​ACHIEVE ORDER AND BALANCE IN EXERCISE

Drake Hotel Chicago IL, Taken by PKSenagore ,April 29, 2018/ All rights reserved.

Lauren Bedosky provides succinct and referenced advice on the order that exercise should be performed in an article for the Under Armor’s blog, MyFitnessPal.com, “Should I Lift Weights Before or After Cardio?” 
 
To answer the question, Bedosky says, “it depends on your goals”, and indicates the purpose of training is the key to planning a session.  She presents 4 training goal scenarios: endurance event, strength/power building, weight loss, and multi-goal.  
 
She lays out reasons for each sequence based on goals. To respect Bedosky’s work, the details will not be revealed here.  Check out the article; it’s a quick read. You won’t need to take notes; the advice makes good sense, is backed up by research, and is easy to remember. 
 
Earned Runs Note: in all the workout programs that I’ve been given for running there have been 2 constant components:  a warmup first and balance work last. 
 
The warm-up has consisted of MYRTLs (hip girdle mobility routine) and dynamic stretches. The purpose of the mobility work is to lubricate the joints, and that of the dynamic stretches is to warm up the soft tissues and muscle before working them hard.  Injury prevention is the ultimate goal with a warm up, although performance will also be improved.
 
Balance work, usually drills performed on one leg at a time, have come last.  It’s when the muscles are tired and maintaining balance is a struggle. I asked my physical therapist to explain. She told me that when the body is most tired, the need to maintain stability and balance is the greatest. At the end of a long run, she wanted me to avoid wobbling on my knee (a painful knee was the reason I was prescribed PT).  The hip strength and core stability exercises I was doing were the foundation of this program and the balance work was designed to perfect it.
 
Bedosky’s article leads me to think that the order in which balance drills are performed may also may depend on goals. There will be a follow-up blog post soon that discusses this topic.
 
Whether you are working to build endurance or strength or lose weight, you may find this piece helpful with regard to the order in which you plan to perform specific exercises.
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!
 
https://blog.myfitnesspal.com/should-i-lift-weights-before-or-after-cardio
 
https://runnersconnect.net/benefits-of-balance-exercises-for-runners/