I like to think that I am a pretty well rounded athlete and I like to think that I know what I am doing. The truth is that even after all the certifications and book learning, experience is still the best teacher. My dad got me my first weight set when I was nine and I never looked back. I know what you’re thinking, that was way too young and I really could have got screwed up. Yeah, it’s true but I also learned alot over the next twenty years. My dad steered me in the right direction and I would have been better off if I had always listened to his workout advice. He always told me never to run and lift on the same day, which is the topic of this article.

For years after high school I cost myself gains by running five miles everyday to try getting more cut. Instead of acheiving my goal my body ate up muscle mass and held onto fat. This coupled with the fact that I was working graveyard shifts and only eating twice a day destroyed my metabolism.

You see folks the human body is hardwired at birth with all kinds of programming that will give it the best chance for survival in the event of say a famine. So lets say your famine trigger is less than 1400 calories a day and you go below. That means your body will eat up muscle mass and save up the higher calorie yielding fat.

I know, What does this have to do with the title. You go for a run first thing before you lift and you will burn up the ATP in the muscle, thus you will not have enough energy to grow. If you run after you lift you will disrupt the healing process. If you’re saying I run and lift all the time on the same day and it doesn’t affect me, you’re not doing something with enough intensity otherwise you should be completely burned out everyday

Anyway, just try lifting monday, wednesday, and friday. Then do your run on tuesday and thursday. Rest for the weekend and you should see definite results pretty quick.