I have a pretty varied schedule and my time for working out is variable most days. Should I have a preference between strength training and cardio at different times of the day?
- Confused Junior
It's great that you are trying to plan your gym sessions to make your time there most effective. And I'm also happy to hear that you are doing both cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting. The only thing left right now is to figure out how to optimize your training. As a general rule of thumb - and this applies to both people trying to gain mass as well as people trying to lose weight - I would recommend lifting earlier in the day and doing aerobic exercise later on.
There are a couple of reasons to lift early in the day. First of all, if you are trying to get bigger or lose weight, you will give your body the maximal amount of time to either build muscle tissue or to burn additional calories. If you lift in the morning, you have the rest of the day to consume high quality protein that has a chance to be incorporated into muscle tissue. The more you eat after a lift, the more likely you are to put on muscle.
If you are interested in burning fat, lifting in the morning works better also. After strength training, the body has a metabolic boost that causes it to burn more calories throughout the rest of the day. So lifting in the morning will boost your metabolism for a longer amount of time, leading to a greater caloric burn and a greater loss of fat.
Doing cardio later in the day has the effect of burning some of those extra calories you may have consumed from dietary indiscretions over the course of the day. This means that if you slip up and have a big piece of chocolate cake, you still have an opportunity to burn off those calories before sleep that night. And that safety net gives you a bigger margin for error in your diet during the day.
I need some help with gym etiquette. Every so often, you mention things in Inside Fitness about gym mistakes and things that are annoying. Can you give me a basic primer to figuring out some do's and don'ts for the gym?
- Impressionable freshman
Gym etiquette is by no means a cut-and-dry issue. There are a lot of things that can be debated.
One issue is whether or not it is acceptable to read a magazine or book while doing cardiovascular exercise. Initially, I used to think that this was almost unforgivable, but I have since come to change my opinion slightly. In my opinion, if you use the magazine as a crutch for why you aren't working up a sweat or having a real workout, then you should toss the entertainment. But if your workout is unimpeded by having a little distraction for your mind, then keep the magazine involved.
It bothers me when people are reading a magazine when the gym is really crowded and are using the machine more as a diversion than as a means to get a workout. Tossing the magazine will let you increase the intensity of the workout and cut your time in the gym, which is a plus when it's really crowded in there.
The number one gym no-no is the cell phone in the gym.
Attention readers: if you or someone you know has used a cell phone while in the gym, please make them stop, using violence if necessary. The most annoying scene I have ever witnessed in the gym was a girl doing dozens of repetitions on the hip abduction machine while chatting away on her cell phone. If you need to be on the phone, get out of the gym. Please. Run out of there. No one cares who your friend may or may not have hooked up with on Saturday night. Cell phones are completely unacceptable, and their use is borderline unforgivable.
