Sport and training significantly improve our physical and emotional health. To achieve a good overall physical condition, it is necessary to combine different exercises with different objectives: strength, power, muscular endurance, flexibility and cardiorespiratory fitness.
One of the big questions for fitness lovers is: How should I start training, with cardio or with strength and resistance exercises?
The choice depends on many factors. To begin with, how much we like each one. Secondly, how much time can we dedicate to training, what is our objective and what is our basic physical condition. Experts agree that there is no single, magical formula.
If your goal is to improve cardiovascular endurance, you should first do cardio exercises while you feel fresh, at the start of your workout. And if the goal is to build more muscle, it is recommended to do weights before exhausting yourself doing cardio.
It’s also perfectly fine to vary your workouts by doing strength and endurance work one day and cardio the other because fitness is never a one-size-fits-all situation.
The benefits of starting with weights
Doing strength and endurance training first has other advantages. By doing a quick warm-up beforehand and saving the cardio for later, you’ll find you have more energy to lift.
Cardio exercise is exhausting and challenging and can usually be done for longer periods of time without rest,” added instructor Kate Havlicek.
Strength training tends to be more intense, so it may be best to start with weights and devote most of your energy to that stage of the exercise, then do cardio conditioning.
The benefits of doing cardio first
Starting your workout with cardio exercises increases your heart rate and promotes blood flow throughout your body, explained Cherie Lamb, a personal trainer. “These factors help the body to warm up and prepare for harder work.”
Warming up your muscles is essential to reduce the risk of injury during strength exercises. That is the main benefit of starting the training routine with cardio.
Also, getting your heart rate up with cardio before lifting weights can help increase your metabolic rate during the rest of your workout. A 2021 study published in Scientific Reports found that doing cardio before lifting weights can even help build muscle strength.
Doing a light run or walk for about 20 to 30 minutes is enough before strength and endurance exercises.
So, start with cardio or weights? While there are good arguments to support each option, the choice is determined by the goal we have for physical training. If we want to improve cardiovascular endurance or if we prefer to focus on strengthening muscles. In that answer is the way to follow for a good start of training.