Weights or Cardio?

So I was reading on a website yesterday it's better if you do weights before your cardio work as this will burn off more of the carbs then when you do your cardio your free to burn fats.

Has anyone had any experience of this or comments, I figured trying it for a month can't hurt.

 Depends more on your training goals than anything else - sprint and endurance athletes do sprint training or low-intensity cardio first, lifting afterwards since they're most concerned about cardio performance and strength training is at best secondary to their sports-specific performance goals.

 Everyone else, i.e. strength athletes and basically anyone who isn't a sprinter or marathoner do weights first then cardio. Dieters are everyone else so as a starting point you'll do weights first, then cardio; but if you have sports-specific performance goals in addition to fat loss you'll need to adjust what you prioritize higher in your workout.

I really want to drop weight more than anything. I'd love to be able to run for a marathon but before i start any training, i'd like to lose some weight.

So i'm better doing weights before hand.

I usually do an hour cardio and half an hour of weights after.

Thanks for your help.

 Well, given your goals it's optimal to do weights-then-cardio from a physiological standpoint, but it may not be ideal from a psychological standpoint so try it on for size and see how it works for you.

 You may find that strength-then-cardio works just fine for you, but it's also possible that it degrades your cardio performance to levels you find unacceptable. Still, try it for a month and see what happens, and wait until the month's over before making changes again, yeh?

Yeah, I think i'm gonna try it for a month, what harm can it do. :-)

If losing weight is your main goal, I don't think the order makes much difference.  What will make a difference is the speed and intensity you move through your weight circuit.  I tend to combine a couple of lifts together to keep up the intensity and keep my heart rate up, to turn your weightlifting into a cardio workout.  For example, I might do a military dumbell press, followed by a dumbell curl.   Rest for 60 seconds or so then repeat.  That way your heart rate is going up and down and up and down, which is great for increasing your aerobic capacity and losing weight.

I usually do the cardio first because as Melkor suggested, I tried it the other way around and on the days I did my legs with weights, running wasn't nearly as enjoyable nor as comfortable. 

I always do my weights after because I like to feel warmed up for lifting--it seems easy to pull a muscle when you're lifting cold, imo.

If you're trying to lose weight I'd recommend doing cardio first for me it's a nice warm up before I lift(or use to lift). Since I'm Black and for some reason I breathe and gain muscle, which is exactly what I don't want I tried to figure out different ways of toning my arms with out gaining mass amounts of muscle, my solution was using a hula hoop. Buy a decent size hula hoop and do arm workouts that way. Wash dishes more, instead of using the dishwasher, scrub the floors instead of mopping..  Just make sure no glass vases or small animals or around when you're doing it.

 Well, there's a technical reason why strength-then-cardio is better for people trying to lose weight; when you're lifting the adrenegenic hormone cascades leads to increased mobilisation of free fatty acids in your blood stream. Doing a bit of cardio afterwards helps burn these off instead of letting them re-ester back to triglycerides in your fat cells.

 Like everything else when it comes to exercise the order of magnitude for the effect is small, but it makes for a slighly improved outcome in terms of fat loss and compounded over time it can be very helpful indeed.

 But that's the physiological side of it - if you mentally feel that lift->cardio makes the workout less enjoyable than cardio->lift, chances are you're going to work out at a higher intensity and thus see improved results from that if you stick to your personally preferred order.

Melkor, you have me convinced to give it one more try on reversing the order of my workout.  You are a very convincing fella!!!!

 Keep in mind that the difference is small - on the order of 5-10% improvement. If the changed order causes you to work out at 80-90% of your previous intensity when you're trying to run with leaden feet, the loss in intensity in your cardio more than makes up for the increased fat utilization.

 It's vaguely helpful if you can do it and maintain intensity, but if you can't - well, you're better off sticking to the order of exercises that lets you perform more total work.

I think you would want to do some warm up cardio- then move into weights, then your cardio program

If you do cardio first you will be too fatigued to lift heavy weights. And we all know those silly little weights aren't effective.........

Original Post by leedslady24:

I really want to drop weight more than anything. I'd love to be able to run for a marathon but before i start any training, i'd like to lose some weight.

So i'm better doing weights before hand.

I usually do an hour cardio and half an hour of weights after.

Thanks for your help.

Based on this info, you should ABSOLUTELY do WEIGHTS FIRST then your cardio.  Doing your routine in that order burns the most fat period.

Glucose (aka- energy) is stored on your liver and that is where your body pulls its energy from FIRST when performing any type of exertion.  When you lift weights first your glucose reserve is tapped and therefore (generally speaking), by the time you get to your cardio, your body will begin pulling from your FAT reserves since there is no more glucose in your liver to deal with.

 

 

When I workout with the trainer at my gym she always tells me to do cardio before weights because you get a better workout that way. I've never thought to ask her why she suggest that order.

I've also heard that you should do the one that matters to you most first. I guess it depends on whether you push yourself harder at the beginning or end of your workout. You should complete what's most important when your at your best.

Personally, I do cardio and then weights.

My first Weights--> Cardio last night. Really enjoyed it. Usually after i do my cardio i do tired to lift loads of weights but i did a lot last night just on my upper body and stomach...and boy do i ache today...haven't had this feeling for a while and i love it. Definately gonna keep pushing on the with it for a month.

Plus it's nice when you've done a 40 min run to be able to get off and go home rather than thinking about doing weights.

Weight lifting is cardio, everyone does them both at the same time.