This is clearly one of those questions that can potentially lead to debate, so feel free to chime in with your own opinions!
The question: Is there the benefits/differences to pumping iron before or after cardio?
Susan's response: Just as your exercises need to be designed to meet your goals, so too does the order of your exercise modalities.
If you're training for a marathon, you would be best off starting your training session with your cardio workout as you want most of your energy and effort focused in this area.
However, if you're training for fat loss, my recommendation would be to start with strength training as ultimately, the more lean muscle mass you build, the more calories you'll burn at rest. As such, you want your energy and effort focused on the strength training component of your workout to ensure you're lifting at a maximum effort to realize optimal results. Quality strength training is ultimately more effective for fat loss than cardio training (note to self: get ready to be blasted by cardio enthusiasts).
Another reason that I feel it is best to strength train prior to cardio is that strength training requires complete mental and physical focus. One mistake can lead to serious injury.
Personally, my preference is to strength train and run HIIT on separate days, so I can focus maximum effort on each modality.
Train hard; stay strong.
Peace.
Susan
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8 Responses to "Ask The Trainer"I like your answer. No method will ever be correct for everyone but each method has its merits based on the individual. I've found more benefits from doing HIIT on non-resistance days than the other way around. Just seems to be a more effective fatburning tool.
MikeZ
I agree its always has to come back to your goals, but you see far too many people out there with no goals in unclear goals - they need to be defined, otherwise how do you create/pick the right plan .... But I also expect you to be blasted by the cardio enthusiasts....
I like doing intervals/HIT on separate days now (tried the same day thing as well), one of the big benefits is that it keeps me active.
I agree with you Susan. I would only advocate doing cardio before lifting if the primary goal is cardiovascular training for running or cycling. For fat loss I might recommend HIIT training before lifting, but then in the same sentence I would also recommend doing HIIT on a day when you're not lifting.
I too like to do my interval training on the opposite day than my strength training. I put a lot of intensity to both, and feel like one or the other suffers a little when I try to combine them in one session. Depending on the mode used for interval training I think it could even be a little dangerous to fatigue too much before heavy lifting, likely used for fat loss. Great post!
where do you stand on the argument that cardio post resistance training can actually be detrimental to muscle building as it is a catabolic exercise at a time when yo need all your energy for the anabolic process?
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Awesome... shows me the right direction!
I got to do more of strength training i guess!!!
Will work for that :)
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Thanks for the comments all!
@One2Fifteen, that's an excellent question.
Again, what exercise modalities a person chooses to perform needs to be based on their overall fitness goals.
Cardio will have a catabolic effect on muscle, so if the goal is to "bulk" my suggestion is to limit cardio to one or two steady state cardio sessions per week, rather than performing a HIIT protocol.
However, if an individuals primary goal is to lose fat, I would still recommend HIIT along with a nutrient timing protocol to support muscle retention/growth.
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