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Hi, I'm a 23 yr old female looking to lose 10-15lbs while preventing too much sagging skin and tone up. I used to be fit 8 months ago but a serious hip fracture caused me to be off my feet for 8 months. I normally run in the early AM, about 8-15 miles a day. I didn't do a whole lot of weight training but want to start. So I am wondering, should I run my normal mileage then do weight training later in the day or do weight training early in the AM then go for my run right after? I hate running outdoors after 7am because I don't like running in the sun (weird for a Cali girl). I don't have a gym membership so going to a gym for my cardio during the day isn't happening. I just want to find the best method to efficiently burn fat but keeping the injuries to a minimum. I would do my cardio 6-7 days a week and my weights 3-4 days a week (full body). Advice?
Your body needs time to rest and recover from workouts. Doing too much (called overtraining) can have bad consequences, including but not limited to stress fractures, ligament tears, and chronic fatigue. I don't know of any serious medical group (American College of Sports Medicine, U.S. Surgeon General's Office, etc.) which advocates as much as you are proposing for the general public. If you are a world class athlete with a professional coach that would be different. Five days per week cardio should be plenty and three days a week weights. (While you can recover from most cardio workouts overnight, you should have a day off between weight workouts.) I haven't answered the question in your thread title because I don't know the answer to it, but I don't think it makes a whole lot of difference, and the difference could be academic if you are attempting too much. This is a serious matter, so please give it some careful thought.
I was always told that you want to do weight lifting before cardio. However, you are doing a lot of mileage. I am not sure I would do that much mileage on weight training days.
Weights first for someone wanting to bulk up or keep their current muscle mass. Cardio after the weight workout.
For someone wanting to lean down it would be cardio first and then weights.
3 to 4 weight workouts a week and 5 or more cardio sessions a week is a good choice for most people. If someone has health concerns such as Diabetes or is trying to lose weight Cardio sessions should be daily. 30 to 60 minutes for cardio sessions is a good standard, but can vary due to a persons goals and requirements.
We always do about 20 minutes of warm up cardio, then we do resistance training for about an hour, then 20 more minutes of cardio to cool down. To mix it up and keep it interesting we'll do some free weights here and there too. A sloppy game of basketball or racquetball keeps everyone sweating but laughing at the same time. We only do that when the gym is empty, but it's fun. I had a rib injury awhile back so that prevented me from doing too much at the gym. Mentally I wanted to just work out as hard as I always do, but physically I just couldn't. It would've made my injury worse. It takes time, but you need to start out slow and take it slow for quite awhile unfortunately.
I think your idea of breaking it up, cardio in the AM and weight lifting in the PM is a good idea. Many competitors do it that way. Otherise, if you are doing everything in one session, then yes you would lift then do cardio after, but since you are doing so much, I would recommend you break it up as mentioned. By the way, I can't imagine you would have saggy skin just from 10-15 lbs. I had a child and gained 45 lbs and never had any saggy skin, but I also stayed active throughout my pregnancy.
Second Davachka's suggestion to break it up with AM and PM sessions, but lift first if you do everything in one session.
I also suggest that you make sure not to overdo exercise with too taxing a schedule. When you work a muscle with lifting, you need recovery time before working that muscle again, in order for the tissue to rebuild. Breaking down the tissue through lifting weights, then allowing time for it to rebuild, a little bit stronger as an adaptation to the stress the lifting places on muscle tissue, is the process whereby you benefit from weight workouts. I'd suggest that you not go as far as doing four full-body workouts per week. When doing full-body workouts, it's better to limit them to a maximum of three per week, and you may do best of all with two full-body workouts each week.
Cardio can be done more frequently, since you're not putting as much strain on the muscle tissue as you do when lifting moderately heavy to heavy weights, but the body still needs some rest from time to time, to avoid being overused and breaking down, with injury as the result. It's a good idea to take a day off each week, doing no exercise of any kind that day.
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