Strength Training or Cardio First?

Workout

Should I do strength training or cardio first? This has been my number 1 question since I started working out and I started a long time ago. Although, I never looked the part, I always loved going to the gym but I never really figured out the right answer to the above; and with good reason. It is a simple question with a complex answer but I want to try and decode it for you here.

3 Things to consider

  1. Do you like working out?
  2. What does the science tell us?
  3. What is your end goal with your exercise?

The reason I have these three items to consider, is because it will determine my recommendation. If you are someone who loves working out and wants to make the most of it, move on to number 2. If you are someone who simply works out to stay healthy and you don’t really care how you get your workout in, it does not matter. What makes you feel good is the right thing to do. As long as you keep moving, go for it! Movement is more important than whether or not, you should be doing strength training or cardio first. Do what makes you go to the gym or go for your run, don’t make it harder for yourself.

If you are like me, and want to make the most out of your workouts and you love working out. You will want to know more about why you should choose one or the other. And number 2 and 3 might give you the answer you need. Whether or not strength training or cardio first, is not definitive and the science keep changing and molding the answers to see below as a guide that might change tomorrow.

What Does The Science Say About Strength Training or Cardio First?

Some research tells us that we should do strength training first as cardio would deplete the energy resources before we need it for the most strenuous workout – the strength training. Which means we would not maximize our efforts of strength training. If you are a science geek, you can reference this study here.

Other researchers tells us that strength training builds more muscle and therefore has us burning more when resting. Therefore, we should focus the majority of our energy towards strength training. Ergo, have strength training come first. You can read about the study here.

Now you might think, that strength training should be done first, but there is research out there that supports other theories.

Some researchers found that you if you did strength training first, your heart rate is 12 beats higher which impacts your perceived cardio performance. This means you might not push yourself as much as you need during your cardio workout to balance out the the added calorie burn from strength training during rest. You can read more about these details here.

There is a ton of research out there, it is just a matter of making heads or tails of the research. Which leads me to my third and last item to consider. With the research we do have, I can now provide a guide of what is recommended depending on what your goals are.

What do you want our of your exercise?

Now this is really the most important question to ask yourself in order to answer the question “Strength Training or Cardio First?”. What are you trying to get out of your workouts?

Weight loss

If weight loss is your aim, strength training first will be my recommendation. Your aim is to burn as much as possible to be able to loose the amount you need as weight loss is all about a calorie deficit. As you gain more muscle, you will burn more from merely existing (aka. you will have a higher metabolism). To focus your energy to build more muscle you should start your workout with strength training.

Now you might think you will look like a body builder when you are done loosing weight. That will not be the case. You will need to have some serious weights behind you to do that. However, you can focus your strength training to give you a more lean look rather than a bulky look and we can go into that at another time.

Run a 5K

If your goal is to be able to run a 5K (or more) or some other endurance sport you should do your cardio first. Your focus is now around building your endurance and you should focus your energy around that. As you have more energy at the beginning of a workout, start your workout with your cardio.

Now this does not mean that you should skip on your strength training. Strength training is vital for a good endurance outcome as well. You just need to do it last and make sure you are focusing your strength training around the need you have for your endurance training. I might write another blog post about this.

Want to be more fit

Your choice! This is the beauty of workouts. No matter what you do, there will be an improvement, it is just a matter of what you prefer. If you love your cardio workouts, start with those. If you love strength training and seeing the increase in weights over time, start with strength training. Do what makes you happy and makes you continue to go to the gym.

For those of you who are simply dabbling at working out and are not 100% comfortable just yet; you don’t need to focus on whether or not you need to do strength training or cardio first. All you need to focus on is to get comfortable at the gym and build a routine that makes you want to work out. Workouts should make you feel good and give you more energy, not the opposite.

Continue Reading

My First Goal!

As I wrote in one of my earlier posts, it makes losing weight a bit easier if you have something to look forward to along the way. My first goal came really quickly and I hit it only after 2 week.

My reward was new training pants and/or shorts. It was time to go looking for the right pairs.

First I needed to think about my needs. What did I need from my new workout pants? I needed a pocket for my phone and keys. I needed them to be comfortable around my thighs and I needed them no be midi or high waisted. Hate it when pants are too low and they keep crawling down when you are doing burpies or sit ups or when the belly hangs out when you look at yourself in the mirror.

Like most people, I have a pretty tight schedule with a 50 hour work week (on average) 5-6 days of training and maintaining and finding topics for a blog (it takes more time than I had anticipated but I am getting some great material so stay tuned).

With limited time, I love internet shopping as I do not have time to go from store to store and honestly, I do not have time to go from website to website searching all brands. I do not even know all brands. So my thought was to make use of what I know. I know affiliate and if there is something we are good at, it is new apps and finding discounts. As I needed to try on my clothing, I needed something that could provide free shipping and returns and one of the partners I work with on daily basis are: Spring. They offer Free Shipping and Returns while you can shop any merchant you can think of.

So I went to Spring and I started searching for workout clothing, pants, capri and shorts in particularly. I found a brand that could provide exactly what I was looking for: Naja. Naja is a brand that makes sure that the ones making the clothes are paid a decent wage. If you know me well, you know that is exactly me. So it was fate that I found the brand and they had the type of work out clothes I was looking for. I bought one of their Capri pants and a pair of their shorts. Just in case I saw that New Balance had a sale so I grabbed up one capri pair from them as well.

My clothes came after 3 days and now I have had a chance to try them out. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new Naja pants. They are amazing and they look good. The New Balance was not my favorite but they do the job and would be a good fit when I lose a bit more weight.

I took a few pictures for you to check out.

Xoxo

Continue Reading

Training – Motivation at the Gym

I have always been of the mindset that, if I am going to the gym, I might as well make the most of it as the hard part is getting out the door. That is still the case for me but not in the sense you might think.

The past week I have gone 11 days out of 14. This does not mean that I give it my all every single time. It is about being smart when going to the gym. I do the full workout 3-4 times a week and the rest I do a simple walk or elliptical for 30-45 minutes. Those minutes are to help my joints not get completely stiff after a tough workout and it really helps. There is nothing worse than the day after a tough day at the gym and it hurts when you are trying to sit down. The walk the next morning, is the solution but never forget to stretch after a workout.

I was doing a bit of research online to find out how I could make the most of my workouts and most research agreed with what I am already doing. Whew! What a relief, cause I like my routine.

If you are looking to learn how to run longer or faster, most suggest 3 days of actual running and 3 days of some other exercise with 1 day of rest. Military.com, Runnersworld.com and Active.com vary slightly so all in all it depends on your motivational level. Military.com is what you would suspect. Hardcore with no resting days until you get to a pretty high level but they are starting you off slow to avoid injuries. Runnersworld.com has you set at 5 days of training and 2 resting days while Active.com has you average out at also 5 times per week but you can get away with 4 times per week but they do not specify if you need rest in between.

I know these are simple articles and perhaps not as trusted as medical advice or university research but when I do a simple google search for university level research, the results are not too dissimilar. John MacKenzie at Delaware University, also, suggests 5-6 days of training with 1-2 days of rest in alternating weeks. Although, his take, is slightly different from the articles I first found. He has you running all of the days but in different speeds, styles and levels. The Mayo clinic is similar to John MacKenzie’s style with 5-6 days of training but they are adding in more walking in between. This has been my primary style, when I have been training for a run.

I had never really done proper research on how I should be running or training for a run but it looks like, I was not too far off. Although, I am not training for a run (although I have one coming up next week), I am using the same principles for my workouts. And why will come in my next article about training, which will be about the balance between cardio and weight training.

I would not suggest that you start off with a 5-6 day training routine per week as for any starter that will be too much and you will lose your motivation. If you are a newly starter or you have a hectic schedule, go for a more manageable training schedule of 3 days per week but if you have a sedentary job, think about taking a couple of smaller walks during the day. Personally, I try to get to roughly 10,000 steps per day as that will add roughly 500 calorie burn per day. That is 1 pound per week, in weight loss or more of the delicious food that you like to eat. Mind you, this is for me and my current size, the smaller you get (are) the farther you need to walk to burn the same amount of calories.

I am no doctor or training expert but I have done my fair share of research and I have tested it all out on my own body. With minimal injuries, I would say, my recommendations are not too off. However, it is always important to listen to your body and seek medical advice if you are unsure or over the age of 40.

Let me know if you want to work out with me. I couple of you have already signed up to be a support 😀 Love it!

XOXO

 

 

Continue Reading

Week 28: Status Report

I can’t believe it has been 28 weeks already. Where did the time go?

Well, I guess, I have to catch you up on what has happened this past month. As you can tell from the picture, I am now down to 220.6lb (99.9kg) and I have officially lost my first 20lb (9kg) (actually 22lb (10kg) but I skipped the 20 so… I still want to celebrate). I can now say that I am under a 100 kilos. It is a number, I always told myself I would NEVER get above. Yet here, I was… Waaaaay over 100 kilos. My next goal is to get to 195lb (88 kilos). That was what I weighed 7 years ago. Shortly after I had meet Mike, I had to go to the doctor and she did a full check up and my number was 195lb. She was kind enough (read a little sarcasm in between the lines) to tell me that I was over weight and should consider loosing some. Well, thank you doctor and I then gained 50+ lb (23kg) after that… yikes!

So the new year will bring me to that goal. 195lb and I will be back in “Onederland” and Mike will get back the body he first knew, or at least somewhat. A 50lb weight gain WILL make changes to your body that you can’t undo unfortunately. And they are not flattering changes. I have these fat pockets by my hipbones, you know the ones that normally protrudes on skinny girls and that gets highlighted as something sexy because it signals that they are skinny and therefore beautiful?? Yeah, mine… not protruding but hiding from the world under an inch of fat. Hopefully, I can dig them out a bit.

Last time, I wrote, I had signed up for an 8K in January. Unfortunately, my legs did not want to come with me, or at least my one shin. Every time I would start running it would burn, burn like something in my muscle was tearing apart so I decided I needed to stop running and let my body heal. I have still been going to the gym but staying away from any high impact workouts. I have had running tests done a few times and I know that I tend towards overpronation when running, which means when running I need a shoe that supports my arch. My current shoe is neutral, meaning you do not lean more to one side or the other on your foot when running, which means it has not given me the support that I need. I knew this when I started running but the shoes that really helps me are so darn expensive. Well lesson learned. Don’t be cheap if you run. You need the right shoe. Needless to say. I will not be making my 8K in January but I will train for a run in March instead with my new shoes having just arrived and it will give me enough time to start out slow. Will keep you posted on the progress.

And now for my December plans. Can you believe it is already December? Well, we all know that after Thanksgiving all bets are off when it comes to your diet so my goal for this season is simple. Don’t gain weight.

If I can stand on the scale on January 2nd and it still says 220lb. I will be a happy woman (I almost wrote girl, but who am I kidding… can’t pass for one of those anymore). Any motivation you can send my way to get my butt out the door and to the gym is very welcome as I will need it for these cold, dark December days. I believe my friend offered to text me in the morning. If you are still up for that. I need to get out of bed at 5am in the morning. I will happily text you as well as we need to get out in the mornings.

Next week my sister is coming and that will be a test in itself. That I go even though she will be here and I would just want to sleep as I would probably be tired but please kick me out of that bed as I really need to get up and get out.

Well, that was it for now.

 

Xoxo

Signature

Continue Reading

Week 8: Support Is Essential

Week 8: If you think you can do it alone… Think again! I have tried so many times loosing the weight on my own and I would be so excited when people would notice the difference but once I got the compliment I would fall back into my old habits.

This time it is all about making my surroundings aware of my plan so they have a chance to support me and be my cheerleader when I need it the most. I am a person who does not have a lot of friends but the ones that I do have, I cherish and I don’t know where I would be today without them.

I love my family and I love my husband but there is nothing like having a friend – a true friend, who will be there for you even when you are being ridiculous, silly or in need of a good verbal spanking.

Claudia, Me, Shelley - Missouri 2016

One of my best friends here in the States moved from Florida to Missouri. She is the quintessential woman of strength. With other words, Shelley is AMAZING! Another best friend of mine, Claudia, fabulous and ‘I am not sure where I would be in life, if it was not for her’ kinda friend, and I decided to trek out to Missouri for a visit.

One of our better ideas, if I may say so myself. It has been a bit of a stressful time, with work, moving, starting the blog and I could go on. Not until I sat on the front porch of my friends, from now Missouri, with a glass of wine in my hand did I realize how badly, I needed a small vacation where I could shut off from the hustle and bustle from daily life and just kick back and enjoy.

Winery in Missouri IMG_41801 IMG_41891

I was on vacation and I was going to enjoy so I decided to have 1 day of just eating and drinking until I could not stand and another day where I would control my portions a bit more but still enjoy the yummy barbecue they have around these parts. It was close to Kansas City and summer time. Perfect for barbecuing. To not completely destroy my last few weeks hard work I also wanted to get a workout in (ideally two but that would have been pushing it).

Margarita for no money...

It is in those times that you realize how amazing your friends are. They went on a workout with me. How amazing is that. In the hot sun of noon they went to the local college football stadium and worked out with me. It was a tough one. The day before we had been merrily drinking and eating the entire day away and I must admit I was a bit hungover Saturday morning, yet they were dressed and ready to go.

IMG_62861 20160716_125155 20160716_124608 20160716_123629

THIS is the type of support and motivation you need at times. People, who are willing to do the hard work with you even when they really do not want to but they love you enough to do it and support you. To Shelley and Claudia, I know you are reading this blog post… I love you and appreciate you! Thank you for the talks, the support and your thoughts.

So my advise to anyone trying to loose weight. Lean on your friends and loved ones when it is tough and good choices are hard to make. And as you can see, just because you are traveling, there are no excuses not to work out!

xoxo

Signature

Continue Reading