Comments on: Your Questions Answered – October http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/2009/10/your-questions-answered-october/ The Art and Science of Building Lean Muscle Mass <br>and An Awesome Physique for Men Over 40 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:06:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Darrin http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/2009/10/your-questions-answered-october/comment-page-1/#comment-5462 Darrin Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:11:02 +0000 http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/?p=1473#comment-5462 @John - if you are doing HIIT then eating between lifting and HIIT won't make a difference so stick with your strategy. Since youa re talking about 10 min, I'm assuming you are really doing HIIT. Too many people spend 30 minutes doing what they think is "HIIT" but that's impossible. They aren't really doing HIIT. But for everyone else who might be doing longer steady-state cardio, I strongly recommend some nutrition between lifting and long cardio. If your primary goal is fat loss, and you don't care too much about muscle gain, then you could have pure protein (no sugar or carbs) before running. However, if you are mostly concerned with muscle gain, there is enough evidence that long cardio can interfere with maximizing muscle gain. To help minimize this, and maximize muscle gain response, ingest carbs and protein right after lifting and before long cardio. (And of course, if you do cardio <b>before</b> lifting, then you are weaker during your lifts, which also inhibits muscle gain; you could wait to do long cardio on your "off" days, that's fine unless it's within 48 hrs of a leg workout because then your leg muscles aren't getting enough recovery.) For sure, this is a complicated subject, and even researchers disagree. But unless you are skinny, the answer is NOT to skip cardio. You can't skip everything in life that interferes with something else - a smart person balances to get a fully healthy body and mind. @John – if you are doing HIIT then eating between lifting and HIIT won’t make a difference so stick with your strategy. Since youa re talking about 10 min, I’m assuming you are really doing HIIT. Too many people spend 30 minutes doing what they think is “HIIT” but that’s impossible. They aren’t really doing HIIT.

But for everyone else who might be doing longer steady-state cardio, I strongly recommend some nutrition between lifting and long cardio. If your primary goal is fat loss, and you don’t care too much about muscle gain, then you could have pure protein (no sugar or carbs) before running. However, if you are mostly concerned with muscle gain, there is enough evidence that long cardio can interfere with maximizing muscle gain. To help minimize this, and maximize muscle gain response, ingest carbs and protein right after lifting and before long cardio. (And of course, if you do cardio before lifting, then you are weaker during your lifts, which also inhibits muscle gain; you could wait to do long cardio on your “off” days, that’s fine unless it’s within 48 hrs of a leg workout because then your leg muscles aren’t getting enough recovery.) For sure, this is a complicated subject, and even researchers disagree. But unless you are skinny, the answer is NOT to skip cardio. You can’t skip everything in life that interferes with something else – a smart person balances to get a fully healthy body and mind.

]]> By: John http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/2009/10/your-questions-answered-october/comment-page-1/#comment-5461 John Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:01:54 +0000 http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/?p=1473#comment-5461 Thanks Darrin for answering my question on the "interference effect". I do 10 mins of cardio (interval training style) after weight lifting. But I normally do not eat or drink between weight training and cardio. I have my carbs and protein before starting weight training and then post workout shake after cardio. My logic was that weight lifting would deplete muscle glycogen and doing cardio immediately after would burn the fat. But you recommend post workout shake between weight training and cardio. Would the cardio then burn the sugar added to the body by the shake instead of the body fat nd hence not be so effective? Thanks Darrin for answering my question on the “interference effect”. I do 10 mins of cardio (interval training style) after weight lifting. But I normally do not eat or drink between weight training and cardio. I have my carbs and protein before starting weight training and then post workout shake after cardio. My logic was that weight lifting would deplete muscle glycogen and doing cardio immediately after would burn the fat. But you recommend post workout shake between weight training and cardio. Would the cardio then burn the sugar added to the body by the shake instead of the body fat nd hence not be so effective?

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