Hard Cardio After Lifting

You raise a number of issues.  I would wonder first why you're doing chest for 90 minutes?  Bodybuilders/powerlifters typically don't go nearly that much for a single part of the body.

Having a mix of high glycemic carbs and protein right after lifting will benefit recovery and strength.  That's been proven pretty well.  You raise a number of issues.  I would wonder first why you're doing chest for 90 minutes?  Bodybuilders/powerlifters typically don't go nearly that much for a single part of the body.

Having a mix of high glycemic carbs and protein right after lifting will benefit recovery and strength.  That's been proven pretty well.

There’s a good book on this subject called Nutrient Timing, I don’t have it with me but I have it at home if you want the author.  So, if you don’t get good nutrition right after a lift, your lifting will suffer.  There’s little doubt about that.

On the other hand, you’re in a much better position to burn fat if you do cardio after lifting, as you’re glycogen stores will be depleted, and if you throw down some carbs after a lift and then do cardio, you’ll be burning less fat.

I think you need to define your primary goal.  If your goal is to gain strength, and if you have the time, the best thing to do to maintain or build strength is to lift and then rest after lifting.  If you want to burn fat, and don’t mind letting your lifting suffer a bit, cardio after a lift is find—if you work hard enough with the weights, your strength probably wont lessen, at least.

What are your goals?  Gaining muscle/strength?  Mostly just strength?  Cardio will burn up a lot of the calories that your body would otherwise use to adapt to the lifting.  You can try to compensate by eating more on those days (pre-post workout as both are vital for muscle growth/energy levels) 

Thank you all for your comments.

I realize 90 minutes of straight chest would be a lot... I should clarify that when working out by myself, I spend at most 1 hour on chest and triceps. The 90 minutes was an exaggeration to help present the situation.

I have loosely defined my goal. My goal is to be a moderately fast triathlete and be in good physical shape, meaning good strength and some muscle definition.

The reason for doing cardio and lifting on the same day is simply due to time restraints. Ideally I would do cardio in the morning and strength train after work. This may be what I end up doing in the future, but for now, I am stuck doing both in the same session.

CGunz: The Nutrient Timing book sounds interesting. I would appreciate the title if you have the opportunity.

Here is a related question: Is it a good idea / does it make sense to incorporate swimming into strength training? For example, would it be a good idea to add 30 minutes of swimming to the end of my shoulder strength training? Would swimming be better suited for back workouts?

The same with leg strength training - would biking and running be a practical part of a leg strength training program?

Its called Nutrtient Timing, by Ivy and Portman.  It has some stuff in there by a number of people I respect, such as Susan Kliener (who has a good book, Power Eating).

If you have to do the two workouts straight, what you ought to do, IMO, is to down gatorade or something during your workout--this will mitigate problems from doing cardio after strength.  It will, of course, make it harder to burn fat during cardio.  And down a lot of protein before and after your workouts.  In fact, regardless of your goals, you really ought to be consuming some calories during a 90 min strength workout even alone, and definitely if your doing 90 min strength AND THEN some cardio.  I notice a big difference in long strength workouts between when I drink gatorade and when I don't.