Chicken or the egg

This may seem like the chicken and the egg question, but which should come first in a work out.......Cardio or weights?  Does it matter?  I have heard it both ways so I was wondering what everybody out there in CC land thought.

I like cardio first because I use it as a warm-up for my muscles, gets the blood flowing to them and everything loosened up so I'm less likely to pull or otherwise injure my muscles when I lift.

Of course, if you give yourself a short warm-up (e.g. 15 minute power walk), you can do cardio WHILE you lift by circuit training and/or incorporating jump rope.

I have to do push ups first always. any other weight traing or anerobics come after. But push ups are extremely hard and uncomfortable for me and I have to do them well my ody is fighting fit. Depends on your body

I personally do cardio first and then move over to weights.  If I am feeling a little froggy after weights I will go do another 15 minutes on one of the cardio machines.  I just heard there are certain benefits when you do one before the other and was thinking maybe somebody else heard of them.

It depends on what your goals are.

If you're trying to get an effective weight training session, you're "supposed" to do weight training first. Weight lifting utilizes primarily glycogen (carbs, temporarily stored, ie not fat), so if you burn through that by doing cardio first, you won't get an effective weight lifting routine. You won't be able to lift at your max and get the most effective muscle deconstruction. By doing weight training first you can lift at your max, and then you can do lower intensity cardio afterwards to burn primarily fat.

If your goal is to improve your cardiovascular health or endurance, then you should do cardio first so that you have the energy to achieve your target speed/durations. Your weight lifting will most likely suffer, but for example if you're a runner with limited gym time, this is how you would utilize your time.

I've read that the ideal situation is to split cardio and weight training entirely, if not on separate days then at least at different times of day on the same day. The reason for this is so that you can be optimally fueled for both activities. Personally I go to the gym six times a week--three days of cardio and three days of weights, and make sure to consume carbs before each session so that I can get the most out of it. I think this is especially important if you do higher intensity cardio or HIIT.

I used to date a personal trainer and he always recommenced doing weights before cardio.  To be honest, I am not really sure why, but I can never do that. Carido and I don't get along too well, so I always do it first ; ) 

Where I work out, I over heard a trainer/PE teacher saying, "warm up on cardio first, it gets your heart rate pumping so when you lift weights you burn more calories--and try not to rest no more then ten minutes in between lifting weights" And personally, I prefer doing cardio first or else I get tired and don't feel like being in motion.

The answer probably depends on your goals and emphasis.  But it could also depend on timing.  Most of this discussion seesms to assume that everything is combined into one workout.  I generally end up distributing the workouts.  Also since my cardio workouts are generally bike rides, I like to do them during daylight hours except that I commute on my bike.  When I commute, the bike rides definitely come first.   Frequently I leave the house before sunup in order to get to work on time.

I can fit in weights and calesthenics after work and even after dinner.

But I always (almost always) take a walk with my dog later in the evening.  That's cardio of sorts.

Without a question, snozzberries is right on the mark.  Follow that advice and you won't go wrong.