Do any of you do cardio before you work out?

[van]

that's the thing, i've been doing cardio before weight+resistance training and I wanted to increase my muscle mass.

When you do Cardio, the body has 2 sources of energy to choose from. Glycogen/glucose and/or FAT. When you do resistance training, the body basically has 1 sources of energy to draw from, Glycogen/glucose.

If you do your cardio (not the warm up, but the extensive) before you do resistance training and deplete the glucose before you even start lifting, what happens? The body has to get more glucose, where? It can make it from muscle!

If you do resistance training and then cardio, the resistance training depletes the glycogen before you start the cardio. So what energy system will the cardio mostly use? FAT!

Now it is better if you think of cardio as a way to optimize the cardiorespiratory and other systems of the body than as a "fat burning" method. You can burn far more fat in the 23 hours you are not doing cardio then you can when doing cardio.

One more thing, you are moderately glucose deficient on waking. So there is a VERY SLIGHT advantage to training upon waking if the goal is fat loss.

The body adapts very quickly to cardio, even faster than it does to lifting. For this reason it is important to vary an aspect of your Cardio about every 2-3 weeks, or as needed to maintain the results you are looking for.

[poedua]

When you do Cardio, the body has 2 sources of energy to choose from. Glycogen/glucose and/or FAT.

When you do resistance training, the body basically has 1 sources of energy to draw from, Glycogen/glucose.

Actually, it has 2 to draw from - fat and glycogen.

You just rely more heavily on glycogen - proportionately speaking - than fat during weight training...but .......you rely on both.

If you do your cardio (not the warm up, but the extensive) before you do resistance training and deplete the glucose before you even start lifting, what happens? The body has to get more glucose, where? It can make it from muscle!

I disagree.

Even if you do 30 minutes of moderate to robust cardio before weight training, you still won't come close to depleting your glycogen stores.

If you do resistance training and then cardio, the resistance training depletes the glycogen before you start the cardio. So what energy system will the cardio mostly use? FAT!

It's the primarily the intensity of your cardio that determines how much fat - both proportionately and by volume - you burn, not how much glycogen you have.

And, it is very unlikely an average gym rat is going to put a big dent in their overall glycogen stores after only 45 minutes to 1 hour of strength training.

Now it is better if you think of cardio as a way to optimize the cardiorespiratory and other systems of the body than as a "fat burning" method. You can burn far more fat in the 23 hours you are not doing cardio then you can when doing cardio.

I disagree

All other things being equal, using cardio to burn fat makes a of of sense as a " fat burning method " ......as cardio burns extra calories and burning extra calories translates to eventual fat loss.

In fact, cardio is a great fat loss tool IMO.