When getting started with fitness, should a novice do aerobic or anaerobic exercise first?

Should a novice do aerobic or anaerobic exercise first when getting started with fitness? The answer is that there is no standard answer. It all depends on your personal goals, sports foundation and current physical condition. There is no "optimal order" that applies to everyone.

In the past two years, I have taught two students with no basic knowledge, and they are typical examples of the two options. One is a back-end programmer who has been sedentary for 3 years. He weighs 182 pounds. To climb three floors, he has to hold on to the railing and breathe for five minutes. His goal for fitness is to lose 30 pounds in half a year. The first two weeks I arranged for him are all low-intensity aerobics: riding the elliptical machine for 30 minutes every day, adjusting the speed. It got to the point where he could chat with me normally without any effort, and when he got tired, he would stop and rest for two minutes. In two weeks, he lost 5 pounds, and he didn’t feel that fitness was particularly painful. In the third week, he slowly added simple exercises such as seated chest presses and leg extensions with fixed equipment. The other is a little girl who has just entered college. She is 163cm tall and only weighs 92kg. She can't gain weight by eating, so she just wants to develop some shoulder lines to look good in a suspender belt. I directly asked her to learn the movements of fixed equipment in the first class. I arrange aerobic exercises for 20 minutes at most twice a week. I am afraid that she will lose weight if she does too much. Now after more than three months of training, the shoulder lines are quite obvious, and she looks much better in strapless clothes than before.

I have talked about this issue with coaches from different directions in the circle before, and the differences are actually quite obvious. Veteran bodybuilding coaches generally believe that novices should try anaerobic exercises first. They should first practice basic movement patterns such as squats and deadlifts correctly to increase muscle mass and improve basal metabolism. Both muscle gain and fat loss will be more efficient. Doing too much aerobic exercise too early will consume muscles and waste the novice welfare period. Sports rehabilitation coaches don’t think so. They see many novices who injure their waists and knees by doing vigorous strength training. They feel that most ordinary people who sit for a long time have weak cores, poor joint flexibility, and even basic breathing patterns are wrong. They are too easy to get injured when they start doing compound movements. It is better to start with low-intensity aerobics, first improve their cardiopulmonary capacity, develop the habit of weekly exercise, and then gradually add strength training, which will increase the error tolerance rate. There are also coaches who do functional training who are more casual. They say that novices don’t need to distinguish between aerobic and anaerobic. After warming up, they first practice light weight strength for 20 minutes, and then ride on the elliptical machine for 15 minutes.

I also struggled with this issue when I first started working out. I read dozens of guides. One of them said that you should not do aerobic to lose muscle first, and the other said that without anaerobic foundation, you will easily get injured. I struggled for three days before I dared to enter the gym for the first time. On the first day, I ran for 40 minutes, and I was so dizzy that I almost fell. The next day, I followed a friend to practice legs. After squatting 10 empty bars, it hurt for three days, and I almost gave up. Later I realized that the most valuable thing in the novice stage is the so-called "training efficiency". Even if you go to the gym and only ride the elliptical machine for 20 minutes today, it is better than lying at home wondering what to train today.

To put it bluntly, the essential difference between aerobic and anaerobic is just that the energy supply system is different, there is no distinction between superior and inferior. Aerobics mainly relies on aerobic metabolism to provide energy, which consumes glycogen and fat, and exercises cardiorespiratory endurance. After finishing, most people will only feel a little tired, and they can recover after a night's rest. ； Anaerobic exercise mainly relies on phosphagen and glycolysis for energy, which stimulates muscle growth. After exercise, the muscles may be sore for two or three days. Long-term exercise can improve your basal metabolism, allowing you to consume more calories even while lying down. You don’t need to be afraid that if you do aerobic first, you will lose muscle. Your little muscle mass has not yet reached the point where you will lose it as soon as you exercise, and you don’t have to worry that if you do anaerobic first, you will become too bulky. Ordinary girls can’t train like King Kong Barbie without three to five years of systematic training. They just think too much.

If you really can’t decide what to practice first, here’s the stupidest way to do it: do all aerobics this week and pick what you like, whether it’s running, aerobics, climbing stairs or cycling. As long as you feel comfortable after doing it and want to come back the next day, just do it like this first； Next week, try another two days without oxygen, learn two simple movements with fixed equipment, and feel the feeling of muscle exertion. Whichever one you can persist in better, start with which one. Really, the core goal of the novice stage has never been to develop a good figure. It is to establish the habit of exercise first, and don’t waste half a day on choosing items. The ten minutes you stand at the door of the gym struggling with it are enough for you to walk around the venue twice to warm up.

Moving first is better than anything else.