Lisa Sabin’s - Running And Being

A complete fitness program includes resistance training and aerobic training. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends moderate cardio 30 minutes 5 days a week or 20 minutes of intense cardio 3 days per week.  The recommendation for resistance training is 2 days per week, 8-10 exercises for all the major muscle groups. Do 1-2 sets, 8-12 repetitions in a controlled manner.

Resistance training has many benefits including increased bone density, increased lean body mass, and injury prevention. Aerobic training increases lung capacity, increases stroke volume, i.e. creates a more efficient heart. Aerobic training also burns lots of calories.

Which sequence is best for maximum results?

EPOC, exercise post oxygen consumption, represents the calories expended above resting (or pre-exercise) value following an exercise bout.   EPOC, after-burn caloric expenditure represents oxygen consumption above resting level that the body is utilizing to return to a pre-exercise state.

When aerobic exercise precedes resistance training the muscle groups involved are limited.  When cycle ergometry (stationary bike) was done prior to lifting, performance (measured by leg press) was impaired.  However, upper body strength (measured by bench press) was not compromised.

A study done in (2005) analyzed the effect of resistance training and aerobic exercise, as well as combined concurrent bouts of aerobic and resistance training.  This answers the question which concurrent training session had a more meaningful after-burn? Single sessions of aerobics, resistance training or a combination?

This study involves 10 physically active males (age=26 years) who have been jogging and strength training for at least 2 days per week for the previous 6 months.  Before the testing sessions, all the subjects completed 1-repetition maximum (1-RM) assessments on the resistance exercises performed in the study.  This was needed in order to establish the precise workout intensity to be performed in the resistance testing sessions.  In addition, the men performed a maximal aerobic capacity test (VO2max) in order to establish the appropriate workout intensity for the study’s aerobic sessions.

Pre-Exercise Procedures

Prior to all 4 exercise testing days, the subjects ate a similar dinner at 5 pm and refrained from physical activity for the previous 48 hours.  The volunteers also had a similar morning meal at 6 am on each day of testing, which was complimented with a nutritional bar.  These nutritional timing and intake controls were implemented because of the importance nutrition has on exercise performance, which can also affect the exercise after-burn.  Upon arrival to the exercise physiology laboratory, each subject was asked to lie down in a supine position for 30 minutes where resting metabolic rate (RMR) data was collected for 30 minutes in a very relaxed atmosphere.

The Four Testing Conditions of The Study

To prevent any type of order bias in the testing, the four exercise sessions were systematically arranged for the subjects using a methodical ordering technique referred to as a randomized Latin square design. 

Resistance Only:  The volunteers completed 3 sets of 10 repetitions at 70% of their 1-RM with a 105 second rest between sets and exercises.  Each subject performed the following 7 exercises in this order:  bench press, leg press, barbell biceps curl, triceps extension, hamstring curl, latisimus pull down, and knee extension.  Five minutes after completing the resistance training exercises, subjects were placed in a supine position where EPOC was recorded up to the 105 minute mark.  After each testing session, EPOC values were collected precisely the same for each subject.

Run Only Session:  For the treadmill run exercise session, each subject ran for 25 minutes at a stride pace of 70% of their VO2max.  Five minutes after completing the treadmill run EPOC was measure as described above.

Run-Resistance:  The subjects performed the 25-run at 70% of their VO2max.  Five minutes after completing the treadmill run, the subjects performed the exact same resistance training bout, at the same intensity and in the same order as they did for the resistance only session.  One again, five minutes after completing the resistance training exercises EPOC was collected as previously described.

Resistance-Run:  In this testing condition the resistance training session was completed first and then, following a five-minute break, the 25-minute cardiovascular run on the treadmill was performed.  As with all sessions, EPOC was collected following the same data collection procedure for each subject.

The EPOC levels returned to pre-exercise values within 40 minutes of all 4 exercise sessions, thus confirming previous research which shows that the prominent effect of the exercise after-burn in within the first 2 hours of exercise.  Perhaps the first 10 minutes of EPOC reveal the most meaningful data from this study.  The after-burn, or EPOC is measured in ml/kg/min, which means milliliters of oxygen, per kilogram of body weight, per minute.  It is interesting to note that the resistance only and run-resistance were significantly higher than the resistance run and the run only sessions.  The researchers didn’t calculate actual caloric expenditure.  However, since resting metabolism rate (RMR) was  3.5 ml/kg/min for the subjects, it is clear at the 10 minute mark that the EPOC was 66% above the RMR for resistance only and the run-resistance sessions compared to 45% and 34% above RMR for the resistance-run and run only sessions, respectively.  At 20 minutes post-exercise the resistance only session was 28% above resting RMR as compared to the run only session, which was the lowest at 17% above resting RMR.

Conclusion:  One major answer from this study is that the combined run-resistance or resistance-run sequence did not elicit an exaggerated after-burn (EPOC) response.  Secondly, at the intensities of exercise incorporated in this study, it is clear that resistance only and run-resistance had the most meaningful effect on EPOC within the first 10 minutes post- exercise.  It is essential to realize that even though resistance training is an anaerobic activity some of the mechanisms that will elevate EPOC following resistance exercises include the re-synthesis of the phosphagen energy system (ATP-PC), lactate removal, and peripheral blood circulation and muscle temperature recovery.

It is also meaningful to discuss the fact that previous research clearly shows that the most profound effect on EPOC is “intensity”.  Therefore, a follow-up study with aerobic exercise and resistance exercise sessions being performed at different intensities (i.e., 75%, 80%, 85% of maximum) might be very enlightening to this sequence debate.

IDEA Fitness Journal (2004, 1(5), 42-47)

Dr. Len Kravitz, Ph.D., Drlenkravitz.com

Drummond, M.J., Vehrs, P.R., Schaalje, G.B. and Parcell, A.C. (2005),  Aerobic and resistance exercise sequence affects excess postexercise consumption, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 19(2), 332-337,