Order of exercises?

nolabone

My boyfriend is adamant about the order cardio and weight training should be done in. He said I should do cardio for ~5 minutes to warm up, followed by whatever strength exercises I am doing for the day, and then perhaps more cardio. I can't remember his exact reasoning, but it was something about burning something specific (maybe fat?) instead of something else specific.

Basically, I'm wondering if it matters if aerobic exercise is done before or after strength training, and why. I usually do it before, or else I feel I wont get to it.

Th3Ph03n1x

You should do some sort of warm up before any exercise but there is no need to do full blown cardio before or even the same day you lift. It doesn't hurt to walk around or something to get the blood flowing and perhaps do some sets of light weight before you really lift.

ovinas1

People that stay fit and go to the gym tend to be OCD. (me) If it works for me its gonna work for you. Amuse him.

luluinca

From what I've read and heard from my trainer if you're going to do cardio and lifting (strength training) on the same day, the lifting should come first. A five minute cardio warmup is fine but otherwise your lifting may suffer. It's not a good idea to go into strength training already tired if you want to progress. I sometimes separate my lifting days and my cardio days completely to get the best results for me...................but I'm old.

divekitty65

I have worked with trainers in the past, always been told to do a 5-15 minutes of cardio prior to weights. Theory is warming up, many different definitions of the warm up...

Sutnak

If you're doing proper strength training - and I don't mean just slogging through some weights - you A) don't want to exhaust yourself doing cardio before. And don't want to hamper your strength training by doing a ton of cardio. Have heard of good results of shorT HIIT workouts after lifting though.

I'm assuming your primary goal is getting stronger though, since you said strength training.

Yoshimay36

Don't forget to cool-down and stretch after each exercise!
That's the most important part [says my PT]

AllanMisner

This is one of those unwritten rules that has existed for a long time. The premise is that lifting first allows you to apply your full energy to that lifting. Since most men want to look like a weight lifter versus a marathoner, that theory would make sense. If only the body worked that way...

ana3067

Try it for yourself. Most people tend to do a warm up first (can include cardio, doesn't have to, but should include dynamic stretches), then lift, then cardio if desired. Otherwise it can be really tiring to lift after cardio. Although if you are just starting out and not lifting very heavy you might not have this issue. I used to do cardio before wights, but that was when I was just doing the crappy machines instead of free weights. I don't think I'd attempt deadlifting 205 next week AFTER a cardio session lol.

AllanMisner

But I will admit, in crossfit, I really hate running after a good squat session.

nolabone

What I'm gathering is, if you don't go full force with cardio you will have more strength for pushing yourself with lifting.

Makes sense. I guess I was just thrown off by his reasoning (really wish I could remember his specific answer).