Training & Sports Cardio or Weight TrainingWhich comes first – the cardio or the weight training??????
According to The World Book Encyclopedia, including your smiling face muscles, you have 600 major muscles inside your body. Since they’re all connected, you’ve got to get these muscles moving from bottom to top. For a job this size you need a weekly mix of aerobics, anerobics and ab work. Now - what does that mean exactly?
• Aerobic or cardio exercise is continuous motion that makes you breathe harder and speeds your heart beat.
• Anerobic exercise involves intervals of intense exertion and rest, as in weight training.
• Ab work strengthens the core muscles surrounding you’re torso, giving you a center of power.
It’s generally known that cardio training is essential for heart health and will minimize body fat, while weight training will build strength and muscle. What’s less known, is the full benefit of weight training, and if exercise order is important for utmost advantage.
Conventional wisdom tells us that any devoted athlete will only have full energy for whichever training is done first. Studies prove that either cardio or weight training will effectively raise your metabolic rate while you exercise, but your metabolism will increase more after exercising if you do cardio first and then lift weights. Does that mean we should all do cardio first?
Take a lesson from the bodybuilders: weight training adds to your lean muscle mass which, over time, consumes more calories than fat. A pound of muscle uses 75 to 150 calories per day, while a pound of fat needs only 3 calories. Weight training also slows aging of your heart, arteries and immune systems, and it builds bone density by stressing the bones and forcing them to re-grow.
The research says it’s your specific goals that should determine your exercise order. If you need to burn off extra calories and want to lose some body fat, then get moving before you lift. If you want strengthened, toned muscles with minimal fat, then push yourself with the weights before you run or bike. If it’s first, it’ll be more strenuous.
What’s most important to your overall health is that it’s all in the mix. Whether you combine cardio and weights during one exercise session or alternate them during the week, an optimal exercise program combines aerobic, anerobic and core elements in ways that will keep challenging you. So go release those endorphins, and let your bones be the only thing that’s stressing!!
According to The World Book Encyclopedia, including your smiling face muscles, you have 600 major muscles inside your body. Since they’re all connected, you’ve got to get these muscles moving from bottom to top. For a job this size you need a weekly mix of aerobics, anerobics and ab work. Now - what does that mean exactly?
• Aerobic or cardio exercise is continuous motion that makes you breathe harder and speeds your heart beat.
• Anerobic exercise involves intervals of intense exertion and rest, as in weight training.
• Ab work strengthens the core muscles surrounding you’re torso, giving you a center of power.
It’s generally known that cardio training is essential for heart health and will minimize body fat, while weight training will build strength and muscle. What’s less known, is the full benefit of weight training, and if exercise order is important for utmost advantage.
Conventional wisdom tells us that any devoted athlete will only have full energy for whichever training is done first. Studies prove that either cardio or weight training will effectively raise your metabolic rate while you exercise, but your metabolism will increase more after exercising if you do cardio first and then lift weights. Does that mean we should all do cardio first?
Take a lesson from the bodybuilders: weight training adds to your lean muscle mass which, over time, consumes more calories than fat. A pound of muscle uses 75 to 150 calories per day, while a pound of fat needs only 3 calories. Weight training also slows aging of your heart, arteries and immune systems, and it builds bone density by stressing the bones and forcing them to re-grow.
The research says it’s your specific goals that should determine your exercise order. If you need to burn off extra calories and want to lose some body fat, then get moving before you lift. If you want strengthened, toned muscles with minimal fat, then push yourself with the weights before you run or bike. If it’s first, it’ll be more strenuous.
What’s most important to your overall health is that it’s all in the mix. Whether you combine cardio and weights during one exercise session or alternate them during the week, an optimal exercise program combines aerobic, anerobic and core elements in ways that will keep challenging you. So go release those endorphins, and let your bones be the only thing that’s stressing!!
