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ranessanesbitt8
ranessanesbitt8 Posts: 3 Member
edited October 2022 in Fitness and Exercise
How many people does cardio before lifting weight

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  • Butt_Snorkeler
    Butt_Snorkeler Posts: 167 Member
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    Usually do 10-15 min on the elliptical as a warm up before weights. If I needed to do both weights and cardio at same tike, I would do cardio after. But I normally separate my workouts so that my cardio is during my fasting period in the morning and my weights are during lunch break so I can scarf down some food before and after
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,294 Member
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    My thought is that it's typically best to do the highest-priority one (personal priority) first.

    For many people, that's strength training.

    For me, the priority is rowing (on water in boats if I can, or machine when I must). If I'm doing both in the same day, I'd always row first, then strength train . . . with the possible exception of a day that's not going to include a real rowing workout, in which case I might use a brief easy-pace row as part of warming up for the strength workout . . . or not.
  • tigrig
    tigrig Posts: 659 Member
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    The most cardio I'll do on a lifting day is 5-10 minutes on a treadmill before hitting the weights just to get some blood flowing. I come to the gym on cardio only days to do the stairclimber, Jacob's ladder, and farmer walks
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,530 Member
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    10 mins on my bike to warm up.
  • MaggieGirl135
    MaggieGirl135 Posts: 977 Member
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    I do about 25 min each of elliptical, yoga, and strength training each day, ~6 days/wk, alternating days with upper and lower body workouts. I always start with the elliptical…I enjoy it and yet, I am decidedly happy when it is done. It’s just a touch of a love/hate relationship. If it’s the first thing done, it’s harder to skip!
  • jwardtabitha1
    jwardtabitha1 Posts: 3 Member
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    Weights first, mostly for safety and power. I do a warm up, then do weights so that I have the most of my energy and can ensure proper form and I also get better gains when I do lifting first. If I add cardio, I do it after, however, I usually do cardio on a different day and do Tabata or some total body HIIT.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 9,180 Member
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    I used to do both cardio and weights on the same day, doing the cardio first because then I would usually skip it if I waited to do it after lifting, lol. These days I do either cardio OR weights Monday thru Friday. Saturday I do both again, cardio first, but it's an easy 30 minutes just hard enough to get the heart going, breathe a little harder, and burn some calories.
  • Daddy78230
    Daddy78230 Posts: 125 Member
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    A few years ago I used to go trail running first thing in the morning (3-6 miles), but I would put off lifting weights till several hours later.

    Even though I would concentrate on upper body strength training, cardio still hindered my lifting performance, but not as bad as lifting right after cardio.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    "Cardio" is an extremely broad term and covers a gambit of intensities and duration. Taking a spin class and then getting under a barbell is probably not the best idea and safety aside, would likely lead to a pretty crappy lifting session due to fatigue. Some light cardio on the treadmill or recumbent bike or something for 30 minutes and then lifting, probably not a big deal depending on your fitness. "Lifting weights" is also a pretty broad term and depending on your programming and what you're doing it could be a relatively easy workout or very strenuous workout.

    I'm more recreational these days in my exercise, so it doesn't really matter much but when I was doing a lot of cycling endurance training I had my hard cycling days on my non lifting days and on lifting days I would have a lighter cycling day but on those days I would also split my day out as to not overly impact my lifts...so I would typically do my ride in the morning or at lunch, and then go lift in the evenings.

    Most of my cardio these days is recreational cycling, mountain biking, walking my dog, and hiking. The only activity strenuous enough to really impact a lifting session would be my mountain biking, but that's because I'm usually out on the mountain for 4+ hours and pretty exhausted by the end of it and wouldn't want to get under a barbell. Kind of a moot point anyway for me I guess because none of my cardio is done in the gym. I lift on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on my lunch break and also usually go for a ride those evenings while I'm waiting for my kid to get done with soccer practice...but I'm not training anymore, so they're only maybe a 30-45 minute road ride and I'm not concerned with performance or anything, just getting some cardiovascular exercise.

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