Cardio Before or After Your Workout?
This has to be one of the most popular questions I get as a trainer. However, the answer is quite simple…
The best way I can describe this is by relating it to something I know everyone has experienced. You know when you’re laughing so hard that your stomach starts burning? This happens because while you laugh, you’re contracting your ab muscles. When you contract any muscle in your body lactic acid will start to rush to that muscle which is what creates that burning sensation. However, when you finally take that first deep breath in after laughing, the burning goes away. This is because when we breathe we get blood flow and oxygen to our muscles which will get rid of the lactic acid that has been built up.
Same applies with soreness and working out. We get sore because over the course of an hour workout, we’re constantly contracting the same few muscles over and over again. Lactic acid rushes to these muscles over the course of the hour. This is why our muscles are burning during our workouts and leads us to being sore. So how do we get rid of that lactic acid to allow us to be less sore? Well we now know the only way to get rid of lactic acid in the muscle is to get blood flow and oxygen to the muscle. So how do we do that? We do cardio after our workout! Light cardio like walking on an incline, jogging or even biking will help increase blood flow and oxygen to the muscle and get rid of some of that lactic acid you’ve built up over the course of your workout.
So you’re saying I should do cardio after because it will leave me a little less sore?
This is exactly what I’m saying.
But what about before my workout?
Yes you can do cardio before as well but I only use it as a warm up. A quick mile run or something along those lines to get the blood flowing will suffice. You want to get your heart rate up and your body warm to get loose for your workout. However your main, long cardio should be done after your workout.
I hope that cleared up when you should be doing your cardio and why. Feel free to hit me up on Instagram, Tik Tok, or Facebook for more questions you may have. If you’re thinking it, someone else probably is too so ask away. I’m happy to answer them!
You Got This!
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