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Ask Shannon: Fitness and Nutrition Q & A

Posted June 4, 2008 at 02:00 PM by Shannon Clark

Section: Her Fitness, Training Programs, Special Features, Q & A

With years of training under her belt, resident fitness and nutrition expert Shannon Clark is ready to help you on your way to a healthy, informed lifestyle. Got a question? her your inquiries, and be sure to check back every week for the latest Q&A.

Q: I currently have a very busy schedule and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to do cardio and weight lifting in the same session when I go to the gym.  Ideally I’m thinking it’ll be best if I can get one done in the morning before work, then stop off quickly for another thirty to forty-five minutes after and finish the rest.  Is this type of set-up okay or is it really better to do them both in the same session? And if I can separate them, should one be performed in the morning rather than at night?

A: Thanks for sending in your question! Many people struggle with finding the time to exercise so don’t feel bad, you are most definitely not alone!

In terms of separating up the workouts, most definitely – you can do this without any problems and in fact, it might even be better this way. 

If you are doing a hard cardio session for example and then expect to perform an intense weight lifting session immediately afterwards, this may just be too much for your body to handle and you might find yourself lagging. By allowing for 5-8 hours in between, you give your body some rest so you can give close to 100% for each workout.

Additionally, if you were to ever combine them, cardio should most often be performed after the weight lifting session, since weight lifting requires more neuromuscular skills.

Now, about which to do first, it’s really your decision here as one is not necessarily a whole lot better than the other, but here are some things to keep in mind.

First, some people find that a morning cardio session makes them eat better the rest of the day since they don’t want to ‘eat back’ all the calories they burned off.  If this is you and you are trying to lose weight, being in this mindset could come in handy.

Secondly, generally the body tends to be a lot colder first thing in the morning, so if you attempt an intense workout session, you must be sure you perform a very thorough workout before hand or else you could really risk getting injured.

If you don’t have enough time in the morning before work to complete this warm-up along with your lifting session, you may be better off doing it after work.

Finally, the last thing to keep in mind is the availability at the gym. Typically, immediately after work tends to be prime time on the cardio machines, therefore you may have a more difficult time getting a spot.  This can vary depending on the gym though – some gyms are very populated by the early morning crowd, but generally this just tends to be less.  Assess your own gym and see what’s going to be easiest for you to work around. Getting to the gym and finding out the cardio machine you wanted is taken is a very quick way to cause you to skip a workout.

So, do what feels best for you.  At the end of the day the most important thing will just be that you got your workouts in, not so much at what time of the day they occurred.

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Tags: cardio, clark, energy, morning cardio, morning weight lifting, q&a, time for exercise, time management, workout planning

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