Weight training versus cardio Which one should you do first?

Is it better to start your workouts with cardio or weight training?
It depends on what you're trying to achieve.

Starting with cardio first will prepare the body and warm it up for resistance-training activities. If our primary goal is to work on the cardiovascular system, we can really emphasize that if we start with cardio first.

If we start with weights first, we may have some premature fatigue.

When we start with weight training, the primary benefit is that there is usually some skill component with resistance training. We need to be sharp and ready to handle it, and we will be, if we do resistance training first.

For the average person, after they have appropriately warmed up, probably the best choice would be to do their resistance training first because it involves a skill component. Then follow with an aerobic workout.

Can they do that -- cardio and resistance training combined -- three times a week? Yes, but neither cardio nor resistance training is optimized with concurrent training. It's difficult to do two things well at the same time.

Splitting them up would be more effective. Do cardiovascular training every other day and resistance training on the days in between, if you have the time. But not everybody has five, six or seven days a week to work out.

That's why, looking at the big picture, in our time-strapped, sedentary society, it's probably best to put cardiovascular training first, because we have such a high risk for heart disease in North America.

Cardio helps with that, along with burning calories and fat reduction.

But again, depending on the person, doing cardio first may be less important. Of course, building muscle mass raises your metabolism, so you're continually burning more calories throughout the day.
© The Calgary Herald 2008