When I was a child, I used to have a jungle gym in my backyard. You know the kind... monkey bars, a climbing rope, a set of hanging rings, and, of course, a swing. All the kids in the neighborhood, ages 5 through 12, would come to my backyard and play on it. We would climb, hang, and swing for hours. We always played unsupervised. There was no need for supervision. We lived in a very safe neighborhood and our parents were comfortable sending us out on our own to play.

We did some cool stuff on that jungle gym! One game involved climbing to the top, standing on the monkey bars (which were a good 6 feet off the ground), and jumping off! The goal was to land on your feet without falling.

Another game involved the swing. We would stand or sit on the swing and swing as high as we could. Once you got to the highest point, you would jump off and try to land as far from the jungle gym as possible. We would actually measure to see who got the greatest distance! One kid, who mastered the standing swing technique, held the neighborhood record with an amazing leap of 14 plus feet!!!

These were some pretty wild and risky games, but did anyone get hurt? Not at all! Maybe a few bumps, bruises, and an occasional scraped knee, but for the most part, nobody became seriously injured.

Even though our parents wouldn't stand there and watch us, they knew about our "jungle gym" sports. I remember bragging to my father that "Billy just jumped 12 feet from the swing!" My Dad responded, "Wow, that kid is quite a jumper!" Never, I repeat NEVER, was the topic of broken bones, injured growth plates, or stunted growth brought up when discussing these fun, yet physical, activities.

Though it seems as if computers and video games have taken over the minds and bodies of today's children, many still participate in the same physical activities that children of past generations did. In fact, I think most parents agree that children nowadays need to "get out and play" more frequently! Climbing, jumping, running, pulling, and pushing are not only fun activities but also very safe and beneficial for building strong bodies.

When a child climbs a tree, he or she uses the muscles of their upper body to pull and their leg muscles to push their way up. Is this dangerous? When a child sits up from a chair, he or she is using the muscles of their legs to push their body weight up to a standing position. Is this dangerous?

As a personal fitness trainer who works with a large number of children, I can't tell you how many times I have had parents tell me that they wouldn't mind their child doing push-ups and sit-ups, but NO WEIGHT TRAINING! I learned a long time ago that a standard push-up involves pressing 60% of your body weight with the muscles of the arms and chest. So, say a child weighs 80 pounds. I have him do 10 push-ups. He is basically pushing 48 pounds with his arms and chest for 10 repetitions. Why would this be safer than having the same kid do a bench press with a 20-pound barbell for 10 repetitions? The answer is...IT'S NOT!!

Some parents simply do not understand what trainers do with children when it comes to weight training. The old "injured growth plate" topic comes up frequently. Recently, I attended a clinic led by Dr. Wayne Wescott, director of research for the YMCA. The topic was Preadolescent Weight Training. Just as I expected, the "growth plate" topic was immediately brought up. Dr. Wescott replied:

"I and a team of researchers went to every hospital in the country to find out just how many cases of damaged growth plates have occurred as a direct result of weight training among children. Surprisingly, not a single case had ever been reported as occurring directly from weight training. There were reports of

children injuring growth plates within the confines of weight rooms, but most of these occurred from falls due to horseplay or simple accidents."

This was amazing! Apparently, a growth plate injury has never occurred as a result of weight training yet parents (and even some "older generation" pediatricians) believe this to be fact!

So, where does this "damaged growth plate" myth come from? Who knows! It has never actually happened, yet the fear that children will stunt their growth by damaging their growth plates still exists. Going back to my childhood, can anyone honestly say that jumping off a swing 5 to 7 feet in the air and landing on your feet would have less of an impact on the knees than doing a squat with 20 pounds under the watchful eye of an educated and experienced fitness trainer? PLEASE!!!!

Though what I am saying is that weight training is nothing but safe and beneficial for children, this may be slightly misleading. There are some general guidelines that Dr. Wescott, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, The American Council of Sports Medicine, and myself recommend when setting up a weight training program for your preadolescent child. They are:

1. The child should be psychologically as well as physiologically ready to participate in a weight training program.
2. The child and his/her parents should set realistic goals and realize that it takes time to get in shape and learn new movement patterns.
3. The training session should include a 5-10 minute warmup which should include low-intensity aerobic exercise and stretching.
4. The training session should be closely supervised by an experienced fitness professional.
5. The child should receive careful and competent instruction on technique, training guidelines, and spotting procedures.
6. Weightroom etiquette should be taught (returning the weight to the proper place, respecting individual differences, and working together on certain pieces of equipment.
7. The weight room should be free of all obstructions that children may be likely to trip over or bump into.
8. There should be proper lighting in the weight room.
9. When initially learning the technique, the child should start with a very lightweight or even a broomstick or PVC pipe.
10. Weighlifting competition between children should be avoided in the early stages of a weight training program.
11. Equipment should be properly designed for the child's physical size and maturity.
12. Proper spotting techniques should be followed and taught to the child.
13. Above all, the child should enjoy weight training and never be forced into doing it!

Again, as long as these guidelines are followed, weight training is absolutely safe and beneficial for preadolescent children! I asked Dr. William Howard, head of Orthopedic Surgery at the Union Memorial Sports Medicine Center in Baltimore, Maryland, what he thought about children lifting weights. He said:

"I think it's great as long as the child is supervised. The growth plate issue is a myth! Young children for years have been working on farms lifting huge bails of hay and pulling around heavy pieces of farm equipment with their own muscles. Ever heard of a "small ol' farm boy"? The growth plate issue is never an issue among these people. It's never even thought of. So what is the difference between a child lifting a huge bail of hay versus a barbell or dumbbell? Nothing! If anything, the kid lifting weights is going to be safer because a parent or trainer would be there watching him or her do it! I think it's great that children are getting into weight resistance exercise programs and I hope to see it get more and more popular!"

Rest assured, as parents, pediatricians, and sports medicine doctors become more educated on the topic of preadolescent weight training, we will see a much larger number of youth weight training programs taking place in schools and gyms across the nation. Soon the "growth plate issue" will become just what it is...a myth!

“Should I do aerobic training before or after a weights session?” This is a frequently asked question and one over which a wide spectrum of opinion exists even though it may seem like trivia if you're new to weight training. Yet, as with many issues in the exercise sciences, answers to complex questions can be blurred by qualifications and exceptions and tempered by the exercise goals you have set -- weight loss, muscle, strength, sporting prowess, appearance and so on.

The following attempts to clarify the issue and provide some clear direction.

Cardio and Aerobics

Aerobic exercise, often called ‘cardio’ for short, is any exercise at an intensity at which oxygen can be sustainably supplied to large muscle groups over time and which places consistent demands on the heart and lung system, the cardiorespiratory system.

Cardio is something you do at a sustained pace over a longer period of time rather than in short bursts of energy such as in interval running or lifting weights. Cardio is walking, jogging, distance running, swimming and cycling; and using treadmill, stepper, cross trainer and rowing machines in the gym. Blood glucose and stored glucose and fats are the main fuels used in aerobics.

Training with Weights

In contrast, lifting weights is an activity practiced in short bursts of anaerobic (without oxygen) activity. In effect, ‘anaerobic’ doesn’t mean that we stop using oxygen, it just means that the activity is of such an intensity that the muscle's requirement for oxygen is exceeded, resulting in metabolic products such as lactate and an eventual inability to continue at that intensity. Stored muscle glucose and phosphocreatine are the main fuels used in strength training.

Now that you're clear on the essential difference between aerobics and weight training, let’s consider this in the context of doing cardio before or after a weights session. I’ll assume that a ‘session’ is one visit to a gym for the purposes of a workout. Let’s examine the scenarios I propose.

Scenario 1 - Cardio after Weights

You walk into the gym and do a warmup on the treadmill for 10 minutes, but you don't want to do too much cardio because you reckon you need the energy to max out your weights session. Anyway, you heard that you'll burn more fat if you do it after the weights.

Saves energy for weight lifting. This may seem to be good logic; however, doing 40 minutes of cardio at moderate pace is not going to deplete enough energy to prevent you from lifting well. As long as you've replaced your carbohydrate glucose stores after any previous exercise session with proper eating, the body will have stored up to 500 grams, or a pound of glycogen.

A jogging or running treadmill session of 40 minutes may use about 600 kcalories of energy, depending on your size and pace. Of this, some fuel will be fat, some will be stored glucose and some blood glucose. A reasonable estimate is that you would use around 80 to 100 grams (3 or 4 ounces) of stored glucose out of, say, 400 grams that you have available. You can see that you have plenty left in reserve for strength training.

What's more, if you replace some of this used fuel with a sports drink or energy bar before you start the weights, you’ll only be a little depleted from when you walked in the door.

Burn more fat. Now this one really sounds attractive, the idea being that if you deplete some carbohydrate stores, particularly blood glucose, with an initial weights session, you'll be in fat burning mode. Theoretically this makes some sense but as we saw in my article, So You Want to Burn More Fat, the fat burning zone is a mythical construct and what really matters is how much energy you expend overall.

Score for Scenario 1: sounds good, but in reality only 2 points out of 5.

Scenario 2 - Cardio before Weights

You get stuck into the cardio first up for 40 minutes because you think you will be too tired to tackle it at the end of the weights program. You understand you will expend more energy with cardio when you're fresh, so you can use more energy overall in the session, which is what you're aiming for.

Fresh legs for better cardio. If you do your cardio before you lift, there’s little doubt you will do this part of your program more efficiently, which probably means at higher intensity and with a higher aerobic fitness outcome. Heavy legs and arms after weights are not conducive to a good cardio session. I’ve tried both sequences many times, and running first is my preference even without the technical considerations.

As explained in So You Want to Burn More Fat, cardio of moderate output expends considerably more energy than an equal session of weights, so if you want to maximize energy output for weight loss and aerobic fitness, doing a solid cardio session is essential. Doing cardio first will maximize your output.

On the other hand, with attention to fueling, refueling and fluid intake, you will still be capable of a strong weights session after your aerobic session.

Strong arteries. It's also important to know that aerobic exercise is important even for specialist weight lifters and bodybuilders from a health perspective. Cardio helps keep the arteries elastic, which is beneficial for cardiovascular health. This is called ‘arterial compliance’ and several studies have shown that this worsens in weight trainers who do little aerobic exercise.

Study Shows Cardio before Weights is Beneficial

A study from the Human Performance Research Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, examined what happened to ten men who did resistance only, run only, resistance-run, and run-resistance sessions. (‘Resistance-run’ means weights before cardio and vice versa.)

Here’s what they reported:

EPOC, the measure of the afterburn or energy output after you stop exercising was greatest when cardio was done before weight training.

Running after a weights session was physiologically more difficult than doing it before lifting weights. (This has implications for efficiency and possibly safety.)

The researchers recommend “performing aerobic exercise before resistance exercise when combining them into one exercise session”.

This was not a large study, so the results should be interpreted with caution. Nevertheless, this is in line with my own experience with this training sequence, and also that of some clients.

Other research found that 'running economy' is also impaired after a weights session, another reason why the weights-cardio sequence is less efficient.

Score for Scenario 2: the evidence is not quite in yet, but I’ll score it 4 out of 5 for doing cardio before a weights session.

Cardio Killed My Muscle

Some weight trainers are reluctant to do much cardio training because they believe it produces catabolic hormones like cortisol that break down muscle stores for fuel thus interfering with the anabolic muscle-building process.

Although this subject is worthy of a more complete article on weight training nutrition and metabolism, a brief response is that you can protect muscle from this process by ensuring adequate nutrition before, during, and after a session and by keeping aerobic training to under one hour if you have muscle building goals.

Forty or so minutes of cardio within an adequate nutritional environment is not going to hurt your muscles. In fact, in view of the discussion above, doing cardio after weights could be more damaging to muscle as 'beaten up' muscle strives to deal with the burden of aerobic activity. Your immediate post-weight activity should be dedicated to maximizing the anabolic environment. This is time for building up not breaking down. You achieve this by eating sensibly and adequately resting and sleeping -- and not doing cardio after weights.

Summing Up

Here are my recommendations:

Do most of your aerobic exercise before your weights program if you do both in the same session.

Complete your weights session, cool down then immediately concentrate on recovery, repair, and rebuilding rather than additional exercise.

Consider separate sessions for cardio and weights on different days. This is a popular option when weight loss is not the primary goal. You could also experiment with separate sessions on the same day, but you need to get your refueling right with this approach.

If weight loss is a primary goal, doing both on the same day with cardio first may offer some advantages in increased metabolism and energy expenditure.

If strength, rather than hypertrophy (bigger muscles) is a goal, you probably should do cardio and weights on separate days because the heavier lifts may not go as well after doing cardio first. You need to be as fresh as possible for those 4RMs.

You could mix and match upper and lower body workouts. For example, treadmill running and upper body weights one day and lower body weights and swimming another day.

Don't get too hung up on this whole idea; if it suits you to reverse the order occasionally, it won't be a problem.