Ask a Trainer
Two elite 24 Hour Fitness Trainers tackle your most burning in-the-gym questions.
I’ve always heard it’s better to do cardio first before you lift to get your heart rate up. But sometimes I go to the gym just to lift when I'm short on time. Is that a waste of time?
-- Angelina, Tacoma, Washington
Let me put it this way: Race car drivers do not get in a cold, dead car, and pull it out onto the track, and go ripping around the course. Your body’s a machine, and it needs to get warmed up.
I agree that it’s always a good idea to warm up first. A warm-up can be as little as 5 minutes, or as much as 10 minutes, just enough to get the heart rate up and the blood moving. The warm-up can actually reduce injury, because it gets the blood to the muscles, so they’re ready to move.
Clients say to me, “I walked from the car on the way here.” I say, “Big deal. Go warm up.” If a tree falls in the forest, and a trainer didn’t see it, you still need to warm up. Do the treadmill, Stairmaster, elliptical for 10 minutes. To be honest, lifting without the warm-up isn’t exactly a waste of time, but for some people you will run the risk of injury.
Meet the Experts
Two trainers, both with impeccable credentials but very different styles.
Brandy Bachmeyer, 28, a former Olympic weightlifter, is a rare amalgam of brains, brawn, and perkiness. Sort of like a cross between MacGyver and a local TV weatherperson. In a good way. An elite trainer at San Ramon Supersport Club in California, Brandy regularly puts in 12-hour days, sometimes joining them as they train for half-marathons—even surveying the contents of their sub-Zeros.
Scott Nunes, a trainer at the 24 Hour Fitness in Escondido, California knows firsthand that getting fit doesn’t just happen. “I used to be a bona fide couch potato,” Nunes avows. When Nunes was in his mid 20s, he had back surgery, developed arthritis, and found himself weighing in at 260 pounds: “When my one-and-a-half-year-old son raced me to the top of the stairs and beat me, I started doing pushups and sit ups that day,” he recalls. Nunes, 37, got in great shape, which helped him raise his son, who’s now 14.
COMBINED WISDOM Fuel-inject your muscles with a quick cardio warm-up.
