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

There is no universal standard answer. It all depends on your initial goals, current physical condition and personal exercise preferences. All suggestions that require you to choose one from the other are essentially blind guides without considering your specific situation.

I have seen too many novices who have just applied for a fitness card. They stand at the junction of the strength zone and the aerobic zone in a daze, holding an unscrewed sports water bottle in their hands. On the left is a muscular man banging an iron and shouting slogans, and on the right is a young lady wearing headphones and sweating on the elliptical machine. She doesn’t know where to move her feet, for fear that if she chooses the wrong first step, the rest of her training will be in vain.

In fact, the fitness circle has been arguing about this issue for almost ten years. Both factions have their own reasons, and no one can convince the other. One group is the "aerobic pioneer" group. They say that novices generally have poor physical fitness and weak cardiopulmonary function. They can't straighten their backs even after doing 3 sets of exercises while lifting irons. Not to mention the deformed movements and easy strain. It is much more efficient to start with low-intensity aerobic for half a month to improve their physical fitness, and then to strength training. ； The other group is the "strength-first group". They say that novices have low muscle mass. If they do aerobics at the beginning, they will easily lose muscle. On the contrary, it will lower the basal metabolism. It will be difficult to lose weight later. It is better to build up strength first. As the muscles grow, they can burn more calories even while lying down.

There is nothing wrong with either of these views, but they are both too extreme and cannot be applied to specific people. I used to take care of a 26-year-old male student who was 175cm tall and 90kg in height. His physical examination revealed mild fatty liver disease. His request was to lower his weight first. He usually had to hold on to the handrails to catch his breath for two minutes when climbing the third floor. So I would definitely let him start with low-intensity aerobic activities such as brisk walking and elliptical machines without weight. For 40 minutes each time, he was the first. The first time he came here, he was sweating after 10 minutes of riding on the elliptical machine. When he was sitting next to him to rest, he said that he had not moved since graduating from college. After three weeks of training, he stopped breathing when climbing stairs and lost 6 pounds. Then he was slowly added to upper limb training with fixed equipment. He did not feel tired. He has persisted for half a year and his fatty liver has disappeared since the last time he went for a physical examination.

It would be completely different in another situation. There was also a young girl who had just graduated from school who came to me. She was 160cm tall and only weighed 92kg. She was not fat at all, but she felt that her body was loose, her clothes were shapeless, her shoulders were rounded and her hips were wide. I just asked her to start with light weights and fixed equipment, and train one part every day for 30 minutes each time. At the end, she just added 10 minutes of slow walking to relax. When she first started doing shoulder training, she was shaking when lifting a 1kg dumbbell. The next day after training, her arms were so sore that she couldn't lift them. She even complained to me that it was difficult to lift a cup. Then she gradually increased it to 2.5kg. After two months, she didn't lose a pound, but her shoulders opened up and her hip line also went up. The tight skirt that she couldn't fit into now fits perfectly. She was shocked. She said she thought she would have to run for three months before losing weight, but she didn't expect that her weight had not changed and she looked better.

There is really no need to pit aerobic and anaerobic against each other. Many people can mix it up when they first get started. Today, if you are in good condition, you can run two laps if you want. If you don’t want to run, you can touch two sets of dumbbells. Even if you do aerobic and strength training three times a week, or do aerobic warm-up for 10 minutes before each exercise, no one will say you are wrong. When I first started, I was more casual. I ran in the aerobic zone every day for the first three days. My knees hurt when I ran. I also found that my face collapsed when I dropped the scale quickly. Later, I simply practiced strength training for 20 minutes every day, and then ran for 15 minutes. Within two months, my waist circumference shrank by 3 centimeters, and my weight did not change at all. Everyone who looked at it said I had lost weight.

The only thing I have to remind you is not to go to extremes. For example, you may run 10 kilometers every day, and your knees will hurt when you run, or you may lift a heavy weight, and your waist will slip because of incorrect movements, which will outweigh the gains. There are also those who feel that they are fat even if they drink water. If they first starve for a week and then do aerobics for an hour every day, they will lose basically water and muscles. They will rebound very quickly and their complexion will be bad. It is really not a mistake.

To put it bluntly, for novices, the most important thing is never whether to choose aerobic or anaerobic, but whether you can start moving and stick to it. By the time you struggle with this problem, you can already step on the elliptical machine for 10 minutes or do two sets of empty bar squats. Try it first. The cost of trial and error is very low. You will know what is more suitable for you after a week of trying. There are so many black and white standard answers.