Comcoaching

Here’s why:

heavy compound lifts like squats and lunges rely on fast twitch muscle fibers, and those fibers fatigue fast.

When you do cardio first, you pre exhaust your legs and burn through glycogen you need for strength output.

That means lighter weights, fewer reps, and less mechanical tension, which is the actual driver of muscle growth.

Cardio also spikes fatigue in stabilizer muscles and can mess with your form under load, raising injury risk right when you need to be lifting heavy.

If you want both, flip the order. Lift first while your energy and CNS (central nervous system: your nervous systems ability to withhold the output needed here) are fresh, then do cardio after or on a separate day entirely.

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So what’s the point in weightlifting if it’s only small amount of calories extra that it burns?

The claim that muscle burns tons of extra calories isn’t quite right.

At rest, a pound of muscle burns about 6 calories a day, compared to about 2 calories for a pound of fat.

That’s roughly 3x more per pound, but in real numbers it’s small. Adding 5 lbs of muscle only adds about 20 to 30 extra calories burned per day at rest.

-Where strength training actually helps is body composition.

-When you lift while in a calorie deficit, you signal your body to hold onto muscle and pull more of the deficit from fat stores. That’s backed by research on body recomposition, especially with enough protein intake.

So the benefit isn’t “muscle is a calorie furnace.” It’s that lifting protects your muscle while you lose fat, so you end up leaner and more defined at the same weight, not just smaller.

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Real talk, how do you actually know when it’s time to go up in weight?

If you’re hitting the top of your reps with a rep or two still left in the tank, that’s your sign. Same goes if that weight that used to feel hard on the last few reps now feels easy, your body’s adapted and it’s time to give it something new to adapt to

Form matters just as much though. If you’ve kept good form for a couple sessions in a row at the top of your reps, you’re good to go up.

Small jumps always beat big ones. Add a bit, drop the reps slightly if you need to, way better than jumping too far and losing form.

It’s not about adding weight every session, but also don’t avoid it and stick at same weight for months.

Context in case anyone wants to argue

Where your glute max attaches onto your femur (the insertion point) varies from person to person. Some people have a shorter muscle belly with a higher insertion point, others have a longer muscle that inserts lower down. This affects the shape and roundness you can build, independent of how much muscle you actually put on.

None of this means training doesn’t matter. It absolutely does for strength, size, and shape within your own anatomy. But if you’ve been chasing a specific look/comparing yourself to someone and wondering why it’s not happening no matter what you do, this might be why. Your structure sets the shape. Your training determines how much muscle you build on top of it.