is this advice bull****??

jon1981

i was told by someone in a gym before that you should ALWAYS do weights before cardio, is this true or does it matter?

HammerHeadGym

Depends on your goals really. In Thai boxing for example, you always do weights after a workout. A lot of people on this board lean the other way though. Depends on the person too, I guess. Which gives you best results?

crotalus667

jon1981 wrote: »

i was told by someone in a gym before that you should ALWAYS do weights before cardio, is this true or does it matter?

The short answer is yes , bodybuilders have been doing it this way for years because the cardio is more effective at burning fat after a heavy weight session , but more recently study’s have shown that doing cardio before a weight’s session can cause a significant drop in growth hormone levels as apposed to doing it after the weight’s session (I think it’s a three fold difference)

Colm_OReilly

The advice is way too oversimplified and carries too many inherent assumptions to have any use.

What are your training goals? What weights? What routine? What do you define as cardio? What length?

jon1981

typically id train 3-4 times a week, 30 min run, 10 min, rower, 10 min bike. split weight routine, 1 day arms and shoulders, 1 day chest and back, i day legs... i also do thai boxing. me goal is to be lean, loose any excess fat and just become more defined. my strength is good so im not trying to improve on that

Hanley

If you're trying to get more muscular/leaner/toned/defined/strongr - weights before cardio

If you're training for a long distance event, be it running/cycling/whatever - cardio first

Very simplified but you probably get the idea.

cowzerp

jon1981 wrote: »

i was told by someone in a gym before that you should ALWAYS do weights before cardio, is this true or does it matter?

Always.. doing it after martial arts(muay thai) is just so your not tight during the martial arts part, this is chosen by the fighter as muay thai is his priority-i'd just skip the weights if i done cardio 1st.

jon1981

so you wouldnt rcommend doing weights at all cowzerp?

cowzerp

jon1981 wrote: »

so you wouldnt rcommend doing weights at all cowzerp?

weights are very important but should be done at the right time, before cardio or on there own day-its simple really, after cardio means your weight training is less effective and more chance of it having negative impact on your body, injuries, muscle wastage etc..weights are the most important thing to the general public long term in my opinion..leave the weights out on muay thai day i'd say,or do them before and stretch out well before muay thai, thats what i do when i do boxing ,thai or mma..

Gillo

Interesting, I always do my cardio first. The reason why is that it means I can take my protein shake straight after doing the weights.

It seem's I was wrong:eek:

I'll give it a change for a few weeks and see what happens.

jon1981

so there is truth all of this, you see i thought it was BS because the guy that told me wasnt very how should i say "athletic looking". I might swap it round and see how i go!

cowzerp

jon1981 wrote: »

so there is truth all of this, you see i thought it was BS because the guy that told me wasnt very how should i say "athletic looking".!

great knowledge wont get you in shape-but practising it will..

Jumpy

Err, so how would you differentiate between cardio and a warm up?

I do 15 mins/2km on a treadmill before I do weights, I wonder would this class as a cardio session or a simple muscle warm up.

rubadub

Jumpy wrote: »

Err, so how would you differentiate between cardio and a warm up?

I do 15 mins/2km on a treadmill before I do weights, I wonder would this class as a cardio session or a simple muscle warm up.

There is probably a point where your warm up is so long that you use up glycogen supplies in the muscles and cannot get as many reps out.

I do body squats before weighted ones, pressups before bench presses, to warm up the joints & muscles. If I was to knock out 3 sets of 60 pressups then I would be well warmed up but I would not be able to get as many reps in on my bench press. Instead I do 10 pushups and still have energy to bench.

You could try doing 10mins on the treadmill next time and see if your lifting improves without effecting muscle strain etc.

Jumpy

If I did 3 sets of 60 press ups I would be dead.

columok

In my experience a warm up should represent the activities that will be done in the exercise. The idea of doing a treadmill warmup for a weights session is silly. So if you’re squatting do some air squats. If you’re doing boxing do some light boxing, if you’re doing MMA do light rolling etc. The warmup should relate to the activity.

smellslikeshoes

columok wrote: »

In my experience a warm up should represent the activities that will be done in the exercise. The idea of doing a treadmill warmup for a weights session is silly. So if you’re squatting do some air squats. If you’re doing boxing do some light boxing, if you’re doing MMA do light rolling etc. The warmup should relate to the activity.

When your running you use a lot more than just your legs. It shouldn't be your only form of warm up but jogging for a few minutes isn't a bad thing.

columok

It's ok. It's far from ideal. You're in a gym. Ideal is reachable. It doesn't have to be intense so anybody can warmup well. Why bother with ok tbh!

Burpees, air squats, mountain climbers all of these things warm up your body. Light intensity locomuscular movements that increase in intensity. It's all about warming up as quickly as possible and efficiently as possible. Tbh to warm up with running requires intensity which increases the risk of injury. A jog won't do much to get a fit person warm in the ways they need to be warm.

rubadub

columok wrote: »

It's ok. It's far from ideal. .

yes I prefer low weights or "air exercises", it helps you concentrate and make sure your form is correct before going for the real thing.

The Shane

Somewhere in the past long, long ago mistakes were made. People measured the parts of fitness seperately and then came the conclusion to train them seperately. Many years of not questioning this and uneducated gym trainers has led to this sort of rubbish being accepted as gospel. It is not. There have been studies that have been conducted (often with unsuitable test subjects and less than ideal controls) to show whether Cardio or Weights should go first. It's all immaterial.

Crossfit is the future. Do Cindy - 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. Try and decide if this is weights or cardio.

Shane, The

Dragan

The Shane wrote: »

Crossfit is the future. Do Cindy - 5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats. Try and decide if this is weights or cardio.

Shane, The

The muscles say weights, the lungs say cardio...the stomach says get me a bucket!!!

Colm_OReilly

By the way, that's not just 5 pull ups, followed by 10 push ups, followed by 15 squats, that's as many rounds as you can in 20 minutes.

This was my exposure to CF, I nearly cried but the sweat glads had robbed me of all hydration.

There's a 16 year old kid in Ramano, CA, that can bust out over 30 rounds of this all told. He makes me sick.

Hanley

What would be considered a good score for that?

Colm_OReilly

20+ rounds would be a good target, 30+ is considered monster territory.

It's been a long time since I've done Cindy, I've picked Mary the last few times the choice has come up

Transform

I agree crossfit is going to be a form of training that will grow

If there were more people that began with very simple body weight exercises for multiple rounds when starting training their progress would be faster.

johnathan woss

Crossfit has some good WOD's ,etc but the truth is that people have been training like that forever.

The whole box gym / muscle isolation thing is a relatively new phenomenon that probably came about as the west became obsessed with looks, bodybuilding, etc

I think Glassman, etc have been good at marketing something, which people always knew, as something revolutionary.

Colm_OReilly

True. Before Nautilus machines and the likes we had barbells, gymnastic equipment and running. Now these are small subsections of gyms dominated by the latest cardio equipment and resistance machines.

Just like the UFC/MMA revolution brought people's awareness back when we'd all gotten lost in theoretical martial arts.

Hawk Wing

I run 5k every lunch (hard pace) and hit the gym for weights at 5 for about 40-50 minutes, every day, don't want to be huge or anything, works for me

Roper

While the Glassmans are certainly good at marketting their product as brand Crossfit, it has to be said that they also put up a fairly comprehensive site there that means you would probably not have to go to any other website if you wanted to find out how to exercise properly. They also don't especially push THEIR brand on you, rather they seem to encourage people doing it for themselves.

Yes its all been done before. A mate of my Da is in his 70s and still squats, deads and benches pretty impressive numbers having powerlifted since his youth. The trouble is that really good business models and marketting brought about a fitness de-evolution in the 70s and 80s, which lead to the big box gym based on the bodybuilding model. The rise of the machines meant little or no staffing or coaching, which of course meant more money for the owners. It has taken the information age for this to come full circle.