For a long time, many experts believed that “spot reduction” – the ability to target which parts of your body you lose fat from – was impossible. Recent research, however, has shown that it is actually quite possible.
One such study was done in 16 overweight women. Half of the women completed upper body resistance training followed by cardio. The other half completed lower body resistance training followed by cardio. Both groups performed the same duration of exercise, burned roughly the same amount of calories per session, and lost the same amount of weight over the course of the study.
Amazingly, however, the group that performed upper body strength training before cardio ended up losing more fat from their upper body, while the lower body strength training group lost more weight from the lower body.
Conclusions
This study shows the value of performing strength training before cardio. By first training the muscle with heavy weights, these areas will be more susceptible to fat loss caused by the calorie burn of cardio.
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