New study on concurrent training confirms what we know

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Azdak
Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
But it's a good study nonetheless.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27658232

Researchers looked at doing aerobic exercise at different intensities (mild to HIIT) before resistance exercise and found that total lifting volume, power, velocity, were all reduced when doing aerobic exercise first.

Authors described the reductions as "significant", although they could just be referring to statistical significance. I have not read the entire article, but, from the abstract, I would consider the reductions modest and in line with previous research. I thought this was interesting because I can't remember another study that looked at different aerobic intensity ranges.

If the quality of your strength workout is your #1 priority, then the research is definite that you should not do extensive cardio before.

I still believe, however, that if your primary training focus is on cardio performance, then it is possible to achieve significant strength training benefits when doing your cardio first. You won't achieve max benefits, but for many people, 85%-90% might be quite satisfactory and an acceptable trade off.

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  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
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    Thanks. And I think your last paragraph is quite reasonable.