Quick Questions about weight training

Forgive me if this has already been asked.

I started working out this week and I have strictly done cardio so far. I want to start some weight training. So my question is if I do cardio and weight training on the same day which is better to do first?

Also the gym I go to has free weights and the machines. Which one is better for you? Or does it matter?

Thanks,

Tina

Congrats on getting started on lifting!

Do your weights first - it's better to do it when you aren't already tired from cardio - you are less likely to hurt yourself.

Free weights are better than machines in most cases - exceptions are cable machines. Machines that keep the weight moving in a fixed path are more likely to stress your joints, and tend to not be made to your dimensions. Especially the leg machines like leg curl and leg extension.  Machines also don't engage your stabilizer muscles, so the benefits you get from a squat with dumbbells or barbell far outweigh what you are doing on the leg press.  Cables, like the lat pulldown station, don't have the same limitations, and are very useful.

Thanks for they reply. That is what I was thinking because I knew if I did the cardio first I would probably be tired.

Which you do first depends on personal preference and overall goals. One usually affects the other so you have to decide which is more important--or alternate. Personally, I have no desire to do cardio after I lift weights (no desire to do much of anything, actually ;-), so I do cardio first. I know that it will have a somewhat negative effect on my lifting (more on duration than intensity), but overall it's the best choice for me.

As far as what types of machines to choose, again, it depends on your level of skill, your goals, etc. Each type of modality has pluses and minuses. It also depends on the type of equipment you have available.

Selectorized machines are where beginners usually start. They are safe, provide a guided path of motion so that it is easier to work the targeted muscle groups, and the weight resistance can be easily adjusted in small increments. The complaint that selectorized machines can "stress your joints" is not that valid with the modern design of top-level selectorized brands like Life Fitness or Cybex--and free-weight bar exercises can be very stressful on the joints.

The benefits of selectorized machines for beginners are safety, ease of use, the ability to build up a base level of strength without a lot of experience and beginning to learn some kinesthetic awareness--i.e. where your muscles are and how to activate them.

After that initial period, most focused lifters then start to move over to free weights and cable machines. The problem with beginners jumping right into free weights (at least in my years of experience) is that they almost always develop bad form and bad lifting habits and which they usually never correct. The average person has little or no idea where their muscles are and how to use them properly to perform basic lifts. I guarantee that 75% to 85% of beginners cannot do an exercise like a bent over row or a lat pulldown correctly--most can't even do a squat.

Another alternative is plate-loaded equipment, but unless you have access to the Hammer Strength, you might as well stick with selectorized.

But once you know what you are doing, it is usually more beneficial to move into a variety of more user-defined path of motion exercises--free weights, cables, body weight exercises, etc.

Think of it as a learning process or a continuum of development rather than a one-or-another choice. Over time, you will learn to take advantage of the strengths and benefits of each different modality and utilize what works best for you.

You will have less muscle soreness if you do weights first and cardio after.  Make sure you do a five minute warmup before lifting and always stretch.  I do my stretching in between.  You will be surprised at how much it helps.

Original Post by azdak:

The complaint that selectorized machines can "stress your joints" is not that valid with the modern design of top-level selectorized brands like Life Fitness or Cybex--and free-weight bar exercises can be very stressful on the joints.

The evidence argues otherwise. 

Exercise order doesn't seem to affect much in the way of energy expenditure during exercise, it all comes out in the wash and is more a question of fatigue management and outcome priorities than anything.

 You get more of the training adaptations that you apply the highest intensity to, and the exercise you do first is generally the one you apply the most intensity to so you order your exercise by which one has the highest priority for the results you're looking for. Endurance-based athletes should generally do endurance training first and any supplemental strength training afterwards* - but dieters should generally place a higher priority on strength training than on endurance training. So unless you use a HRM and deliberately restrain yourself from performing at an intensity that impairs your strength training you'd generally want to do strength training first and supplemental endurance training afterwards.

 *endurance athletes have only a very limited use for strength training and mostly for injury prevention purposes and to avoid overuse injuries; there is limited to no evidence of strength training helping significantly with endurance events longer than a 10K run.

Original Post by floggingsully:

Original Post by azdak:

The complaint that selectorized machines can "stress your joints" is not that valid with the modern design of top-level selectorized brands like Life Fitness or Cybex--and free-weight bar exercises can be very stressful on the joints.

The evidence argues otherwise. 

Good point, but I don't think that really is germane to my statement. The phrase was "stress your joints" which is a subject that was not even addressed in the study you cited.

There are also substantial practical differences between an average person walking into a gym and starting a strength program and one who is participating in a structured research study in which (I would assume) instruction was provided on proper form and lifting.

The topic was not, in a general philosophical sense, which method of training was superior. I was disagreeing with some statements about selectorized equipment that I felt were cliched and not accurate. I have never subscribed to a "one size fits all" philosophy concerning strength training--there are positives and negatives to all modalities and each individual's needs are different.

Thanks for the reference. I would definitely like to get a copy of the actual study to see more of the details.

Original Post by azdak:

Thanks for the reference. I would definitely like to get a copy of the actual study to see more of the details.

I've got it if you'd like to let me know where to send it? Study design is interesting; I wouldn't have predicted a higher strength gain for the FF group from the exercises they had them doing considering how little athletic transfer there is from unstable surface training to anything done on a solid surface.