Cardio Before Or After Weight Training?

It is funny actually… I was chatting with some friends about the gym and we started discussing Workouts. Boy was I ever wrong about my habits. Did you know that Weight Training is best done in the beginning of your workout as opposed to Starting with Cardio? I guess it makes perfect sense. Cardio exhausts the body, and although a quick cardio warm up is good; a full on Cardio is not worth it before lifting; you’ll be more tired and won’t have as much energy to spend on resistance training, which spikes up your fat loss during a workout.

According to The Ripped Dude:

To achieve “shreddedness,” your body needs to use your stored fat as fuel for exercise. In order to do this, you must burn off your glycogen stores first. When you weight-train, you typically use glycogen as fuel. By doing weight-training first, you can burn the majority of your glycogen stores. Knocking out your cardio after you crush the weights will burn more fat!                                      Obi Obadike

After an intense weight-training workout , your body needs energy to repair the muscles, therefore, your body continues to burn calories (energy) for up to 48 hours. This is known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). This occurs at a much higher rate after intense weight-training rather then a low-intensity and  steady cardio training; and that is why it’s important to save your energy for weight lifting and finishing off with cardio.

Weight training first is great because it allows you to get to the fat burning portion of the workout faster (reaching glycogen depletion). After all the glycogen is depleted, doing cardio after weights will result in a much higher percentage of fat being burned. 

Metaphor by Huffington Post:

Think about burning fat like digging for gold. You have to get through layers of dirt and rock (muscle glycogen) before you can get to the gold.

Doing cardio first is like digging for gold with a shovel. Getting through a single layer requires 32 scoops to be removed. You’ll eventually see gold, but it will take a while.

Doing resistance training first is like showing up to the same dig site with a backhoe. Now only 3 scoops are required to get through one layer thanks to your diesel fueled machinery.

So, finally, take my word for it, Save your best energy for the Weights and expand it with cardio.

Best case scenario: Start with 45 minutes of Weight Training, and finish with a 20 to 30 minutes of cardio intervals. Do this 3 to 4 times a week, at least, and see results.

 

Memorize Out Loud

A study published in the journal Memory suggests that

Saying words out loud can help you to remember them.

Canadian researcher, Colin MacLeod, a psychology professor at the University of Waterloo discovered this study and coined it: “production effect”. Speaking something out loud results in variations of the production effect on memory. Typing something out, mouthing it, or writing it down also helps, but just not as much as speaking it loudly. 

MacLeod first identified the production effect in 2010, His team tested four ways of remembering by asking students to read a list of words silently, read them out loud, listen to someone else read them and listen to a recording of their own voice repeating the words. Then the students were asked to look at a long list of words and remember which ones they’d already seen.

“Silent was the worst,” MacLeod says. “It’s a little better to hear someone else’s voice. It’s better still to hear your own voice, but it’s best to produce [the word] yourself and both hear your own voice and move your own mouth.”

Another way that vocalization improves memory is in short term memory in everyday life, such as “I turned off the stove”; saying it out loud will help you remember that and wont affect you as you leave the house wondering if your house will burn down or not.

So, lesson of the day today is repeat out loud to better your memory!

Should You Over Cuddle Your Baby?

Infants that are held less by caregivers show lasting changes to genes involved in immune response and metabolism, according to a study of children from British Columbia. Ottawa Citizen

If you have had a baby or know someone that has a baby, you will know that there is this unknown in baby cuddling… Should you hold the baby when they cry, should you not… So many questions, some fear that not holding them will result in attachment issues and other from the other spectrum believe that over holding them will result in attachment issues. Tough one right?

It is, but recent BC studies have shown that fussy babies that are cuddled regularly are more likely to develop normally than those who are cuddled the least. I have friends with babies and this article struck me. To be honest, I am glad to read this because although I do not have children, this particular question has always caught my attention. You can potentially ruin your child’s personality if you make one wrong move. There are so many ifs and buts, there are so many whys and hows, so many what should I do and what consequences am I looking for.

I can rest at least reassured that you really should not ignore a crying baby … imagine how they must feel, they are crying for comfort, and no one is coming, as a new born. I can imagine myself as an adult, crying in my room and my family completely ignoring me. That would alter me, that would ruin me, it would affect my trust in my family, in anyone, it would nurture resentment, independence, lack of trust, and so much more. So as I stand today, I will never ignore my baby, I will never let my blood cry on their own while I purposely ignore them. It is so sad to think of what they may be thinking and not even able to express themselves verbally. Maybe they had a really bad dream and just need that reassurance, maybe they are babies that had something happen to them in the womb and need to be comforted until they can be more independent on their own. Never ignore your baby when they are crying, no matter how fussy they may be. Support your baby, support their healthy growth, love them unconditionally.

Put yourself in their shoes for a few minutes, imagine every scenario…. Do you have the heart? Your flesh, your blood, your baby. The thought makes me so sad.