Weight training before or after cardio?

EmBlazes

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

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