What should start sesion - cardio or strength training

punkeson

Hiya
Just wondered if there is any benefit to doing strength training (ie some free weight exercises with dumbells) before a cardio session or whether I am best off doing cardio then strength training? This is within the same session, just not sure which should come first. My goal is to burn fat and tone up.
Thanks
Tina

JohnDowding

Thanks, I was just about to ask the same question. I do strength training first, but then often struggle in make my minutes in cardio.

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a_stronger_me13

It depends on your priority. I value weight training over cardio, so I do weights first. Most advice is to do weights first. There is a technical reason for this. Your body needs glycogen to lift weight. If you use up the glycogen doing cardio, your weight training will suck. The cool thing about this is you don't need the glycogen for cardio. Your body will burn fat once the glycogen is used up. ????

This. And also since my goals are to maintain LBM which lifting helps out with and cardio really doesn't, I prefer to lift first when my energy levels are higher and do cardio later.

apercanis

Basically what Jerry said. If you're uncertain of which to do - then simply blend them together. You could strength train and include a cardio interval between each training exercise or do cardio with a strength training interval in-between each exercise. I think it's important to include some form of strength training since if you just focus on losing fat you might end up losing muscle mass as result of excessive cardio.

AntnNicsMom

I think it's a preference thing. Most days I will do 10min of cardio to warm up and go back to it after strength training. I seem to be more pumped for it...most likely for the reasons given by GuitarJerry!

cwolfman13

To add to Jerry's excellent comment, I'd add that it also depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to maximize strength gains or build muscle you would want to lift first...personally, I don't do any cardio at all on my heavy strength days...I just focus on strength and maybe do a 15 minute light cardio cool down. If you're lifting "heavy" you're really doing yourself a disservice doing anything more than a light cardio warmup before you lift.

On the other hand if you're working muscle endurance and stamina, doing a lighter weight workout in the 12-15 rep range after a cardio session would be a good way of completely exhausting your body and building up that endurance. I do something similar after my hard spin class on Saturdays but I use primarily do body weight muscular endurance work rather than weight training for this purpose.

shadriel7

I asked one of the trainers at my gym about that just last week. He said it was better to do the strength training first because it builds up your muscle, so that (eventually), you will have more endurance and strength to get thru more cardio later - he compared it to getting more gas to run your engine with.

In practice so far tho - I am definitely having a harder time making it thru my cardio *after* I do the strength training, but I am able to do more of the strength training than I could before, because I'm not too tired to finish it out . Though, I am really having to push myself to finish the full 30 minutes worth of cardio after, even when doing it a bit lighter than I was before. I think he may be right tho, and I'll come out ahead in the end.

I'm sure its also true that how to get the best results really just depends on what results you are after, as others have said.

IWILLBelieveAchieveInspire

I'm glad you asked this question. Seven weeks ago I dramatically changed the way I work out and my main focus has been weight training. I lift weights 4days a week and ALWAYs lift first and IF I have any energy left at the end of it I might do 10-15 minutes of skipping intervals or something similar. Most days I am exhausted after lifting and would just rather pack it in when done. I take very little rests between sets (30sec-1min at most). I work up a good sweat and my heart rate is up. I hope I'm not going to regret this change of workout as I still want to lose around 45lbs. Until recently I was mainly doing cardio machines and then a little light weights with high reps. It's a big difference. I often question my decision as there are no other women with me in the weight area but I'm willing to stick with this for awhile. I take my next measurements in a week so I'll see what 8wks of this has gotten me. But I've often questioned my decision to put the cardio at the end because more often then not I just can't find much energy after 45min of lifting to even entertain the though of cardio. I want to see some weight loss still so I hope this is a wise choice. I'm curious to see what everyone has to say. Thanks for asking this question.

hilts1969

i do a set of upper body weights, then 5 min walk, upper body weight, 30 min run, upper body weight, leg weights, upper body weight

if i do weights all together it affects the amount i can lift, i have tried both ways and mixing it so i get a bigger break in between lifting helps me hugely, there was a study done that found those who do cardio in between sets got stronger than those that didnt

raindawg

I do both, but start with my 30 minutes of cardio. I find it's a good warm up for the weights. I always thought you burned more calories doing cardio, so I want to make sure I get that in before the weights. But since I get both in everytime it wouldn't matter for me.