So I was talking with a friend of mines (She wants to be personal trainer). She says it is better to lift weights first and do Calastetics (spelling??? type training. Because it taps into your carb source, making it deficient before you start Cardio. Where the cardio can concentrate on buring fat, since your carb source was exhausted from weight training. Is this true????

I agree to do strength first. If you do a whole cardio workout and then try to lift you will be fairly ineffectual. I wouldn't plan on doing too much cardio on strength days but 30 min or so should be fine.

I agree, if only because its virtually impossible to do a full-out strength session when you're tired from your cardio. I find this especially true if the muscles I'm trying to strength-train are the muscles used most during my cardio (for example, its near impossible for me to go for my jog/walk, then do any sort of strength work on my legs).

Do your strength first. As an added bonus, I always feel more stretched when I do strength before my cardio.

I work out with a trainer 3 days a week and he has me walk for 15 minutes to warm up then do strength training and then I walk another 30 minutes when I am done.

I usually warm up on a treadmill or elliptical for 5-10 minutes, then do strength training, then about 30 min of cardio. On a non-weight day, I do a longer cardio, usually on bike these days.

I usually do my cardio in different days than I lift, but if I happen to be doing both on the same day, I do the cardio first. But this is just my personal preference, I don't have any scientific reason for doing it in this order. Mainly, I want to get the cardio out of the way. It doesn't seem to affect my ability to do weights. I also always do at least 15 minutes of abs at the end of my cardio workout.

When I work out with my trainer, he has me do short cardio intervals in between sets.

- Barbara

The recommendation is weights then cardio for the reason that most will have no energy after cardio to do weights afterwards, I usually do it this way too... BUT sometimes when I know I am having a lazy day and I know I won't do the cardio after the weights I will do my least favourite, which is cardio, before the weights, but I don't do that often...

Sounds like a great offensive strategy!

Hi I am a certified personal trainer.
If you do enough cardio for it to be effective in terms of fat burning, you are burning first the glucose that's immediately stored in your muscles, then the energy stored in your liver, then fat. At that point, unless you eat a meal and rest for a while, you don't have enough energy left to do a useful weight workout.

A 5-10 minute walk, bike or elliptical warm-up before you do your weight workout isn't going to deplete you, but 30-60 minutes of real cardio should use ALL the short-term energy stored in your body. That's the energy that you draw upon when you lift weights.

Very fast paced circuit training, where you incorporate bursts of cardio between sets of weight training is another way to completely deplete your energy reserves as long as your primary goal in lifting isn't muscle building.

Mel