AM Cardio and PM Lifting

Just finished my first week of early morning cardio and evening weight lifting, in an effort to achieve the next level in my training.

For those who don’t train in the morning, this is a rough way to wake up. I did notice, I seem to no longer need that coffee in the morning.

If you use this split, you have to be a crazy mofo, a US Marine, or someone just nuts about training…

. . . or just someone who’s highly motivated? (grin)

The hardest part is just getting in the front door of the gym.

I wake up, have some food then do HIIT
I hope you’re eating something before morning cardio?

No food thusfar. So I guess you’d call this ‘fasted cardio’. I know there is a lot of reading out there for fasted cardio vs cardio with food.

What is your take? and why?

You get use to getting up early after a couple of weeks of consistently doing it. Gives me energy to start the day.

No, the hardest part is getting out of bed. If you get out your door, going into the gym is easy.

Morning cardio sucks.

I use to hate training in the morning when I was younger. Now for some reason I love it!

I feel great the rest of the day, and once or twice a week I hit it again just before my evening meal.

You mean there are people who DON’T like six a.m. eight mile runs like I do?? :slight_smile:
/tease
Honestly, since I started doing cardio apart from weightlifting I’m noticing a lot of improvement. Lately I’ve been running at home around six-seven a.m., then going to the gym around noon. It’s not only fun, it makes your friends call you obsessive :).

The elfling!

Hey hey hey,
I’ll join the bandwagon and say that I too have been doing morning cardio sessions, followed by afternoon weightlifting sessions. I eat about 1/2 cup of cottage cheese with 1/2 scoop of whey 30-45 minutes prior to doing my HIIT or cardio (depends on the day) and then I sip on a malto+whey mix while I am training. Then comes breakfast, 2 P+F meals, lift some heavy weight, and eat my “cute behind” off…haha. It helps that I have to open the gym where I work twice per week…so doing morning cardio is no big deal as I am wide awake by the time I get to work. I think it def helps with breaking up my training sessions as a whole. I don’t feel as if I am in the gym for 2 hours. Good times good times…;o)

I’ve done morning cardio (40 min on stationary bike) in the past and I didn’t notice much fat loss, etc. like when I’d do it in the afternoon. Plus, I’d get energetic then it’d wear off so I stopped after a month & went back to afternoons.


I’ve started doing some GPP in the morning, though. Too early to tell if I’ll hit a wall as before.

I agree with Thunder.

One thing I’ve noticed with myself is that when my bodyfat starts to get low (nine percent and lower roughly), I start automatically waking up early and ready to start the morning. This comes in handy when you’re doing morning cardio or some good ol’ wheelbarrow or sledgehammer work!

For those that just roll out of bed and go to the gym to do cardio, say some HIIT on the eliptical or constant-pace, what is the recommend nutrition prior to training?

getting out of bad un the
morninig sucks!!!any way do you
think that alittle cardio{10-15 min}
before alifting training is bad?

I been doing AM fasted state cardio and night time workouts since Aug. But I don’t roll right out of bed and start running. I have two cups of Joe, some BCAA’s, and some Hot ROX. Then I hit the road about a 1/2 hour later for 45 minutes at about 70% of Max HR. This has been working great for me up until Monday Night football kicked in. It’s hard to head to the gym at 8:00pm but if it wasn’t hard it wouldn’t be worth doing now would it?

Amit,
I wouldn’t do any cardio right before a lifting session! Why deplete your glycogen stores? Your lifts will only suffer. Think of your weight training as a kick start to your cardio. Read the “Cardio Roundtable”…I know that article discusses that very topic.

I also do Cardio at 4:30 am for about six miles. I take Hot Rox first, run and then drink a protein shake with oatmeal. Great way to start the day. I eat every two hours at work and then lift at about 6:00 pm for an hour. Finish off the day with an evening meal.

The hardest part is waking up in the morning, for sure! Two weeks straight now of me trying to get up early, but it never happens. The bed is so warm and im so tired. Tomorrow morning I plan to get up early for some HIIT.

I one time in my life (not sure how), but I lifted for 6 months straight at 6 am in the morning. One morning (after a long night) a fellow gym rat caught me napping on the bench press bench. lol

Call me goofy, but nothing psyches me up for some a.m. GPP or some type of workout like a little “Lunatic Fringe.”
I guess I’ve seen Vision Quest a few too many times, but that song is awesome for getting ready for a workout, esp. if you aren’t quite ready for some Slayer or Slipknot.

For those of you who are having difficulty getting “up” for the early morning stuff, do whatever you have to do to get up and do something for a good two-week trial. By then you’ll be addicted, and it is such a good feeling to get it done and get the blood flowing for the rest of the day.

Monty is on the right track. This is my second week on this program. Getting up this second week has been easier. Energy levels are definitely higher.

I’ve been doing that for years. Except, I do the reverse Am lfiting and PM HIIT sprinting.