HIIT before strength training...thoughts?

biziebun
biziebun Posts: 24 Member
edited November 21 in Fitness and Exercise
I'm 33 male 6'3" 285lbs

So here's my routine.

15 mins on treadmill, which consist of:
-2.5 mins walking
-10 min of ...60 sec speed 7 and 60sec speed 3.5, but I don't let my HR drop below 140
-2.5 min walking cool down
I build up a good sweat going and I do enjoy it.

Then off to strength training for 50mins.
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Replies

  • rmitchell239
    rmitchell239 Posts: 125 Member
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.
  • AsISmile
    AsISmile Posts: 1,004 Member
    I would say strenght first, but mostly because for me I would cool off too much after HIIT cardio and doing strenght would be uncomfortable.
    However, don't forget your warming up if you do strenght first.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited July 2015
    Most people are going to say to do HIIT after strength training or to do it on a different day. IMO you can do it whatever day you would like, as long as you are happy with the results you are getting.

    I would rather smack myself in the face with a 2x4 than do HIIT before strength training but I'm not a big HIIT person in general so YMMV.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    rmitchell239 wrote: »
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.

    Except for the part that it's wrong.

    Most people will not come anywhere close to "using up their (sic) glucose", esp with the workout routine described by the OP You don't get to randomly pick fuel substrates when you exercise, and fuel use is not an "all or nothing" process. Substrate mix is determined by the type, duration, and intensity of the exercise.

    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.
  • rushbabe0214
    rushbabe0214 Posts: 105 Member
    I always lift first. There's no way I could give a lifting session all I had after doing a HIIT routine. Nope.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    If you are doing HIIT properly, it should be used as a finisher after strength training
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    You're lifting is going to suffer tremendously if you do HIIT first.
    I would recommend doing HIIT on a totally separate day if you can- but if you can't- do it after you lift.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.
    15 min of cardio =/= HIIT training

    If they are properly doing HIIT training- then yes- a 12 min HIIT session will greatly impact a high volume squat session.

    I maintained my fitness for almost 2 years PURELY on the basis of HIIT training and a moderately physical outside job. It works. And should be combined with a lifting program with wisdom- you can really mess yourself up over doing it using HIIT. Ask me how I know.
  • _incogNEATo_
    _incogNEATo_ Posts: 4,537 Member
    The theory behind HIIT is that you're giving all you've got for short bursts. You should be pretty well spent by the end of a workout like that. With that being said, I think you should do that after your workout instead of starting your lifts without a full tank.
  • rmitchell239
    rmitchell239 Posts: 125 Member
    Azdak wrote: »
    rmitchell239 wrote: »
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.

    Except for the part that it's wrong.

    Most people will not come anywhere close to "using up their (sic) glucose", esp with the workout routine described by the OP You don't get to randomly pick fuel substrates when you exercise, and fuel use is not an "all or nothing" process. Substrate mix is determined by the type, duration, and intensity of the exercise.

    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.

    I know that its a mix, its always a mix even if you've been working out for 5 hours. Im just saying the relative levels of what is being used. Some people can only do 15 min of cardio on a treadmill, when they get done their heart is thumping and they are gasping for breath, they definitely had an effect on something. Running an all out sprint for 60 sec on the treadmill followed by 30 sec rest and repeat for 15 minutes will have some kind of an effect on your body. The latter being likely a decent workout if you are pressed for time. It would be all dependent on your fitness level but even 15 is a start.
  • martyqueen52
    martyqueen52 Posts: 1,120 Member
    Azdak wrote: »
    rmitchell239 wrote: »
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.

    Except for the part that it's wrong.

    Most people will not come anywhere close to "using up their (sic) glucose", esp with the workout routine described by the OP You don't get to randomly pick fuel substrates when you exercise, and fuel use is not an "all or nothing" process. Substrate mix is determined by the type, duration, and intensity of the exercise.

    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.


    That's all opinion. Depending on how hard he does in cardio is an other story. And what he considers "strength" training is relevant as well. I wouldn't call benching 200, strength, by any means.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    For me it depends...if it's a leg day I do it after...upper body day I do that after cardio/HIIT
  • jimmmer
    jimmmer Posts: 3,515 Member
    Do the one you feel is most important first.

    If you value them both equally, split them out onto different days.
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    martyqueen52 wrote: »
    Azdak wrote: »
    rmitchell239 wrote: »
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.

    Except for the part that it's wrong.

    Most people will not come anywhere close to "using up their (sic) glucose", esp with the workout routine described by the OP You don't get to randomly pick fuel substrates when you exercise, and fuel use is not an "all or nothing" process. Substrate mix is determined by the type, duration, and intensity of the exercise.

    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.


    That's all opinion. Depending on how hard he does in cardio is an other story. And what he considers "strength" training is relevant as well. I wouldn't call benching 200, strength, by any means.

    hey now. benching 200 reps or 200 pounds? because my piddly 1 RMP is *only* 185 on bench.
  • _lyndseybrooke_
    _lyndseybrooke_ Posts: 2,561 Member
    Another vote for lifting first, then doing cardio.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
    The most compelling reason to do strength first is to focus on form, while it's improbable that you'd be overly fatigued after 15 minutes on treadmill the variable is your fitness level.
    Some people can only do 15 min of cardio on a treadmill, when they get done their heart is thumping and they are gasping for breath, they definitely had an effect on something.

    That could just be an indicator of poor aerobic fitness. When I started running I was practically puking after less than a mile......there's no correlation between gasping for breath and depleting glycogen stores.
  • chivalryder
    chivalryder Posts: 4,391 Member
    rmitchell239 wrote: »
    Strength first. Use up your bodys glucose to fuel those lifts, get more gains. Then when your body has used the glucose go into fat burning mode with the cardio. Otherwise, youre using glucose to fuel cardio, id rather use fat, and fat to fuel lifts which is inefficient. Im not a biochemistry major but it makes sense.

    One major problem with this concept:

    While doing cardio, fat is the LAST source of fuel your body uses. It will use every last ounce of glycogen in the body before it starts to use anything else (unless you're doing an extremely long, 3+ hour cardio session).

    That all being said, your body stores about 500g of glycogen in the body, or 2000 calories. During a lift session, you will not burn up all of this glycogen, so trying to do a cardio session after to "burn off fat," does not work. You're still using glycogen.

    Besides, if you did burn off all of those 2000 calories of glycogen, your body will start eating away muscle before it starts to eat away at the fat. Protein is easier to break down into glucose than fat is, and if you're doing cardio, your body will want that energy asap. It's not going to go the slow way and use fat.

    Fat will be burned off during recovery, when you're replenishing the glycogen stores and there's no immediate need for more energy.
  • emtjmac
    emtjmac Posts: 1,320 Member
    My strength training is integrated with my HIIT, I only do functional strength training. Are you talking about free weights specifically? After my HIIT workouts I finish with 15-20 mins of steady state cardio and that always caps the workout nicely while burning some extra calories in the process.
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    edited July 2015
    It's kind of up to you. If you want a high level of strength training performance and work towards setting new personal records, then you definitely want to do HIIT last as it will likely (some people are different) have a negative affect on your lifting performance. If it doesn't matter, then do whatever you enjoy.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    JoRocka wrote: »
    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.
    15 min of cardio =/= HIIT training

    If they are properly doing HIIT training- then yes- a 12 min HIIT session will greatly impact a high volume squat session.

    I maintained my fitness for almost 2 years PURELY on the basis of HIIT training and a moderately physical outside job. It works. And should be combined with a lifting program with wisdom- you can really mess yourself up over doing it using HIIT. Ask me how I know.

    No thanks. I'm busy doing an inventory of my diet coke supplies. Then I have my 2 hour elliptical workout to fit in before work.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    JoRocka wrote: »
    Doing 15 min of cardio on a treadmill will have no effect on anything, regardless of when or how it is performed.
    15 min of cardio =/= HIIT training

    If they are properly doing HIIT training- then yes- a 12 min HIIT session will greatly impact a high volume squat session.

    And what's described in the original post isn't HIIT. It sounds like a reasonable warm up to resistance training though.

    That said, I'd generally agree that if one is really going to do a HIIT session, then it's a self contained session and not done in conjunction with anything else.

  • tdecel
    tdecel Posts: 48 Member
    I tend to do 40 to 45 minutes of weights followed by 40 to 45 minutes on the elliptical (Precor AMT) with a 30 second-90 second and repeat HIIT session. I really go very hard the last 10 to 15 minutes increasing the resistance way up high so that by the time I finish, I am so hot and sweaty, that all I can do is go into the sauna to "cool" down.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    My guess is OP lifting routine is a bunch of circuits. No way you lift heavy after HIIT workouts.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    Not for me because hiit done properly will take a lot out of me.
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    999tigger wrote: »
    Not for me because hiit done properly will take a lot out of me.

    It should for everyone when done correctly and training anaerobics.
  • BeginnersBootcamp
    BeginnersBootcamp Posts: 90 Member
    Whatever your focus is, do that first. If your goal is fat burning and calories so hiit first. If you want muscles do lifting first. That's "dumbed down language" but you get the point :)
  • yopeeps025
    yopeeps025 Posts: 8,680 Member
    BeginnersBootcamp wrote: »
    Whatever your focus is, do that first. If your goal is fat burning and calories so hiit first. If you want muscles do lifting first. That's "dumbed down language" but you get the point :)

    You would be surprise for fat burning which one is better to do first.

  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    BeginnersBootcamp wrote: »
    Whatever your focus is, do that first. If your goal is fat burning and calories so hiit first. If you want muscles do lifting first. That's "dumbed down language" but you get the point :)

    That's just incompletely true too.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,627 Member
    There's also a very real psychological consideration. For example, I despise cardio, but love lifting. If I do cardio first, no matter how tired I am I will still lift. If I lift first and am tired after, there's a better than even chance I'll talk myself out of doing cardio. Thus, I like to do cardio first to make sure I get it in.

    That said, if I know I'm going for a PR that day, I might severely limit the cardio to not tire me out before my lift.
  • jnoegrah
    jnoegrah Posts: 119 Member
    Is 10 min enough to consider it an HIIT 'workout'? just wondering. (OP does a walk, then interval run, then cooldown)

    I have always been under the impression that HIIT is a workout in itself and with the intensity of it, would be pretty beat to do a full workout.

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