Cardio or Weights 1st? Does it matter?

[udderlymyra]

HI Cathe & Gang!
I heard or read something about doing either one before the other can actually help aid in fat loss. How? I'm clueless. Is this a myth?
I'm adding more cardio to my program and am not sure what I should do first. From a pro's point of view (which I am far from, even though I teach group fitness) I would weight train 1st, seeing that the muscles are already exhausted during weight training, it would be hard to have a good weighted workout with pre-fatigued muscles. I don't know....do you?

 

[Jane P]

Jane P

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON May-26-00 AT 00:31AM (EST)</font></center>

I'm not Cathe, but I find that if I do lower body work and really push the muscles to failure that it's very hard to do any cardio afterwards except basic walking. With upper body work it's a little easier.
Sorry, put my name in subject line!

 

[jennholmes]

hi udderlymyra

I have been told by personal trainers and have read in a magazine that it is better to lift weights first, then do cardio. I believe you use up most of your carbohydrate stores for the weight training, then when you get to cardio, you go straight to the fat stores and burn fat. It kind of makes sense, but on the other hand, a calorie burned is a calorie burned right???

 

[hlj]

Weights first!

I totally agree with the responses prior to mine. I have read countless times to do cardio after strength so you have more energy to lift.

Another plus for me is that the cardio afterwards keeps my legs from being sore the next day......even after the FIRM's Standing Legs.

Heather

 

[Sabrina]

Definately Weights first!

I agree, I have read same, do weights first then cardio. Just had to add in my 2 cents.

 

[Jul]

tired?

I have found that I am wiped out after heavy lifting - I'm not sure that I could even do cardio after doing MIS legs or other heavy leg work. My arms feel like jello too. I am guessing that must be good in helping with endurance for cardio? What if I want to burn the maximum calories, will it affect how many calories I burn during cardio if I am very tired? I would have guessed that I should do cardio first because of this, and also because that is how Body Max is presented. I am just curious. Thanks for any comments!

 

[rachel2]

then why?

is Cathe doing cardio first on the new tapes and then HEAVY weights????

 

[Forgetful]

There are two schools of thought.....

Listen to your body. Some people obviously find that weights first work well, while others don't. If you vary the type of training, sometimes training heavily, sometimes light, you may find that when to do cardio varies also. I would be cautious about heavy weight training, followed by cardio, though. Glycogen depletion can make you wobbly increasing your chance of injury during cardio. I alternate upper and lower workouts and I like to train fairly heavily. On my heavy lower body days, I often skip the cardio altogether. I do 4 strenght traing workouts and 5 cardi sessions per wek. Works for me!

 

[Lea]

Hi Myra, good question!

I've been seeing lately that lifting and then cardio burns more fat, and what Jenn says sure makes sense. Having said that, I don't think I would be comfortable doing it that way.

Even with a typical warmup on most strength tapes, my muscles feel too cold for heavy strength training! I feel best doing an intense cardio workout and then doing some serious lifting. Once in a while I'll chase all that with a little more cardio, nothing grueling, just enough to get the blood pumping and warm my muscles so as to be receptive to a great stretch.

Maybe I'm missing out on some extra fat burning, but "forgetful" had some great advice - "listen to your body"! I end up being able to do more work over all and feel less sore when I do intense cardio, strength (everything at once), mild cardio and a thorough stretch.

 

[kimz]

My guess would be

that doing the cardio first enables Cathe to only have to do one warm up and then once the cardio is done, she can move right into the weight work out. This would be important when a tape is only supposed to be 45 - 60 minutes long.

I also think that doing one body part for 10 minutes after 30 minutes of cardio would not be nearly as hard as say, a total body workout would be.

It also depends on what your focus is in that you do the thing first that you want to concentrate more fully on.

Another guess of mine is that it is all in the name of variety. Some days, I do cardio first and then weights such as in Body Max, whereas on other days, it is the opposite. Keeps the muscles and body in general guessing I think.

Now, I could be totally out to lunch here but these are my guesses.

Kim

 

[step22]

cardio vs weights

Hi,
I've read that it depends on what your goal is. If you're more interested in toning, do weights 1st; if you're more interested in losing weight, do cardio 1st. So then you can put 100% effort into your goal.
When I was at a gym, one of the trainers said to do weights 1st so you can get your metabolism going, then do cardio when you really burn calories - this could be a myth though.
Hope this helps!

 

[sandra murphy]

Cardio First

Do your cardio first, then whatever weights you plan that same day, if you combine the two.

 

[jdale]

cardio or weights

I read in my Fitness magazine today that if you've hit a plateau in your exercise then its a good idea to switch the order you do your exercises every six weeks. If you do weights then cardio then switch to cardio then weights and vice versa. It was Karen Voight who said this by the way so I'd say it comes from a pretty reliable source. I guess this means its safe to do it either way. Just whatever you prefer.

Jacque