Weight training before or after cardio?

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  • kochany
    kochany Posts: 32
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    Its funny that some ppl don't know jack about exercising and yet they "voice" their opinion.
  • hbunting86
    hbunting86 Posts: 952 Member
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    I vary it - mainly to keep my interest! I get bored if I follow exactly the same routine, and as mentioned before I don't think it matters *so* much, particularly being female and not really wanting to build huge muscles. I think the important thing is that you DO lift - as many people think exercise starts and ends with cardio...

    Just my 2 pence worth!

    H :)
  • Hollie_downunder
    Hollie_downunder Posts: 192
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    i was once told by a personal trainer:

    warm up with 5 mins cardio - then weight training - then cardio - then stretches :)
  • mideon_696
    mideon_696 Posts: 770 Member
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    warm up, train, then cool down. is what i do.

    i do my proper cardio, like intervals, and conditioning circuits on "off" days...
  • trud72
    trud72 Posts: 1,912 Member
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    For about 98% of the population, it makes no difference. If you think about this topic for 30 seconds--you've spent about 25 seconds too many thinking about it.

    good call!

    more people like this yayx :drinker: (non alcaholic)lol
  • JeninBelgium
    JeninBelgium Posts: 804 Member
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    i was once told by a personal trainer:

    warm up with 5 mins cardio - then weight training - then cardio - then stretches :)

    me too though my personal trainer said 5-10 minutes warm up for me- but I am slow to limber - have some injury issues
    I find, for me personally, that if I do cardio first I am often too tired to do the strength training with good form and I often find a lot of other excuses to skip the strength training- so I do it either first or in a circuit form with cardio just to be sure I get it done!

    good luck!
  • zeeeb
    zeeeb Posts: 805 Member
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    during!!! ha ha

    i bet this has really clarified this for the Original Poster.

    I usually do cardio before and weights after

    but when i do PT sessions she does both in quick succession, so that i never really catch my breath, and just when i feel like i have caught my breath during some weights, she throws in some sprints or boxing or something to bring my heartrate back up. so i guess she does Interval Training?!*
  • NikkisNewStart
    NikkisNewStart Posts: 1,100 Member
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    warm up, train, then cool down. is what i do.

    i do my proper cardio, like intervals, and conditioning circuits on "off" days...

    This is exactly what I do! I have 4 days of lifting (warm up, train, cool down), 1 day of dedicated cardio, and 2 days rest.
  • seyran
    seyran Posts: 43
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    I had my first session with my personal trainer and he made me do cardio first (because my main goal is loosing fat) than pilates than cardio and than a long stretching. But some other day he can make me start with warming up for 10 minutes and than weights and than cardio and stretching. And anyway he says never to more that 45 minutes of cardio.
  • jagoochie
    jagoochie Posts: 218 Member
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    weights before cardio
  • EmBlazes
    EmBlazes Posts: 374 Member
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    but when i do PT sessions she does both in quick succession, so that i never really catch my breath, and just when i feel like i have caught my breath during some weights, she throws in some sprints or boxing or something to bring my heartrate back up. so i guess she does Interval Training?!*

    Yes this is interval training. It's what my PT does with me. Normally we do a 5 min cross-trainer/elliptical warm up (going hard enough to get my HR up to 80% of max). Next he'll do a mixture of exercises - some that really bring me to my max HR and some that are more about form and weights. We go much harder at the beginning of the session than towards the end (both HR and weight wise) which is when I'm less tired. Towards the end we slow down a bit but still do an interval or two on a cardio machine to keep my average HR reasonably high.

    Great debate/discussion on here by the way. I think it really depends what works for the individual. I always tend to do my cardio earlier when I'm on my own in the gym but I do notice that my muscles tire when I do that so I might stick to the interval approach (where I get a much higher calorie burn for the entire session).
  • mideon_696
    mideon_696 Posts: 770 Member
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    I had my first session with my personal trainer and he made me do cardio first (because my main goal is loosing fat) than pilates than cardio and than a long stretching. But some other day he can make me start with warming up for 10 minutes and than weights and than cardio and stretching. And anyway he says never to more that 45 minutes of cardio.

    for losing fat, boring cardio is not the best way unfortunately.
    circuit is always going to do a better job.
    Especially the tabata method. Put in a PROPER effort on a tabata set, and you'll nearly pass out! haha. You'll be breathing heavy and burning fat for a good while afterwards too...and all this in 4 minutes!
    http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/the_tabata_method

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