I haven't worked out steady in nearly 3.5 years. So I was a bit more than pudgy when I started about a month ago. I've only dropped about 4 pounds but am gaining muscle mass while I'm at it. My main concern is to lose fat and water weight. To do that, I've been pretty heavy on the cardio. Running and biking everyday. On strictly cardio days, I also add in pushups, pullups, and stairstepper.

I also want to gain back some of my previous muscle, so I've been hitting the weights as well. I usually do days of muscle groups. For example, chest, tris, lats, and stomach one day. Bi's, back, shoulders, and forearms the next. I intentionally skip the legs because I don't want them to get big; just tone. My quads tend to naturally want to get big.

During all these days, I always mix in cardio after the weights. I do about 30-40 min of weight training and 30-40 min of cardio on my mixed days. My post workout includes about 50g of whey protein (ON Pro Complex Mix). Also make sure to drink ice water when I wake up and before I go to bed, in addition to eating healthy.

Sorry about all the info but thought I'd give a full history before I ask my question. Should I be mixing my cardio and weight training on the same days or is it more detrimental than helpful? Should I keep my weight and cardio days separate? When I used to work out, I did just that I found myself getting bigger but was also putting on extra weight I didn't want.

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hey hey, i hope i can help ya out. back when i used to exercise near-religiously, it was ok to do both weights and cardio on the same day. as long as you do weights first. im also pretty sure that as long as you lift with a moderate intensity, you'll still get the most out of your cardio.

hope it helped any

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It's good to mix both cardio and weight lifting. Try a short warm up with a cardio such as running or biking for five minutes, and then going to lifts. I like to use a ladder.

If weight loss is your main goal, you are actually going to loose more weight when it comes to lifting weights. This is because when you are doing cardio, as soon as you stop, so does the burning of calories. When you lift weights and build muscle mass, your body is going to be burning more calories daily, even when not working out. So, if burning fat is your number one priority, then you might want to hit the weights a little more. Try picking up a book called Fit or Fat. It's under $10 and has a lot of great information about losing weight and becoming more fit. It's actually the textbook for my current Total Fitness class.

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Anyone own "The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding" by Arnold? It has a lot of great exercises for the muscle groups but never really looked into it for the cardio part. I really should unbury it and take a look at it.

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I am in the same boat with you Lord Odin. I am doing my weights first ( low weight/High reps) Then cardio. I do this threedays a week, on my last day of weights I do higher weight/fewer reps. I am certainly not trying to powerlift or max on any weight days. On the cardio side I use intervole training, I walk at a brisk pace for 4-6 min then I take off at a fast jog pace for one min, next I slow down to a low jog for about 2 min and off I go again at the fast jog for another min.I repeat this for 3 cycles and close with another 4-6 mins of cool down brisk walking. They say that it will help with keeping metabolism burning much longer. On days that I dont do any weights or cardio I just walk at a brisk pace with the wife.

Lord Odin here is a link to maybe better explain what I am talking about.http://www.mensworkoutguide.com/fitn..._training.html

i wish i had something to add but the only time i lift my weights is to move them out of my way

Hey hey.

I've been studying fitness on and off for about 9 years. I started when I was 14. Needless to say in high school I was a walking talking brick outhouse

I can tell you that for me I ham doing cardio first after gaining some unpleasant body fat percentage. It has worked for me, but may not for you here is why.

The more muscle mass you have, the easier it is to burn body fat. It's like tossing gasoline onto a bon-fire, BOOM. The results can be crazy sometimes.

I have a lot of muscle packed onto my frame. I was also blessed with a frame at birth that it was easy to do this with. If you could imagine a skinny guy's 6'2 muscle structure packed onto a guy who is 5'11 without shoes on that would be me.

For you the real results will begin after you have completed your muscle mass gaining process and go through your cardio. Your cardio combined with your muscle mass will help you burn through your body fat.

I don't like measuring body fat loss by the measurement of weight. It's got too many variables to equal your weight. Bone mass, organ mass, skin mass, body fat mass, muscle mass, hair mass, anything that is part of you is factored in, and I mean ANYTHING. Even the gravitational force exerted on you per cubic millimeter has to be factored in.

This being said, it's just... not... accurate... So what do you do? Well you can go get a machine that measures body fat percentage or you can rely on comments from family members, and even girlfriends or your wife (if you have one). The female eye is the fastest at looking at appearance that I have ever seen. I litterally say nothing and they seem to notice it before I do.

That being said, I feel great, I'm about to get smaller clothes, and I haven't been on weight scale in about 7 months.

I'm not the only one who does this. Bodybuilder Branch Warren also hates weight scales and won't hardly use one while training for an event. He says "It plays too many tricks with your head. Up, down, up, down."

So you may find that once you hit the cardio you will melt the fat like butter in a microwave.

I hope this helps.

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When I lift, I like to have a treadmill running near by at a brisk walking pace. In between sets I walk. It keeps your heart rate up while your muscles recoup for the next set.

Your age, height, weight would be useful to know as well. Off hand, I would say you are overdoing the protein powder. With a good diet, an extra 20g regular whey protein is about all you really need. Maybe add some NO Xplode prior to your workouts. But you only use 1g protein per kg of body weight. Anything more is a waste.

Any be careful with creatine. The body only needs 4g a day, your body can make 2g a day from scratch. So eat a fish or beef each day and you'll have your 4g daily dose plus protein.

by the sounds of it i've been doing it the wrong way, when i go to the gymi usually run for about 25mins then do the weights. going to start doing it the other way today see how it works out.