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Well, to be physically fit, you need to work on all of the components of fitness: Cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition.
Just focusing on muscle strength won't make you all over physcially fit. You need to work your cardio to strengthen the heart and lungs and improve your overall health.
I definitely agree about the importance of cardio, but it makes me a little sad to see women at the gym killing themselves on ellipticals or treadmills for an hour or more 5-6 days a week and see no change whatsoever in the shape of their bodies. Even twenty minutes of simple weight-bearing exercises twice a week would make all the difference, but they'd rather cut off their legs than reduce their cardio time.
As far as which should come first, lifting or cardio, I think the majority of those of us on this forum are casual athletes for whom the controversy isn't worth the high emotions. If one is really serious about bulking up, an individual trainer would probably be a better source of information and guidance. And, if you're an elite athlete, I suspect you already know what works for your body.
I definitely agree about the importance of cardio, but it makes me a little sad to see women at the gym killing themselves on ellipticals or treadmills for an hour or more 5-6 days a week and see no change whatsoever in the shape of their bodies. Even twenty minutes of simple weight-bearing exercises twice a week would make all the difference, but they'd rather cut off their legs than reduce their cardio time.
I agree too. You need to have all of the components to be truly "physically fit." I am sure to emphasize to my high school students in my fitness class about the importance of cross training and mixing things up - to have the best results and avoid plateaus and boredom. The more muscle tone one has the more calories are burned as well (if that is the goal).
What's the definition of stupidity? Doing the same thing over and over, while expecting different results. HighlandsGal, I think you're doing your students a great service by encouraging cross-training.
Off-topic...
I had a bit of a wake-up call when I finally hired a trainer a few months ago. I've been trying to be a fitness runner for years, but I could never get beyond a couple of miles before injuring my knees. A physical therapist looked me over and declared my injury to be the result of IT band tightness and told me to stretch before and after I ran. I followed her advice religiously, but it didn't help. I had almost given up completely on the idea of running, until I became friends with a trainer, who was a die-hard runner. I started working with her several times a week, all the while telling her that I was just not cut out to be a runner. She listened intently, watched me run a short distance on a treadmill, and then declared, "Baloney!" Next time we met, she had me start doing weighted squats, lunges, calf lifts, and deadlifts to increase and balance the strength in my glutes & legs (like many women, I was all quads, no hams). Then, she took me outside and made me run...a lot! Three months later, I'm pain-free and about to run my first 5k ever. I have the best legs of my life. I'm an absolute convert to weightlifting, and I can't believe I ever thought that exclusive cardio was the gold standard of exercise.
Last edited by formercalifornian; 05-08-2009 at 03:03 PM..
I definitely agree about the importance of cardio, but it makes me a little sad to see women at the gym killing themselves on ellipticals or treadmills for an hour or more 5-6 days a week and see no change whatsoever in the shape of their bodies. Even twenty minutes of simple weight-bearing exercises twice a week would make all the difference, but they'd rather cut off their legs than reduce their cardio time.
As far as which should come first, lifting or cardio, I think the majority of those of us on this forum are casual athletes for whom the controversy isn't worth the high emotions. If one is really serious about bulking up, an individual trainer would probably be a better source of information and guidance. And, if you're an elite athlete, I suspect you already know what works for your body.
Very, very true! Finally, somone who makes sense. hahahaha. Here's an analogy.....and sorry if it's stupid, only one I could think of on short notice lol....cardio and lifting are like.....veggies and protein.....you have to have them both in order to see results.....Veggies are great, yea, but if you JUST ate veggies you'd be lacking in protein....Protein is great, yea, but if you JUST eat protein you'd be lacking in all the great nutrients veggies have to offer. And just like formercalifornian said; most info requests on here are casual and not professional, hopefully.
Here's another analogy. 1+1 != 2, meaning that sometimes the end result isn't just the sum of what you put into it, but actually adds up to something greater. A person could do cardio and weights and get moderate results. Then they change the order and get better results. Or they change the type of cardio they're doing and get even better results. Same thing with the diet. You could have a diet with the right calories and the right ratios of protein, carbs and fat. But when you start experimenting with how often you eat or how those different nutrients are distributed throughout the day, you get even better results. Yes, it's true that most people who post here are just casual exercisers. Most aren't athletes or people looking to become bodybuilders or fitness models. They don't want things to be made unnecessarily complicated. But too often, that tendency to want to keep things simple is why people don't see the kind of progress they'd like. People are easily intimidated. When you start telling them all sorts of rules to follow, they get turned off. But to me, rules are a good thing. Instead of making things more complcated, I think it actually makes things simpler. By giving me a rule to follow, I have one less thing to figure out. Now I just have to follow it and if I do so long enough, it becomes automatic. Think about when you first learned to drive. There were so many rules that you never knew existed and you thought you'd get wrong on the driver's test. But it didn't take long for all of it to become second nature. It's the same thing with exercise.
1. Do most of your aerobic exercise before your weights program if you do both in the same session.
2. Complete your weights session, cool down then immediately concentrate on recovery, repair and rebuilding rather than additional exercise.
3. Consider separate sessions for cardio and weights on different days. This is a popular option when weight loss is not the primary goal. You could also experiment with separate sessions on the same day, but you need to get your refueling right with this approach.
4. If weight loss is a primary goal, doing both on the same day with cardio first may offer some advantages in increased metabolism and energy expenditure.
5. If strength, rather than hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is a goal, you probably should do cardio and weights on separate days because the heavier lifts may not go as well after doing cardio first. You need to be as fresh as possible for those 4RMs.
6. You could mix and match upper and lower body workouts. For example, treadmill running and upper body weights one day and lower body weights and swimming another day.
7. Don't get too hung up on this whole idea; if it suits you to reverse the order occasionally, it won't be a problem.
Source: [url=http://weighttraining.about.com/od/techniquesandstrategies/a/cardio_weights_2.htm]Sequence of Cardio and Weights - Order of Cardio and Weights[/url]
Old thread. The OP never responded as to what his fitness goals were either so we will never know what would be better for HIM.
However, me personally, I would advise people to do their cardio separately from their weight training. Preferably do cardio in the early morning, then weight training either in afternoon or evening whichever is suitable to the persons schedule.
Or, you can just mix it up the Crossfit way and do MetCon workouts. This is Metabolic Conditioning which is essentially to do as much work as possible in the fastest amount of time. Sort of a combo of weight and cardio in the same workout. This works great for people who have very little time to allocate to working out
For example, one of the popular Crossfit metcon workouts is "Fran" - its 21-15-9 rep sets of 95# squat thrusters (65# for women I think) and pullups. Another really good one is "Cindy" where you do as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats. The 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats is considered one round. You are basically getting both your cardio and your weight training done in the same workout.
I would never do cardio, then do weight training. Or do weight training then go do cardio in the same workout.
Just start the stopwatch and go for it. I think I'll set this as my standard Saturday morning workout. I want to see if I can improve my times on it every week.
I read somewhere that if you do cardio in the morning, it will keep your metabolism "up" all day, while if you do it in the evening, you only stay "up" till you go to sleep. Another way to put it is that a cardio session (sufficiently vigorous) will turn your metabolism "up" till you go to sleep.
I read in dr flash gordon in Motorcycle Consumer News to the effect that if you burn 300 calories *DAILY* for roughly 2 weeks, this sets your metabolism to a higher level and keeps it there till you miss a few days. dr. flash (he does not use capitals) is a real MD in the Bay Area, so I tend to think he knows whereof he speaks. I don't recall who wrote up the first idea, so it could be good or bogus.
Thoughts on either or both ideas?
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