You must have always heard that you should do a bit of warm up sessions before various strenuous physical activities such as weight lifting. It is said that it is good for the body, and it allows you to do the activities smoothly. But do you know that there are also various researchers and experts who suggests such cardio exercises after weight lifting sessions? Do not get surprised, because this is something that is beneficial, and hence many of the weight lifters practice this method now mostly. It can be said that both before and after weight lifting, such cardio exercises are done for various reasons.
But it has been noticed and researched that cardio exercises done after weight lifting sessions are much beneficial than the cardio exercises done before weight lifting sessions. There are a number of reasons to prove the same.
More energy for weight lifting
While you are doing any kind of exercise, whether it is warm up, cardio exercises of weight lifting, the body extracts glycogen from the muscles. Glycogens are mainly the energy storehouse of the body. So, if the level of glycogen decreases in the body, it also reduces the energy of the body. So, when you do cardio exercises before weight lifting, you use up many of the glycogen from your muscles and hence leaves your body with less amount of energy. But if you do cardio exercises after weight lifting, then you can perform your weight lifting session more efficiently due to more amount of energy. This is the reason, when while in a competition or sports, weight lifters are provided the proper amount of rest after each lifting session so that they can gain back the energy in their body.
Changes in the PH of blood
When you are doing cardio exercises, the energy in your body is broken down to lactic acids that are another source of energy in the body. But this source of energy changes to hydrogen ions while you are exercising. These hydrogen ions later lower the PH of your blood that makes your blood plasma more acidic than the normal. This acidic blood plasma leads to a number of problems such as fatigue in your muscles that can drop down your performance in weight lifting. Also, again if you have already done hard cardio exercises before the session of weight lifting, it can be difficult for you to contract your muscles that can again lead to a problem in weight lifting.
Hormonal changes
It has been seen that performing cardio exercises increases the level of the hormone cortisol in the body that breaks down the muscle to develop new energy. Along with this, the level of testosterone also increases in the body that is good for the muscle development. But this happens only when you are performing long duration cardio exercises such as marathon or cycling. But if it is just a cardio exercise before the session of weight lifting, then it can cause adverse effects. It can make the cortisol break muscle energy, but the testosterone may not increase its level at this short time. Hence, while you are lifting the weight, you will be not able to use all your energy.
Afterburn effect
Cardio exercises and workouts are known well for fat and calorie burning of the body. But it has been researched recently that cardiovascular exercises can lead to breaking of fat and burning of calories even after the completion of 48 hours. Hence along with losing body fat, you will also be losing a lot amount of energy from the body. Thus, after cardio exercises when you go for weight lifting sessions, you will be not able to put the amount of energy that your body actually had. Thus, it is now advised by many bodybuilding experts to practice cardio exercises after the weight lifting sessions so that fat can be burned, and you can get ready for the weight lifting session for the next day.
Less injury and lesser fatigue
Though many would believe that doing cardio exercises before weight lifting sessions is a warm up thing, but in reality such exercises can be the cause of mental and physical fatigue for the person. Of course, if you are getting fatigued both physically and mentally, then while you are in weight lifting session, there are higher chances that you may get injured somehow. While you are putting the lifts on your back shoulder, your main muscles are supported by a number of smaller muscles in doing so. But in performing cardio exercises, these small muscles may get fatigued and hence often will betray the main muscles in lifted the weight and putting it on the back shoulder. So, either you will be not able to complete your session or at many times you may land up injuring your body parts such as shoulder, back or neck due to sudden breakdown of some of your muscles. So, it is an ideal thing to do the cardio exercises after you have completed the weight lifting session.
Medical science has progressed to a great level now. Before what people used to say accidents, also have reasons and facts to today’s date. A very good example is the performing of cardio exercises before weight lifting sessions. Weight lifting is a major part in the body building exercises and hence a lot of care has to be taken while performing it. It has been noticed that a number of good performers often fail at the last moment.
Also, it has been noticed that a number of accidents happen during the weight lifting sessions. You must have heard that people say that this is due to lack of training. But one of the main reasons is also that these performers must have performed cardio exercises before their weight lifting sessions. It has been now recently observed and noted that people who do their cardio exercises after the weight lifting, are lesser prone to accidents and are much successful.