Holistic Health
When doing both exercise types in the same session , working muscles before cardio can lead to a small increase in lower body muscular strength .
How to balance cardio and weight lifting
Both are important in any exercise routine , but their order matters mainly to professionals
Both cardiovascular exercise that gets the heart rate up and strength-training to work muscles will help you stay fit and healthy , but how do you combine these in the best way and which one do you start with ?
�I wouldn ’ t say it ’ s cardio versus strength , because they are partners , � Dr NiCole � . Keith , a professor of kinesiology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis , told the New York Times . �We need to be doing both . �
One study on 416,420 US adults showed that one hour of moderate or vigorous aerobic physical activity ( another term for cardio ) per week offered significant mortality risk reduction , with bigger decreases occurring when activity went up to three hours weekly . But adding muscle-strengthening exercise to cardio one to two times per week provided additional risk reduction . The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends working on major muscles like upper body , lower body , and core . Dr Keith advises to weight lift for three sets of eight to 10 repetitions to reap the health benefits of strength training .
When doing both exercise types in the same session , working muscles before cardio can lead to a small increase in lower body muscular strength , Dr �andal Claytor , Assistant Professor of Kinesiology , Nutrition and Health , at Miami University , wrote in The Conversation .
�So if your exercise goals are along the lines of staying generally healthy and enjoying the mental benefits of moving your body , resistance training first might provide a little boost . �esearch suggests that overall , though , you don ’ t need to worry too much about which order to focus on � cardio versus weights , � he added . The question of how to combine both exercise types does matter for professional athletes , though . �esearchers have observed that doing them at the same time may reduce both improvements in aerobic capacity and gains in muscular strength , the so-called interference effect . �It shows up most in well-trained athletes undertaking high volumes of both aerobic and resistance exercise , � he wrote .
Since some athletes have to train both their aerobic and strength abilities , Dr Claytor recommends first doing resistance training or the type of exercise that is more important to achieve your performance goals , while taking a three-hour break between resistance and cardio sessions .
In his lab work , Dr Claytor is researching microcycles of aerobic and resistance exercise , which combine short bursts of both approaches back to back , such as resistance training immediately followed by a few minutes of walking or running for as many times as needed . Preliminary results show that microcycles are as good as doing resistance exercise first in terms of improving aerobic fitness , muscular strength , and lean muscle mass .
�For most people , my current advice remains to choose the order of exercise based on your personal preferences and what will keep you coming back to the gym . High-level athletes can avoid any significant interference effect by doing their resistance routine before the aerobic routine or by separating their aerobic and resistance workouts within a particular day , � he concluded . n
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