Research

Hormonal

Performing resistance exercise before endurance exercise exacerbates the transcriptional response of muscle atrophy genes (MuRF) compared to performing endurance exercise before resistance.

If you do resistance training before cardio, your body may upregulate genes associated with muscle breakdown (MuRF) more than if you do cardio first. This suggests that 'weights first' might have a catabolic cost in terms of specific gene expression, even if it boosts growth signals like Akt. Balance your training to manage these competing signals.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Moreover, changes in delta mRNA abundance indicate that MuRF transcriptional activity was exacerbated when cycling was undertaken after resistance exercise (REX1-CYC2 vs. CYC1-REX2, +52%, ES = 0.4).
Vernon G. Coffey et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2009

Why this rating

Same study strengths/limitations as N1. The finding is statistically significant but the effect size is moderate.

Source

Consecutive bouts of diverse contractile activity alter acute responses in human skeletal muscle

Vernon G. Coffey et al. · Journal of Applied Physiology · 2009

DOI 10.1152/japplphysiol.91221.2008

crossover · n=8Cited 115×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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