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Should I do Cardio or Strength Training First?
Posted on Jan 6th 2010 12:00PM by Joe DowdellFiled Under: Fitness, Your Personal Trainer: Joe Dowdell
I like to jump on the treadmill and then do weight training, but should I be doing it the other way around for more calorie burn?I believe the best choice would be to do your cardio workouts on a separate day from your resistance training workouts. With this option, you can maximize the training of both types of workouts as you will be fresh for both of them. But, if you have to do them on the same day, and your goal is to ultimately look leaner, than I would do the weight training first.
Weight training utilizes muscle glycogen as its preferred energy source, so if you perform your cardio training after your resistance training, you will tap into your fat stores more readily. In addition, performing cardio prior to weight training will leave you slightly fatigued; therefore, you will not be able to train at the same intensity as you would if you were fresh. And, since weight training helps build lean muscle mass, which ultimately increases metabolic rate, you could jeopardize your ability to burn more calories around the clock.
Too often, people focus on their caloric expenditure during the workout itself. While this is important to certain degree, the real focus should be on the caloric expenditure over the 24-hour period following the workout.
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