Cardio vs. weights: Which should you do first?

The claim: Forget what you’ve heard about the ideal order of a workout: Turns out it doesn’t matter whether you do weights or cardio first, because the long-term results will be the same, says a new study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

The research: Finnish researchers hypothesized that by doing cardiovascular exercise prior to strength training, it might make muscles weaker and reduce the ability to lift heavy weights. To test their theory, they followed 34 men between the ages of 18 and 40 years old as the men performed either cardio followed by strength training or vice versa for 24 weeks, two to three times a week. Equal time (varying between 30 and 50 minutes) was given to both cardiovascular and strength training. Surprisingly, at the end of the 24-week training period, both groups increased their physical performance and muscle size. (What do you want to work on–your belly, thighs, arms, all of the above?

What it means: “Based on our studies of men and the preliminary findings of women, the exercise order does not seem to play a key role, leaving it up to personal preference,” says lead researcher Moritz Schumann, a PhD candidate in the department of biology of physical activity at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.

 The bottom line: Exercise order does not seem to affect the training outcomes as long as the volume and frequency of training is moderate: two to three combined sessions per week, Schumann says. However, strength development suffers when the amount of cardio training is much higher than the amount of resistance training performed (e.g. three cardio endurance sessions and only one strength session).

P.S.  I think the order in which one does their cardio vs. weights is a personal choice. I find that doing cardio before weights depends on the type of exercises I plan to do. For example, if I am going to exercise my legs, I might not do any cardio because this type of exercise can be very hard on my legs.

P.P.S. Visit exercises for diabetics today to get pre-planned exercise routines.