Now, lower body strength training had always been easy for me. I don't know why, we'll call it genetics, but I've always had ridiculously strong legs. It's somewhat weird. I probably should have been a sprinter or something but ugh! Where's the fun in that? Run for 10-30 seconds and be done. Instead I took up distance running when I was in 6th grade. I probably did this because my older brother and sister ran cross country so it just seemed like the thing to do. Plus the only other fall sport offered at school was basketball and if you've ever seen me shoot, you'd know why I didn't take that up.
Since I became a distance runner, I rarely did any weight training. I especially never trained my arms. I'm surprised that while playing softball I was one of few girls who could make the throw from third to first. I guess I figured out early that throwing has more to do with proper mechanics than strength, but I digress. I had virtually no upper body strength.
After four years of college and learning all about cardiovascular training and strength training and nutrition and hordes of other things related to exercise, I figured I should probably use my education on myself since I wasn't using it in my career. Erich and I joined LA Fitness in the Twin Cities area and I still go there today. Erich gets a free membership elsewhere through work so he dropped LA. For the first few months of our membership I didn't do much strength training. The bulk of any resistance training I did was swimming, which was probably a good start. However I started attending some boot camp and body works classes with my friend and coworker, Jill. After a couple of months we got bored of them and decided that I would design our workouts from there on. And that's what we did. I'd design strength training sessions that we'd do about two times a week. We'd do cardio on another day or two. At this point, it was Jill's and my goal to "look good" and I remembered that doing strength and cardio on the same day can help burn more calories. We took a brief hiatus from our routine over the summer because of busy schedules and Erich and I sharing a car, but when we returned I decided to switch it up.
Much to Jill's chagrin, we began doing a short strength training session, followed by a short cardio session. This also proved to be good because both of us were getting a little more bulky than we wanted so toning down the weights was a good choice. And this, my friends, brings me the the controversy.
Up until this week, Jill and I would strength train first, as to have full energy for lifting. I'd always been taught that lifting after an endurance workout isn't as effective because you've just used up all of your energy on a run, or bike ride. Not to mention the fact that it is also dangerous for the same reason. Who wants to drop a weight on their face? Not me.
Up until this week I'd also been writing in this blog that it's better to do strength training first and promising an explanation of why. I never really got around to writing the explanation. Then my friend, Chris, sent me a message asking if I always lifted before running because he'd always been taught to do it the opposite. Another friend, Greg, echoed his sentiments. My first instinct was to school him with my knowledge of why strength training is best to do first, until Greg gave his input. So, I thought I should do more research and a quick Google search turned my world upside down. There seems to be no definitive answer because it depends on situation, goals, type of workout, etc. Below are the arguments for different each type, and I've thrown in a third for good measure.
To begin, we must understand how fuel is used in different types of exercise. Anaerobic exercise (sprints, weight training) uses short term fuel stored in muscle glycogen. This type of fuel is depleted very quickly and that is why the exercise cannot be sustained for long. Aerobic exercise (running, biking, swimming) on the other hand uses blood glucose and fat stores as fuel. I'm going to leave it there since to explain it further would mean going into a biochemistry and physiology lesson that I don't want to get into. After all it's an entire chapter in my exercise physiology book. Too much for a blog. So, here you have my breakdown of the benefits of each way of exercising:
Strength before endurance
There are a couple arguments for this. First, if your goal is to build a lot of strength, this is definitely the way you should go. Do your strength training first when you have the most energy present. That way you have an optimum strength bout. Second, if trying to lose weight and burn fat, this is a good way to go too. If you were to simply hop on a tread mill for 30 minutes, you'd spend the first couple of minutes using muscle glycogen stores as your fuel which means it would take that much longer to use your blood glucose, then fat stores. In the end you wouldn't burn as much fat. Then, if after 30 minutes you hop off the treadmill and start lifting, you might find yourself fatigued to the point that your strength training session will be significantly less productive.
If you were to strength train first, you'd use up your muscle glycogen and when moving to a cardio workout, you'd start using blood glucose, then fat stores immediately. Thus, you'd end up burning more fat. This is what a significant amount of people at the gym want. To lose weight. So, this is probably a good way to go for them, as well as anyone who wants to build strength. This is definitely where I fit in when Jill and I started out. I wanted to lose some fat and replace it with muscle. However after doing my research and re-evaluating, it seems that I may fit into the next group.
Endurance before strength
Now the argument for the opposite view. This is the view point endurance athletes probably hold and is probably where I should begin to shift my focus. Beginning a workout session with an endurance exercise will allow the body to have more energy for the endurance activity, such as running or biking. This means the exercise can be sustained longer and more endurance will be built. So if you're trying to simply increase mileage it is probably best to work on that first. However, that doesn't mean that strength training should be ignored. Even endurance athletes should strength train because it benefits the body in a couple of ways. It can prevent injury since it is strengthening muscles that create stability. Also, it is good for the bones, which means in the long run, you'll have stronger, more resilient bones.
I'm still a little concerned about the lack of energy to strength train after running for 30-60 minutes. I really don't want to drop a weight on my face or my foot or anything else for that matter, just because I was too worn out from my cardio. Plus, I am a sweat machine when I run or bike. It's quite ridiculous actually. Some might say downright disgusting. Who wants to sit down on a bench just after I've slimed it with my sweaty self? I'll have to overcome these two obstacles in order to employ this method. Or, I could just use the last option.
Endurance one day, strength another
This is a simple solution, do your endurance workout one day, and strength training another. It seems like a simple solution, however, not necessarily realistic. What if you're a person who can only get to the gym 3 days a week? I don't think this is going to work well for you. I'd say you'd need at least five days. three for endurance, two for strength. Six would probably be even better. Three days of each. However since there are only 7 days in a week, this doesn't leave you with days to recover? It's quite tough to do a quality endurance bout when you're sore from your strength training the day before. :( I think the best method for this is to do endurance in the morning and strength in the afternoon, if you're going to try endurance in one session, strength in another. But, really who has time for that? Not many people.
I hope you are as enlightened as I was with this. I believe that a person should do what works for them and the goals they have. When it comes to health and fitness, doing something is always better than doing nothing. I haven't mentioned any of these findings to Jill yet so, Jill, if you're reading this, expect some changes coming to our trips to the gym!
Which reminds me, yesterday's trip to the gym included a 4 mile random hill workout on the treadmill. It was stellar! I felt awesome. The best part was that there were open machines! It is the end of January after all and people are giving up on their lame New Year's resolutions. Though it saddens me to see that people can't stick with exercise, it means there's more room for me! :)
In other news, I think it's time for a new pair of these. The Asics Gel Kayano 17. I've been running in the Kayanos for a few years now. I get the new model each year and currently my feet can't wait to get into a new pair of these. Not to mention my joints. However at about $120 a pop, it might have to wait a month or so because I'll need two pairs for my training and marathon race.
To close, you'll see that I've added a distance widget to the blog. Since I just added it yesterday it only had yesterday's mileage on it and seems a little sad. Follow along as that number increases!
