Strength or cardio first?

weights
cycling
running
strength-training
#1

I know any exercise is great on keto, but is it more effective to do strength training before a little cardio, or cardio then a little weights? Looking to loose more body fat & tone at the same time.

Thanks!

(Bob M) #2

I do strength then cardio. And I mean in the same workout. I lift with no warmup, just lift very slowly. My warmup for cardio is the strength training I do.

#3

Ok perfect, that’s what I’ve been doing. Just wanted to make sure i can take advantage of my workouts as much as i can-since i work out on my lunch hour!
How much cardio should I aim to do every workout? I try to do 5-10 mins at the end of my lifting routine.

#4

It has been a while but I believe I read that cardio is better before weights as it can act as a warm up and gets your heart rate and muscles kinda ready for the lifting portion. If short on time, I would do HIIT, plyometrics, or if you are just doing a bike/treadmill/elliptical type thing, they usually have a 20 min interval program. change up the pace or incline or resistance every minute or two and you will get more bang for your buck

(Troy) #5

The same here.

Strength at the gym

Not a fan of cardio gym exercises
Blah
I can always do cardio prior or after on a brisk walk
Enjoy nature and Vitamin D😄
Morning, afternoon or evening if needed

Works for me

Good Luck!

(Bob M) #6

I usually lift to failure (meaning every set, I go until I can’t), and do about 30 minutes of lifting. I split my workouts to cover my entire body in two workouts.

I personally do HIIT (high intensity interval training), where I jog at say 3 miles per hour for one minute, then 6.x miles per hour for 1:30, and then keep doing that. I usually do this for 15-20 minutes, so the total time is near 50 minutes. On the weekend, I do a longer set of cardio.

Since I lift weights very slowly, I do this with no warmup. So, I put say 5 plates on each side of a 45 degree angle leg press, and then start, no warmup. But I lift very slowly and pause at the “bottom” and at the top I ensure I do not lock out and go slowly up and down, trying to hit 10 seconds per repetition, which I don’t do but is my mindset.

As a former pseudo-body builder (not good genetics), I concentrate really well and use full length repetitions. I don’t throw weights, use body language to help, etc. My form I say is excellent. But that’s because I’ve been lifting for 35+ years.

(Allie) #7

Strength first always or you’ll use up too much energy on the cardio and only do half effort with strength.

(April Harkness) #8

Yup. I do cardio… That is anything over 3 reps, right? :wink: Seriously i do strength first…and dont do cardio at all. Once a week i might run with my bf. And when i do, i do my strength training first.

#9

Do you just not like it or you just don’t see results when you incorporate it into your routine? My life would be easier if i didn’t worry about cardio at all when i go to the gym, since i’m limited on the time i have already. But i would still like to do some long walks & cycling classes for some cardio a few times a week but i could definitely get down with only strength training at the gym :blush:

(Robert C) #10

I do strength first and then just walk instead of heavier cardio.

I found heavier cardio makes me hungry and puts bad ideas in my mind “Oh, you went 3 miles, you can have something extra now” or “what about a treat after such a long run”.

(Todd Allen) #11

I do strength and get cardio from sauna or a hot bath.

#12

Why not do both, simultaneously - and have more time in your weekly life schedule?

Slow burn/super slow weight lifting works both the anaerobic and aerobic pathways at the same time, and engages the hard-to-train fast twitch muscle fibers which boosts the mitochondrial fat-burning furnaces :fire: It’s very efficient - in just 30 minutes once or twice a week, one can do much more functional training and healing than in many hours of typical higher speed weight lifting and in cardio classes!!!

Do additional “cardio” things for pleasure - cycling, walking, dancing, etc. Otherwise, conventional cardio does little to nothing in terms of metabolic healing and heart health (vascular health is about muscle health). In fact, it speeds premature ageing for those who don’t do any strength training.

For more - highly recommend checking out the LCHF/keto books The Slow Burn Fitness Revolution by Fred Hahn and the Drs Eades (LCHF/keto physicians) as well as Body by Science by Doug McGuff MD (another LCHF/keto physician). Both these books have all the science beyond high intensity mitochondrial activation and minimal time spent training so as to allow max recovery and muscle dev.

Though most body recomposition is dietary - the 1-2% factor of muscle training is a huge lever that expedites all kinds of hormonal rejuvenation and cellular strength.

(April Harkness) #13

I used to have a binge eating disorder…well, lets just say i am in recovery for it. Keto, IF and strength training have helped. But in the past i would abuse cardio. Overexercise as a way of purging by overdoing running and biking. Easily done with excessive cardio and i could track my cals burned with my polar monitor which i have since thrown away. I only run or bike once or twice a week with my bf for bonding, to get sunshine, etc . Never ever ever for calorie burning or muscular definition. I concentrate on strength training. And when i actually wore a hr monitor while strength training, the cal burn is paltry compared to running. ( i admit in the past i was all about the burn.i no longer am. I just train!) But the positive hormonal changes that affect your body shape? Blows cardio out of the water imho. i see more body comp changes with weights than i ever did with cardio. I dont need it for my physique. Eating keto, Intermittent Fasting and weights are enough for me. Cardio is solely in the bonding with boyfriend and mental wellness category for me and just good for cardiovascular health. I don’t want to be gasping for breath as i climb stairs either. So great for that. As a physique changer it isnt as effective as weights. Its a side dish for me. Not the main course.

(KetoQ) #14

I like to devote my strength and energy to my priority lifts first. Whatever energy I have left can go to things like battleropes or walking.

That said, I superset lots of my upper body weight training with bodyweight squats (BWS), as I’ve been doing a BWS challenge this year. Although the BWS are a weight training exercise, when you do them in volume, they take on a cardio function as well.

In an effort to mix it up a bit, I’ve been looking to find ways to combine strength training and cardio, and have been experimenting more with compound kettlebell routines.

(Central Florida Bob ) #15

Let me throw a wild thought in here. This is from Body by Science that @SlowBurnMary talks about.

Dr. McGuff says there is no such thing as cardio. There is no such thing as toning muscles (people talk about lifting light weights some number of reps to tone). He says there is simply building muscle or not building muscle. His argument is to lift weights to failure (as many have said - and what I do) and doing that engages the aerobic as well as anaerobic metabolism cycles.

Cardio as in walking, running, cycling and so on, is just a less effective form of body building.

That said, I really enjoy cycling so I do a few hours a week. I used to do much more than I do now, but I still ride. I don’t think the timing of which to do first matters. If you’re working the same muscle groups, they’ll affect each other.

#16

I will just start focusing on only weights then. Should I be lifting heavy & until failure or is lighter weight with higher reps better for lean muscle & toning?

(Scott) #17

I used to drive to the gym and get on a bike to warm up. One day I thought this is stupid so now I run and stop by the gym on my way back. It ends up being 3 1/2 miles, a Nautilus workout and 1 mile back. I can do it in about an hour and a half. Works for me.

#18

Heavy enough to reach failure after 3-4 reps is ideal (but during first couple sessions, you have to experiment and track what weight level works best for each body area). Reaching failure by 2nd rep or not being able to complete the 3rd rep with fully correct form means it’s too much weight.

Highly recommend studying the aforementioned books, many further details in them.

#19

What does your typical gym routine look like for the week? Still trying to figure out what works best for me

#20

I just do the home routine in the slow burn book now (after taking a break for much of the last year). Except I don’t do the ab crunches (they’ve been proven to be useless and even damaging to the linea alba/connective tissue), and I do wall pushups instead of floor to reduce strain on my linea alba (which I’m healing from a diastasis recti condition - 90% of people have one according to Julie Tupler RN). At the end of my session I add a couple of minutes of celebratory hips movements via Ernestine Shepherd.

You can accomplish a lot with a good dumbell set! However back in the late 90s I did my own adaptation of super slow with my whole body training routine at a 24 Fitness gym for about a year - I was an outlier/oddity, and I was OK with that :joy: Gym cooties and dude culture aromas are highly unappealing though - nowadays I refuse to suffer it. There are a few female-only times at certain gyms, and also female-catering gyms - just not where I live currently.

There are cities that have super slow method studios for pricey one-on-one work w/trainers - places where you can take the program into very serious dimensions of muscle dev by incrementally increasing weights on machines to high numbers over time, which is fun. They come by various names - sometimes they don’t have ‘super slow’ or ‘slow burn’ in their business name. Fred Hahn’s Serious Strength studios are in NYC and NJ.