I'd like to start working with weights. Not free weights, but the machines at the gym. I also plan on doing 30 min of cardio (elliptical) with each workout. Does it matter which I do first?

Sorry, I just found the answer on another thread under "Personal Training." So it says to do cardio BEFORE, but only for 10 min?? I don't see how that's going to be productive if I want to lose fat at the same time. Is it ok to do 30 min of cardio before doing weights, or should I just do my cardio on different days? Forget doing them a few hours apart. I don't have a few hours to spare. I'll make one trip to the gym, allowing one hour to work out. If I go home and rest, I won't want to go back.

i know the thread your on about, ignore it.

split up your weights and cardio if you can, do cardio after if you have to.

and dont bother with the 'machines', using free weights has far more advantages.

That's what everyone says, but why? What's the advantage? It's still the same amount of weights, right? I don't like to use free weights. There are all these humongous body builder men in there, and they all look at me like I'm lost. I feel stupid and I'm embarrassed easily!

Also I was just looking at this website...

Fitness Jumpsite: Calorie Calculator

To lift weights for 30 min, I'm only going to burn 77.7 calories. That's next to nothing. I don't see why I should increase my caloric intake by so much when I'm not burning nearly that much. Well if I add 15 min of the elliptical, that's another 93.2 cal, and maybe when I'm through with all that, I'll do some aquatics/swim for 15 min, that's another 77-90 cal burned. I am probably making this more difficult than it needs to be, but it just seems like the whole purpose in exercising is to burn excess calories. Or do I just need extra calories for my muscles to grow, is that it? God I'm such a newbie, I am clueless. It'll all come together eventually, but right now I feel lost.

The 10 minutes of cardio before training is only 10 minutes long because it's usually done so briefly just to ' warm-up ' only - so, do 10 minutes of cardio before weight training.

Remember, in most cases, the primary goal of only 10 minutes of cardio is either to ' warm-up ' or ' cool down " ( i.e flush out lactic acid etc. ).....it's not to burn fat.

Depends on what your primary goal is. If suppose if your primary goal is to lose fat via cardio or improve your cardio fitness via cardio training ( and weight training is of secondary importance to you )....... then do cardio first.

But, most gym rats either do 30 minutes of cardio after weight training or dedicate a separate day to cardio training.

Free weights require the use of more muscles, so it's a better workout, you're training more muscles at once, it gives you a more symmetric body (not along the middle axis, but the relative size of your muscles), more release of the hormones that makes your muscles grow, etc.

You lift weights to promote muscle growth, and it's also helpful in maintaining muscle mass while losing weight, without weight training the body will burn more muscle along with the fat.

You don't stress the muscles much by doing cardio, but by lifting weights you rupture parts of the muscle, these parts contain hormones that stimulate muscle growth. However, they won't grow unless your body has the extra calories to spare - if it's just getting enough nutrients to keep things running, it won't invest in big muscles that will require more food. A lot of your body functions are designed to increase chances of surviving periods of starvation, so that's why you need to eat above maintenance level to get the full potential muscle growth.

OK, it's all coming together now.

I guess when I first started this thread, I didn't know what I wanted. At first I DID want to burn some fat, just to melt away those few stubborn places in my stomach/hips/butt/thighs -- not that I thought I could spot reduce, but cardio is the way to go if you want to lose any amount of fat. So that was my whole point in adding the cardio to begin with. But in another thread where we were discussing this, I realized maybe I don't really NEED the cardio, and toning up and building muscle might just get me the look I'm trying to achieve. I have an "ectomorph" frame, so cardio might just make me waste away. I'm already thin to begin with, I just have a few problem areas that come with aging and childbirth. So in that case, 10-15 min of warm up might actually be enough, and anything more might really be counterproductive. I'm sorry, I've been all over the place with this today, but I'm starting to "get it."

If you're super disciplined with your food, I guess you could get away without much cardio. But the cardio will burn many calories that you otherwise can't eat, not only it'll let you shed fat faster it'll give you some more leeway with what you eat.

It's also does some good in exercising your muscles and so on.

I've once had all the muscle I wanted, and lifting weights just to maintain was BORING. If I didn't have the treadmill to struggle with, I would've quit training. For me, having some area where I'm trying to get better is essential for motivation.

So I guess you're saying as long as I don't overdo the cardio, it won't be counterproductive to gaining muscle? LOL... I've only gone back and forth with this 4 times today.

As I understand it, doing cardio burns more calories while doing the activity, but strength training burns more total calories in that the body has to repair itself (higher metabolism).

Free weights are preferable because they recruit more muscles - compare a chest press done on a machine (motion in just one plane - out and back) whereas a bench press requires other stabilizing muscles to keep the weights in that out and back plane of motion.

Again, as I understand it, strength training is most effective when training close to failure (not TO failure). If you do cardio beforehand, you lower that bar of how close you're going to get.

In general, what matters the most is the balance between total energy used and total energy from food. If you do cardio for 300 kcals and you eat 300 kcal more, you won't really be losing or gaining any weight (though you'll probably lose a bit of fat during the cardio and not build as much afterwards because you're also building muscle from the weight training, but it's not a big effect imo, to get effective fat loss you need to be in a real calorie deficit).

You'll probably gain the muscle you want very quickly, at least if you exercise and eat properly. During that phase, cardio won't be that important.

But afterwards, you're going to want to tone your body, lose fat, and imo a balanced weight training/cardio program is better here. Cardio lets you burn more kcals so you can allow yourself to eat more and still lose fat. Both getting and maintaining a low body fat % if hard enough for most people with lots of cardio, doing it without cardio you'll feel like you're starving yourself, that's unrealistic in the long run.

Also, those big bodybuilders in the free weight area...they could care less that you're there. they are there for the same reason as you...to focus on fitness.
don't worry about being self-conscious. if anything, those guys will see you using free-weights and think "wow, a woman that actually knows something about proper weight training".

On a side note, unless you're sporting a pair of testicles in your panties, you lack the testosterone to 'get huge'...so do not be afraid to push yourself on the amount of weight you can move. its supposed to be difficult
I only mention this because its a typical concern: "I don't want to get bulky and un-feminine"

most of the guys here will agree nothing's more attractive/sexy than a somewhat athletic body on a woman. a good example of a natural female body that's been well trained is someone like Beth Horn, Monica Brant, or Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2. Lean, defined, not too thin, and certainly not 'bulky'.

That's correct.

Thank you, gentleman!

I think I've read that if you want to tone, you do lots of reps with light weights. And if you want to build, you do heavier weights, less reps. Is that right? I'm not sure which one I should do.

You are wrong. There are some guys that just look at women with the eyes "you gotta be kidding me". Of course they are idiots to assume that just because a woman doesn't look overweight and in fact small that she shouldn't do weight training.

My point is that she's got legitimate complaint. My suggestion to her is to do free weight training at home.