HIIT...

We all know I am not really a fan of cardio although I am doing a lot of walking at the moment. I am not able to get to the gym as often as I now have a little person to look after so I put Frankie in the stroller; we are really clocking up the km's.

When I do make it to the gym and I have time I try to finish off my weights session with a bit of HIIT {High Intensity Interval Training}. I wrote a whole blog on this type of cardio training which you can read here.

I have been asked on numerous occasions whether it is better to do your HIIT before or after your weights session. The answer to this, in my experience, is after your weights session. And here is for why...

Our bodies use glycogen as fuel in everything we do. Glycogen is carbohydrates stored in our bodies and is used for energy. Although we use a huge amount of glycogen when we weight train, a gruelling HIIT session will leave your glycogen stores completely depleted.

There is no way, after a HIIT session, you will be able to really push yourself 100% in your weights session. Doing HIIT before will result in a pretty ineffective weights session. You simply won't have the energy {glycogen} needed to smash out those last few reps. And it is during these reps that we stimulate the most muscle growth.

Hit the weights first and follow this up with your HIIT session. Your glycogen stores will be slightly depleted from the weights, the HIIT will completely empty the tank. Your body will then need to recover, your muscles will overcompensate with their ability to take up nutrients. This will leave you with fuller muscles that are able to store a greater amount of glycogen ready for you to lift bigger during your next work-out.

We all know the best way to build and strong lean body is to weight train. Even if your goal is fat loss, weight training is the most beneficial way to reach those goals, not hours and hours of cardio. The more you can deplete your muscles the better. Your muscles will then recover and take in more glycogen making them bigger and stronger. The bigger and stronger your muscles, the higher your metabolic rate. Your metabolic rate is the amount of energy your body uses to run. The higher your metabolic rate the more calories you burn at rest.

We all want to burn calories if our goal is fat loss!!