burn fat and get your cardiovacular system in shape is interval training.  HIIT is the principle that the popular workout systems Insanity and P90X use and it is quite effective.  It is hard and if you're not in shape it won't take long to figure that out.

After 15 minutes of cardio work I then moved downstairs to the basketball court and practiced some shots.  Even though I was only shooting baskets and not playing an actual game I still could feel it in my legs when I jumped around and a little bit in the shoulders when actually shooting the ball.

I will probably be sore tomorrow but that will be a good thing.  I will do a lot of stretching to prevent injuries and keep flexibility so the muscles don't tighten up too much.

Reasons to Weight Train Before Cardio

Time to get a little bit scientific. It's important to understand what happens to your body when you exercise and how it relates to working out. When working out it is a good idea to mix cardiovascular work with lifting weights.  This is because you build muscle and lose fat at one time. It is important to do weights before cardio work for a few reasons:

If you’re goal is to lose weight then doing cardio after your weight training is especially important. The simple reason is that weight training depletes glycogen is muscles. What is Glycogen? Glycogen is a primary a fuel source for cardiovascular exercise. When the glycogen depletes in your body it is more likely release fat from cells to be used as energy. When you do cardio without weight training before, it takes around 20-25 mins for glycogen levels to fall and fat cells to potentially be released. Here is a link discussing the role of carbs and glycogen for use in exercise.

You should save your maximum amount of energy for the weights. Lifting weights takes a lot of energy and it is important to use proper form to prevent injuries.  If your body is already tired from running there is an increased risk that you won't use proper form. This also limits your potential for muscle building  as you won’t be able to do as many reps that you otherwise could.

Here is a video I found on YouTube that talks about why you should weight train before doing cardio workouts