Cardio before strength

shaycat
shaycat Posts: 980
in Fitness and Exercise
I notice if I run on the treadmill even just for 15 minutes before doing some lifting, I burn over twice as many calories per my HRM. Then if I just start lifting first.
Is that right?
«13

Replies

  • MoveTheMountain
    MoveTheMountain Posts: 764
    I notice if I run on the treadmill even just for 15 minutes before doing some lifting, I burn over twice as many calories per my HRM. Then if I just start lifting first.
    Is that right?

    You're saying you burn twice as many as if you had lifted first and then done your cardio? Is it the same intensity cardio in both situations? If it is, I think that's pretty amazing, and I don't quite get it, certainly not why it's by a factor of 2.
  • cmje94066
    cmje94066 Posts: 24 Member
    well, regardless of order, I notice that lifting burns more calories and a faster pace and cardio a little slower.
  • Sharyn913
    Sharyn913 Posts: 777 Member
    When I first met with a personal trainer, he always suggested I do weight training first, but never told me why. But when I started doing cardio first, my burn was 2x as much as well. I would love to hear some feedback from others!
  • morgan_mfit
    morgan_mfit Posts: 58 Member
    I was just looking this up yesterday. Experts say that cardio before strength training burns more calories and increases the after burn as well. Pretty awesome! I found this info here >> http://exercise.about.com/od/gettingweightlossresults/a/Cardio-Before-Strength-Training.htm
  • blonde71
    blonde71 Posts: 955 Member
    well, regardless of order, I notice that lifting burns more calories and a faster pace and cardio a little slower.

    ^^^^This.
  • SPNLuver83
    SPNLuver83 Posts: 2,050 Member
    Cuz you get your heart rate up and you work so hard during your strength training your heart rate stays up, burning more calories :)
  • Sharyn913
    Sharyn913 Posts: 777 Member
    Cuz you get your heart rate up and you work so hard during your strength training your heart rate stays up, burning more calories :)

    This is kind of what I thought!
  • thurberj
    thurberj Posts: 528 Member
    I agree that cardio before weight training increases the burn. I think the reason is that you get your heart rate up and it stays up more during the weight training. My trainer likes me to warm up wth 10 minutes of cardio, do some weights, do 10 more minutes of high intensity cardio and finish the weights....that really works.
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.
  • 19kat55
    19kat55 Posts: 336 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.


    Would you explain this please? If it is keeping track of your heart rate, why is it not accurate?
  • Sharyn913
    Sharyn913 Posts: 777 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.

    Does it need to know what I am doing? If I am washing my dishes standing up and it is still calculating my pulse, I think it's still providing the information needed. Not saying I calculate washing dishes, I'm just wondering why it matters WHAT you are doing, if all it needs to know is what your HR and calorie burn is.
  • Jynus
    Jynus Posts: 519 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.


    Would you explain this please? If it is keeping track of your heart rate, why is it not accurate?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_striated_muscle

    Type II fibers don't use oxygen to do work. Your heart beats faster because of increased oxygen demand on your body. Thats why it's somewhat accurate when used to calculate calories burned. x amount of beats and y amount of oxygen per beat = z amount of calories burned. Since Type II fibres are anaerobic, no oxygen means no accurate measure of calories burned.

    for strength training, as a general rule, the more intense your lift, regardless of heartrate, the more calories burned. Meaning it could be anywhere from not much, up to into the stratosphere for an hour of lifting.
  • 19kat55
    19kat55 Posts: 336 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.


    Would you explain this please? If it is keeping track of your heart rate, why is it not accurate?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_striated_muscle

    Type II fibers don't use oxygen to do work. Your heart beats faster because of increased oxygen demand on your body. Thats why it's somewhat accurate when used to calculate calories burned. x amount of beats and y amount of oxygen per beat = z amount of calories burned. Since Type II fibres are anaerobic, no oxygen means no accurate measure of calories burned.

    for strength training, as a general rule, the more intense your lift, regardless of heartrate, the more calories burned. Meaning it could be anywhere from not much, up to into the stratosphere for an hour of lifting.


    Very interesting, thanks for the response! Looks like I need to do an indepth study on this!
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    I have seen so many opinions on this. I find that doing cardio before strength training warms my muscles up sufficiently to stick with the strength training. I can't bring myself to switch the order yet because this works so well for me.
  • goatfishtwo
    goatfishtwo Posts: 21 Member
    Cuz you get your heart rate up and you work so hard during your strength training your heart rate stays up, burning more calories :)

    Says who?
  • iWaffle
    iWaffle Posts: 2,208 Member
    During intense strength exercise your body will run into a shortage of oxygen and switch from aerobic to anaerobic and will start creating ATP from carbohydrates without the use of oxygen. Energy conversion happens faster in anaerobic conditions at the expense of less energy produced. It gives you a tremendous amount of usable energy that heart rate monitors can't measure because your heart doesn't have to pump all the energy to those muscles like it does during cardio exercise. The liver stores much of this but some of the energy is already there stored in the muscle and can be used instantly.

    I don't think HRMs are designed to monitor this energy output. You would need to have a VO2 sensor and probably some type of blood glucose monitor to accurately determine the difference between when your body switched from aerobic to anaerobic. That's way beyond what a HRM was designed for. It's strictly for aerobic exercise. I'm sure there's some truth to calories burned based on your breathing and heart rate but it's not going to be accurate for strength training.
  • 19kat55
    19kat55 Posts: 336 Member
    During intense strength exercise your body will run into a shortage of oxygen and switch from aerobic to anaerobic and will start creating ATP from carbohydrates without the use of oxygen. Energy conversion happens faster in anaerobic conditions at the expense of less energy produced. It gives you a tremendous amount of usable energy that heart rate monitors can't measure because your heart doesn't have to pump all the energy to those muscles like it does during cardio exercise. The liver stores much of this but some of the energy is already there stored in the muscle and can be used instantly.

    I don't think HRMs are designed to monitor this energy output. You would need to have a VO2 sensor and probably some type of blood glucose monitor to accurately determine the difference between when your body switched from aerobic to anaerobic. That's way beyond what a HRM was designed for. It's strictly for aerobic exercise. I'm sure there's some truth to calories burned based on your breathing and heart rate but it's not going to be accurate for strength training.

    So if you had testing done to see at what heart rates your body changes from aerobic to anaerobic would you then have a more accurate measure? I truly am trying to learn and want to understand this.
  • jcmartin0313
    jcmartin0313 Posts: 574 Member
    I always heard anaerobic before aerobic because of how energy is used, but honestly I prefer to do cardio first also.
  • totalimageguy
    totalimageguy Posts: 62 Member
    I was always told by trainers to do weight lifting first to avoid injury. I get my warm up with the foam roller, then weight lifting, then cardio.
  • Chantal34
    Chantal34 Posts: 128
    I start off with 10 minutes on the treadmill walking at a 15 incline at 3.8 pace and then go into strength training. I fininsh with 20-30 minutes on the elliptical or treadmill. Its worked pretty well for me so far. I also jump rope between weight training sets.
  • KINGoftheBUFF
    KINGoftheBUFF Posts: 67 Member
    Cardio warm-up before strength is correct. I suggest no more than 10 minutes to get warmed up.

    However to burn the most amount of bodyfat, irregardless of what your heart rate monitor says, you need to understand how your energy systems work. Weight training, anaerobic activity should be done before cardio. Simply put, weight training drains your muscles glycogen stores (your bodies primary fuel source), and when followed up by cardio, your body then fuels the activity by burning your bodyfat.

    An ideal session would include 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and cardio.
    45 - 60 minutes weights.
    15 - 20 minutes cardio.

    Never exeed 90 minutes in one session.

    Hope that anwers your question....and if you really want results, ask me about epoc. (exercise post oxygen consumption)
  • markymarrkk
    markymarrkk Posts: 495 Member
    Yes it's true... you gotta think about what your goals are though. I always lift first, I read through an extensive study that said that the best gains overall in terms of strength, performance and fat loss is maintaining heart rate inbetween sets of heavy strength training. so like jump rope in between your sets.
  • MzMandi1025
    MzMandi1025 Posts: 78 Member
    Sounds about right. I've tried lifting before I do my cardio & I don't burn quite as much. But if I do about 10-15 min of cardio, then lift, I'll burn more. After I'm done lifting, I'll finish off the last 20 min of cardio. I think it has something to do with your heart rate being up. You'll burn more calories.
  • jcmartin0313
    jcmartin0313 Posts: 574 Member
    Cardio warm-up before strength is correct. I suggest no more than 10 minutes to get warmed up.

    However to burn the most amount of bodyfat, irregardless of what your heart rate monitor says, you need to understand how your energy systems work. Weight training, anaerobic activity should be done before cardio. Simply put, weight training drains your muscles glycogen stores (your bodies primary fuel source), and when followed up by cardio, your body then fuels the activity by burning your bodyfat.

    An ideal session would include 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and cardio.
    45 - 60 minutes weights.
    15 - 20 minutes cardio.

    Never exeed 90 minutes in one session.

    Hope that anwers your question....and if you really want results, ask me about epoc. (exercise post oxygen consumption)

    I would listen to this guy!
  • ali_b83
    ali_b83 Posts: 324 Member
    Cardio warm-up before strength is correct. I suggest no more than 10 minutes to get warmed up.

    However to burn the most amount of bodyfat, irregardless of what your heart rate monitor says, you need to understand how your energy systems work. Weight training, anaerobic activity should be done before cardio. Simply put, weight training drains your muscles glycogen stores (your bodies primary fuel source), and when followed up by cardio, your body then fuels the activity by burning your bodyfat.

    An ideal session would include 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and cardio.
    45 - 60 minutes weights.
    15 - 20 minutes cardio.

    Never exeed 90 minutes in one session.

    Hope that anwers your question....and if you really want results, ask me about epoc. (exercise post oxygen consumption)

    This goes with everything I've read, from experts and bodybuilders. I'd rather do cardio last anyways, because I personally want the strength and energy to lift at my maximum potential.
  • realme56
    realme56 Posts: 1,093 Member
    Cardio warm-up before strength is correct. I suggest no more than 10 minutes to get warmed up.

    However to burn the most amount of bodyfat, irregardless of what your heart rate monitor says, you need to understand how your energy systems work. Weight training, anaerobic activity should be done before cardio. Simply put, weight training drains your muscles glycogen stores (your bodies primary fuel source), and when followed up by cardio, your body then fuels the activity by burning your bodyfat.

    An ideal session would include 10 - 15 minutes of stretching and cardio.
    45 - 60 minutes weights.
    15 - 20 minutes cardio.

    Never exeed 90 minutes in one session.

    Hope that anwers your question....and if you really want results, ask me about epoc. (exercise post oxygen consumption)

    This is what I am doing right now and I feel great! Still getting rid of stress weight gain but technically I lost 2# since starting this routine this week.
  • paintlisapurple
    paintlisapurple Posts: 982 Member
    I am noooooooo expert, but I find I feel that I'm working much more smoothly if I do my elliptical for at least 10-15 mins first and that is how I end every workout, with another 10-15. It works for me because it doesnt get as boring as doing it all in one big chunk and I really work a good sweat that way too. (ewww.) lol.

    I just read more of the posts and someone seems to know a lot about how bodies use energy...Its good to know I'm doing something right. (It just felt right if that makes any sense.) :glasses:
  • Ulfgard
    Ulfgard Posts: 49 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.

    I guess your heart stops while doing weights
  • neverstray
    neverstray Posts: 3,845 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.

    I guess your heart stops while doing weights

    Oh brother! Read back a bit. Some nice folks answered the question.

    Yes, back to the topic, a 5 or 10 minute cardio warm up is necessary. I always warm up, usually jumping jacks and running in place, a Lille stretching, then lifting, then I go for a run. I've always done it in that order. And, I agree with not exceeding 90 minutes for the whole thing.
  • markymarrkk
    markymarrkk Posts: 495 Member
    No. Your HRM doesn't know what you are doing when you lift, so it's just plain wrong. You cannot use an HRM for lifting. It will always be wrong.


    Would you explain this please? If it is keeping track of your heart rate, why is it not accurate?



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeletal_striated_muscle

    Type II fibers don't use oxygen to do work. Your heart beats faster because of increased oxygen demand on your body. Thats why it's somewhat accurate when used to calculate calories burned. x amount of beats and y amount of oxygen per beat = z amount of calories burned. Since Type II fibres are anaerobic, no oxygen means no accurate measure of calories burned.

    for strength training, as a general rule, the more intense your lift, regardless of heartrate, the more calories burned. Meaning it could be anywhere from not much, up to into the stratosphere for an hour of lifting.

    LOVE IT! ^ YUP

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