Aerobics first or resistance first? You may have made a mistake when you love to hang out at the gym...

Compiled by: Gong Zixin

Go into the gym,

Which direction do you go first?

Is it for treadmill or spinning bike?

Working up a sweat in the aerobic zone?

Or lift weights or use strength machines

Do resistance training?

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that both types of exercise improve health and reduce the risk of chronic disease. But what is the best order to get the best results? Which should you do first?

Exercise physiologist Randal Claytor has been studying the effects of combining aerobic and resistance training on improving health, specifically aerobic capacity and muscle strength. His research suggests that when designing an exercise program, there are several factors to consider, including age, fitness level, exercise history, and goals. In addition, it is also necessary to consider the amount of daily exercise (i.e., duration and intensity) and how to arrange the exercise each day.

Exercise is better than inactivity

Aerobic exercise is rhythmic activity and includes walking, running, swimming, bicycling and using aerobic equipment such as the elliptical machine.

Aerobic exercise improves heart and lung function—over time, the heart and lungs become better at delivering oxygen to muscles, which fuel their continued contraction. Aerobic exercise can also reduce risk factors for some chronic diseases, increase the amount of energy the body uses and the amount of fat it burns, and improve physical and cognitive function.

Resistance training involves lifting, pushing, or pulling against resistance to strengthen muscles. This type of exercise can be done with free weights, dumbbells, kettlebells, weight machines, or even resistance bands.

Resistance exercise can improve muscle strength, endurance, and muscle size. Research shows that resistance training is particularly beneficial for people with or at risk for type 2 diabetes, improving blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and the muscles' ability to use glucose for energy, and helping maintain leanness and bone health.

Because exercise time is limited, many people combine aerobic and resistance exercise in the same workout. In fact, doing both at the same time is better than doing only aerobic or resistance exercise in the same amount of time, especially for people with risk factors for chronic diseases.

Studies of simultaneous training have shown that aerobic capacity and muscle strength improve similarly regardless of the order in which aerobic and resistance training are performed during the same session, and these benefits apply to a wide range of populations, including those who are initially inactive, young people, and older people.

Goal-oriented sports

Performing resistance exercise before aerobic exercise can lead to small increases in lower body muscle strength without compromising other health benefits. Therefore, if your goal is to maintain general fitness and enjoy the mental benefits of exercise, then performing resistance training first may help.

On the other hand, performance-oriented athletes, or those who are training to get better at a specific sport or to prepare for competition, may need to consider exercise sequencing more carefully. For them, simultaneous training may slightly inhibit gains in aerobic capacity and more likely hinder the development of muscle strength and power, and to a lesser extent muscle growth, a phenomenon known as the “interference effect” that is most evident when highly trained athletes perform a high volume of aerobic and resistance exercise.

This is because aerobic and resistance training unleash competing influences at the molecular level that affect genetic signaling and protein synthesis, and at the beginning of an exercise program, the body's adaptations are more general. But as training increases, changes become more specific to the muscle, and the potential for interference effects increases.

Of course, some high-level athletes need to improve both aerobic and muscle-building exercises, which raises the question: What is the best order to perform these two exercises in order to achieve optimal performance?

Research shows that high-level athletes can do resistance exercise before aerobic exercise or split aerobic and resistance exercise on a given day to avoid any significant interference effects. In addition, if possible, athletes should allow the body to rest for at least 3 hours between resistance training and aerobic exercise.

Randal Claytor said that he is currently studying the "micro-circulation" of aerobic exercise and resistance exercise. You don't have to decide which one to do first, but interweave the two modes in shorter bursts. For example, after completing a set of resistance exercise, you can immediately walk or run for 3 minutes. You can repeat this cycle as many times as needed to incorporate all resistance exercises into your daily routine.

Preliminary findings suggest that this concurrent training approach produces similar results for aerobic fitness, muscle strength, and lean muscle mass compared to typical concurrent training (performing all aerobic exercise after all resistance training) while also feeling less challenging.

I want to say

actually

For many people

(Like me)

More important than the order of movement

may be

Go to the gym first

…

References:

https://theconversation.com/
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-cardio-weights-kinesiologist-optimize-routine.html