Q&A: Should I Do Weights or Cardio First?
Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and has since recovered enough from any food-induced comas to take full advantage of the opportunity to use work time to search for Cyber Monday deals.
The feast at my parents’ house was interesting, to say the least… Given that they’re in the middle of a move with most of their belongings in boxes and no dining room table, we had to make full use of the floor and what little (very little) counter space was left in the kitchen after cooking. Still, we were thankful to all be together, happy and healthy – especially my brother. He recently had his wisdom teeth removed and was thankful just to be able to eat!
Now that we’re smack dab in the middle of the most gluttonous season of the year, the majority of you are likely focusing your training efforts on losing weight – or, at least trying to gain as little fat as possible when your diet inevitably turns to crap. If you’re smart, you’re incorporating a lot of metabolic resistance training and cardio intervals into your program to burn as much energy as possible and elicit the greatest amount of EPOC.
I still hold that traditional steady-state cardio sucks for fat loss.
I also know, however, that there are a number of you out there who swear by it and will choose to do it anyway, either before or after your old school bodybuilding-style weight-lifting sessions – and that begs the age-old question denoted by said title (above).
A. The usual answer I would give when asked this question is that you should do whatever is the priority first in the session so you can give it your all without undue fatigue and get the best appropriate adaptations possible. But what about when weight loss is the priority?
According to a recent study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, it really doesn’t matter. When researchers tested the magnitude and duration of EPOC after either 30 minutes of aerobic exercise at 80-85% of heart rate reserve followed by three sets of 10 reps of five different exercises, or these same protocols in reverse order, they found no difference between the two in terms of EPOC.
Bottom line: When it comes to fat loss, worry about working as hard as possible rather than the order of exercise mode.
Filed under: exercise Q&A
