Well, you’ve heard it from the scientist. I mean, it’s not an exact science. If you’ve just gone for a long run and then you do a resistance training workout, the numbers on the screen are almost certainly not going to be as high and it’s going to negatively impact the workout, but it probably isn’t going to negatively impact the strength adaptations. Welcome to the Strength Changes everything podcast, where we introduce you to the information, latest research, and tools that will enable you to live a strong, healthy life. On this podcast, we will also answer your questions about strength, health, and wellbeing.

I’m Amy Hudson. I own and operate three exercise coach studios. My cohosts are Brian Sagan, cofounder and CEO of The Exercise Coach, and Dr. James Fisher, leading researcher in evidencebased strength training. And now for today’s episode. Welcome back to the Strength Changes everything podcast. We are back with a couple listeners listener questions for you today. As a reminder, you can always submit a question at strengthchangeseverythingcom there is an orange button at the top of the page. Submit a question, and you can Place your question in there for future podcast episodes. We’d love to address what is on your mind. Today, we are answering two questions. The first of which is about nutrition intake before or after a workout. Should I be eating either before my workout or after my workout or both? And what should I be eating when I eat? So, Dr. Fisher, what is your take on this? Yeah, well, this is quite a quick answer, to be honest. So it doesn’t really matter. You shouldn’t feel like you have to eat before a workout if you don’t want to. So if you’re on calorie restriction, you shouldn’t feel compelled to work out.

Of course, if you do eat before a workout, then it’s kind of recommended two to three hours beforehand. So it’s not immediately beforehand, unless it’s kind of a light snack. And oftentimes, preactivation preexercise the recommendation has typically been for it to be carbohydratebased so it’s kind of an energy source to support you through that workout. If you’re going to consume after a workout, if you feel you know like you want to eat after a workout, then rather than it being carbohydratebased there’s a shift now towards more of a protein base, and that’s to help increase muscle protein synthesis. Which you’ve already done in the strength training workout, but it also helps you kind of optimize that and optimize muscle growth associated with that. But again, you know, it was historically thought, it was historically phrased an anabolic window. After a resistance workout that you should eat within sort of 30 minutes or so. And the phraseology now is an anabolic barn door. You know, as long as you eat within a few hours after a workout, you’re really going to get that protein into your system and provide the benefits of that nutrition. I realized that that might not be the Answer that some people want, but actually it’s kind of an all, all rows lead to Rome approach.

You can eat before you can eat after you cannot not to, if you do carbs beforehand and protein after, but it’s really an individual thing for people. Some people will finish a workout and really not, not feel like they want to eat at all. Um, personally, uh Personally, I don’t like to consume food after a workout. I feel like I don’t want to eat, but I’m thirsty, and therefore it’s easy for me to just have a protein shake after a workout. Interesting. Okay. Well, you’ve heard it from the scientist. I mean, there’s not an exact science of what you have to eat and exactly what time you have to eat it.

What I’m hearing you say is just go to the workout with enough energy to do the workout. And then after your workout, when you’re hungry, try to eat preferably protein. You know, or prioritize that, but there’s no precise magic bullet. And I don’t know what the current research says. Sometimes people ask about, you know, fasted workouts or, you know, for a long period of time where you haven’t eaten before your workout, working out fasted versus unfasted. And I don’t know what the claims necessarily are nowadays on that. Do you think that people should be basing anything on, you know, precise outcomes that they’re trying to? Basing anything on precise outcomes that they’re trying to achieve through their workout with the fast? That’s a great question. So, the research around fasting, taking fasting, it’s obviously a prolonged period without nutritional intake, so without consuming calories. And that might be anywhere from eight to 24 hours. A small fast might be eight hours, 24 hours is obviously a lot longer going a whole day without food. I think the key thing to remember if you’re on a fast and then you engage in a workout is it will probably acutely impact your performance.

On that workout. So I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do. It. I’m simply saying that the numbers on the screen might not be, you know, personal bests compared to what you’ve done previously. And you might feel, you know, one or two exercises into the workout much more fatigued, um, than you would have done had you eaten prior to the workout. Um, but the evidence around, you know, fasted workouts is, you know, a lot of people will think of it in terms of, kind of a weight loss strategy and so forth. There really isn’t clear data to say that it’s hugely beneficial on a weight loss journey.

There is some evidence around fasting, but there’s a, you know that’s a different area over how we fast and so forth. So if people choose to fast before a workout, that’s fine. I’d hate to see anybody feel lightheaded during a workout and not finish the workout. Absolutely. Yep. Got it. Okay. Well, thank you for that one. And we do have another question today to ask. So this one is about doing cardio before or after resistance training? I think what we’re talking about is: is doing cardio exercise beneficial to do before a resistance training session or after, or should we do it at all? Again, a really great question. There’s been a wealth of research around this in the academic field that’s termed concurrent training. So, combining resistance and cardio training into somebody’s program. And of course, The general health recommendations are that people engage in some form of cardiovascular exercise.

And some form of muscle strengthening exercise, ideally resistance training. So typically, most people will be engaging in concurrent training. A good approach to this is, well, actually, before we talk about the approach, let’s talk about the different types of cardio. Because when we think of cardio, we probably are thinking of swimming, running, cycling, but we could also include tennis or pickleball or badminton or field hockey or basketball or whatever it might be. And cardio in that sense can exist along a spectrum of intensity. So if you’re going for a run, you might go and run 20 miles and it’s comparatively low effort compared to if you’re only going and running a mile. You know, if you go run a mile, you might effectively almost sprint that mile, or you might even go to the track and do 100 meter sprints. And while that’s still thought of as cardio by modality, it probably isn’t cardio in terms of the intensity.

You know, if you get on a bike and you do sprints, is that still cardio? Probably not, because it’s high effort, but it’s low volume, but the modality is still cycling. Now, the evidence, of course, supports that high intensity interval training can still reap all of the benefits of traditional long, steady state cardiovascular training. So we’re not going to get into a path of which is better for you, which type of cardio is better for you, just the acknowledgement that there’s different types of cardio that exist. So my comment was going to be, your emphasis should be placed on what’s your goal.

So if your goal is purely to build strength or primarily to build strength and muscle size, then you should almost certainly do that before you engage in cardiovascular training. If your goal to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, then doing the cardio first might be better for you. If your cardio is golf, you should definitely do that before resistance training because the resistance training might negatively impact the golf swing. Whereas if the golf swing negatively impacts the numbers on the screen for resistance training, it’s probably not the end of the world. So a lot of it really depends on the individual and it depends on what their kind of goal is. The very short answer, which I obviously didn’t give, is it probably makes very little difference. Difference other than to the acute workout itself. So if you just gone for a long run and then you do a resistance training workout, the numbers on the screen are almost certainly not going to be as high. You’re going to feel more fatigued and it’s going to negatively impact the workout, but it probably isn’t going to negatively impact the strength adaptations. If you lift weights and then go for a run, you’re probably going to be more fatigued on the run.

You’re maybe not going to run as fast as you, you know, planned to if you hadn’t done the workout and so forth. You know, I realize that’s a big gray area, but that’s a big gray question. Absolutely. Well, and I think the point you make is important that there are various types of cardio, right? And so, you know, short interval based cardio combined with strength training is what we do at the exercise coach because we know that there’s a huge metabolic benefit to combining the two of them and hormonal benefit that we’re achieving by doing that.

And it is ideal. But yes, I mean, it just kind of depends on your goal, like you said, you know, and in terms of that. So, man, it would be just easier if life was all black and white, wouldn’t it, Dr. Fisher? I mean, it would. It would. I think the real takeaway, so obviously I play basketball and I play golf. As I’ve said, I’m not a very good golfer, but The guys certainly that I play golf with also lift weights, and we all say that we never lift weights before a round of golf because we don’t want to be a Fatigued that it’s going to hinder the skill component of the sport. And I personally feel the same about basketball. I don’t want to be fatigued, so it’s going to negatively impact my shooting technique in basketball. But if you said to me, Would I go for a run before lifting weights? I wouldn’t think twice about it. Would I lift weights and then go for a run? Absolutely, no problem with that at all. Gotcha. Okay. Well, I’m satisfied with that answer. So, you know, I think we addressed it from all angles.

So, thank you so much for helping us out with that one, Dr. Fisher. Again, if you have a question, if you’re listening to this today and anything at all that comes to your mind, please do visit us at strengthchangeseverythingcom Let us know what’s on your mind and we will do our best to get to your question so that it’s no longer a burning wandering on your part, but we can give you the information that you are. After. We will see you next week on the podcast. Until then, we hope you remember strength changes everything. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please share it with a friend. You can submit a question or connect with the show at strengthchangeseverythingcom Join us next week for another episode and be sure to follow the show on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts so that you never miss another episode.

Here’s to you and your best health.