Strength Training vs. cardio in the beginning????? HELP!

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  • lovelight30
    lovelight30 Posts: 30
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    I do both. I've lost weight in the past and it seemed to work for me. First, start off with 30-60 minutes of some type of cardio. Then do 30 minutes of strength. If you're not exhausted after doing that, then you didn't work hard enough. Get your blood flow going first and get a good sweat and then finish it with a good strength workout. Always worked for me.
  • glenner
    glenner Posts: 160 Member
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    That is very interesting! I love all the great advice from this post. I just always thought that you are supose to do cardio before strength training to warm up those muscles. Or should you just do like a quick 5 minutes cardio to warm the muscles???
    You are right about warming muscles first but 10 minutes warm up is fine if you don't want to do cardio work out first.
  • twinketta
    twinketta Posts: 2,130 Member
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    I am wondering if I should build up my muscles and do a little cardio in the beginning of my journey. I feel as though if I make more of my body muscle than fat, then I will have a better chance of losing weight, rather than just doing cardio all the time. I do cardio everyday, burning 200(give or take a few) calories each time. should I do more?? And I do strength training every other day for about 90 minutes working all of my muscle groups with the bowflex. I want the best workout to lose the most weight, but i do not want to lose muscle. Help! I eat about 1500 calories a day, no more. I like the elliptical, bike, treadmill and bowflex. Please give me advice on what I should do more or less of to get the most results. Im new to this whole process. But Im determined. HELP.

    Let me tell you a little story...stick with me OK?

    I started on this MFP thing over a year ago, stuck with the goals and added my exercise as walking and I walked and walked and then walked some more. I lost around 30lbs lost lots of jean sizes, but then I realised that my upper body and my arms were not keeping in line with my hips n legs...so I started to exercise those too.

    The long n short story is train all you body, no matter how boring it is x
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    It's not strength training vs. cardio. it's strength training and cardio. Do both, eat at a deficit. profit.

    WINNING!!!!

    To the OP...here's what I'm starting next week as I had much the same question:

    Monday - Cardio (training for 5K)
    Tuesday - Heavy Lifting (SL 5x5)
    Wednesday - Cardio (training for 5K)
    Thursday - Heavy Lifting (SL 5x5)
    Friday - Cardio (5K training)
    Saturday - Heavy Lifting (SL 5x5)
    Sunday - Rest...watch football...cook up some grub for the week...throw a few back

    Note that my 5K training is beginner and really pretty light...about 30 minutes per session. I'm doing it primarily for the heart and the heart only needs a good 3 days/week with the heart rate over 120 for 30 minutes to get a good workout. IMHO, most people way over do it on the cardio.
  • _Wits_
    _Wits_ Posts: 1,286 Member
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    It's not strength training vs. cardio. it's strength training and cardio. Do both, eat at a deficit. profit.

    Equal parts every day?
    No.

    Best bet, start off strength training 3 times a week. Once the intial soreness and fatigue wear off (I'd say a week, tops) sprinkle in one to two days of cardio.

    That's what works best for me. In my mind, if you can do a decent amount of cardio after strength training, you're not training hard enough.

    THIS!
  • kellensdad
    kellensdad Posts: 27 Member
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    Do both, without a doubt, do both. Start off with 3 days of strenght training, and try to rotate body parts and exercise, that is don't do the same thing three different days. Also do 3-5 days of cardio, and again mix it up, don't do the same thing over and over again. Try eliptical one day, some HIT training the next time, followed by some tire flipping or sledge swinging for the third. You want both and your body will thank you for it, not right away, but in the future it will thank you.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
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    As others have mentioned strength training will help maintain your muscle as you lose weight.

    For whatever it's worth, for my own personal efforts Cardio really has limited uses.

    1. Health. Generally speaking, and disregarding any medical problems, some regular cardio is a good thing. And by "some," I mean not very much where my own workouts are concerned. Maybe 1-2/week, and nothing very intense at that. Then again, I have an irregular heartbeat. Your mileage will vary.

    2. Cardio lets me eat more. I like food. I cringe whenever someone just refers to food at fuel and nothing more. Food is delightful, from the tastes, to the smell, to the texture, the overall experience of eating is a grand thing. And sometimes a little extra cardio helps me eat more.

    If I didn't have a particular reason to care about my cardio vascular health, and didn't have a need to account for a few extra calories here and there, I wouldn't bother with cardio at all. For me, it is in no way rewarding, relaxing, "fun."
  • SaraLily85
    SaraLily85 Posts: 23 Member
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    Thank you all for the advice and support. I think I will continue the plan I'm working on. Strength training 3-4 days a week and cardio 4-5 days a week. I will change up the order..Ill do strength then cardio on the days I do both. Ill keep on doing all of my muscle groups everyday I do strength training because I enjoy the repetition and routine of it. I dont really warm up, I kinda just jog, but I was doing cardio before strength. I will now though. Thank you again. Youre all amazingly inspirational and that is awesome. Good luck to everyone!!!
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    That is very interesting! I love all the great advice from this post. I just always thought that you are supose to do cardio before strength training to warm up those muscles. Or should you just do like a quick 5 minutes cardio to warm the muscles???

    It doesn't make any difference. Do whatever suits your time schedule or whatever makes you most likely to put forth a good effort and a quality workout. Virtually everything you will hear about "cardio or weights first" will either be wrong or irrelevant.
  • mchlsmit
    mchlsmit Posts: 13 Member
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    My advice - if you want to lose weight then do more cardio. If you want to build muscle or get stronger then do more weights. Don't ditch the cardio altogether as you need to get your cv system in shape as well. Diet is important for both and it can be difficult to build muscle if you are doing lots of cardio as your body will burn the muscle you are trying to gain for fuel. If you want to build muscle do cardio once a week or keep your sessions short with a lower heart rate (e.g. 15 mins HIIT or 30 mins at 120 bpm a couple of times a week).

    90 minutes seems a rather long session! I do 6 weight exercises (free weights and machines) 3 times a week (push, pull, legs) and focus on different muscle groups each day. I do 3 sets of 12 reps and a 10 minute warm up and cool down. I'm in the gym for about 45 minutes total.

    You might want to check out Bodylastics resistance bands as well as they allow you to do cardio and resistance training. You might have to decide what you want to achieve as building muscle and losing weight require a different set of exercises and a different kind of diet. Build muscle = eat more. Lose weight = eat less.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
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    building muscle and losing weight require a different set of exercises and a different kind of diet. Build muscle = eat more. Lose weight = eat less.

    I see you are new and want to say welcome! I pretty much agree with the gist of all that you said but just wanted to clarify that losing fat instead of weight can be done whille doing the same strength routine to preserve lean muscle mass. So, in essence the type of exercise can stay the same while changing the diet to a calorie deficit. The consideration would be reducing volume/ frequency when in defict as you are providing less energy but you can still maintain adaptations and lose primarily fat. 2 great article on this are listed below.

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-1.html
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/weight-training-for-fat-loss-part-2.html
  • Illusent
    Illusent Posts: 228 Member
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    It's not strength training vs. cardio. it's strength training and cardio. Do both, eat at a deficit. profit.
    #cosign
  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    Thank you all for the advice and support. I think I will continue the plan I'm working on. Strength training 3-4 days a week and cardio 4-5 days a week. I will change up the order..Ill do strength then cardio on the days I do both. Ill keep on doing all of my muscle groups everyday I do strength training because I enjoy the repetition and routine of it. I dont really warm up, I kinda just jog, but I was doing cardio before strength. I will now though. Thank you again. Youre all amazingly inspirational and that is awesome. Good luck to everyone!!!

    Keep cardio brief on heavy lifting days. All of the people with A+ bodies that I follow on Bodybuilding.com, Facebook, etc., all keep cardio under 30 minutes on heavy lifting days and they keep it light as well - jogging instead of running, for example.

    Many of them do zero cardio on lifting days, or a max of 10 minutes.

    The reason for this is that cardio beforehand is sapping much-needed energy from your lifting routine, and cardio afterward is sapping much-needed energy from your muscle recovery.

    Thus the split that someone posted earlier, i.e. MWF lift, TTS cardio, and rest on Sunday is your best bet as a novice.

    As you become more advanced, you can add cardio in on lifting days.

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