does it matter what order you work out in? should you do cardio first, or after your toning exercises?





does it matter what order you work out in? should you do cardio first, or after your toning exercises?




I do some before and after. I get a better work out if I break up my cardio.
I start with about 25 minutes of hight intensity cardio then, my heart rate is kicked up, so when I lift I' m burning more calories. I finish with another 10 to 20 minutes before I go to kick up my heart rate again.
I have experimented, and I really feel I get a much more intense workout this way.
I always thought it was better to do it afterwards, when your muscles are warmed up. Then, a bit of light cardio afterwards and some stretching.
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Generally its best to do 5-10 mins warm up cardio, your strength training and then a longer cardio.
If you do a long cardio before your toning you:
1 - Tire yourself out so you do not put as much effort into lifting
2 - Can be too warmed up and more prone to injury during lifting
If you do your cardio after your toning its
1 - Better for weight loss as you have already burnt a lot of energy and are essentially on empty (best time to do cardio for weight loss)
2 - Its great to keep your muscles moving and lubricated after weights ... can be as effective as stretching in this way (however should not replace stretching!) I find I am not as sore when I do some cardio after toning ...
I personally prefer afterwards and it is what I have come across in all my studies and experience ... in the end though you have to find a personal perference.
On the other hand, if you are doing cardio for weight loss first thing in the morning is ideal with your toning being best done in the afternoon/evening.
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^ That's what usually do. But, sometimes I don't want to do cardio and I start off with weights then halfway through I'll decide to get on the Precor or walk on the treadmill.
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I do cardio exercise first and then do weight exercise.
This cardio exercise warms up my body and improves my stamina for the other workout.
Last edited by Alastair; 10-12-2013 at 08:19 AM.



You'll order things according to your goals. Generally, the earlier in the workout, the more effective that phase will be. So a generally good place to start, that will work for most people most of the time, is:
Warmup: so you don't get hurt in the later phases
Power: power work is always most effective on fresh muscles, and is the most sensitive to prior work. Most people don't do power work, and most should
Strength: The fresher you are, the harder you can work, the more you'll be able to force adaptations ... but usually do your power/dynamic work first!
Conditioning: if you must do conditioning and strength in the same workout, conditioning is generally the least effected by having done prior work, relatively speaking
Of course if your goals change, then change the order. If you are feeling pretty good on where you are in the weightroom, but feel like you're really out-of-shape, then maybe you're perfectly fine with sacrificing your progress in strength in order to really concentrate on building your fitness. IF that's the case, swap the order of strength and conditioning in the above. But generally speaking, you'll do best at moving everything ahead together if you follow the order above, where exercises that are more sensitive to fatigue are done earlier in the workout than exercises that are less sensitive to fatigue, so switch it up only with particular goals in mind.
Last edited by Radius; 10-09-2013 at 01:50 PM.





I've heard it's best to do cardio first, but I suppose it depends on what you are trying to achieve. Ask your PT or a PT at your gym and I'm sure they will be able to give you an answer that caters to what you're trying to personally achieve with your training.
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If you are just 'toning', then it doesn't really matter.
If you were doing some heavy strength training or hypertrophy work, then you'll need to do it after or maybe in a seperate session.
What is toning?
Cardio after weight training is usually the way to go since you don't want to be fatigued and want all your strength and energy.



personally, a tabata style routine works best for me. it alternates explosive HIIT with toning exercises. the toning feels like a "break" (LOL not really) in between, but i just HATE cardio in general, so this works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy9WKyN1rig
i like fitness blender because often they tell you how many calories you've burned. then i use the "lose it!" app to help count my calories for each day, and track my weight.
Last edited by countcrabula; 10-17-2013 at 11:51 AM.
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