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Alex Hutchinson

Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise Paperback – Illustrated, May 24, 2011

by Alex Hutchinson (Author)

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Award-winning journalist, physicist, and bestselling author of Endure Alex Hutchinson reveals the little-known and often surprising truths that science has uncovered about exercise, ranging from cardio and weights to competition to weight loss.

There's plenty of conventional wisdom on health and fitness—but how much of it is scientifically sound? The truth is: less than you'd think.

In Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?, physicist and award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson tackles dozens of commonly held beliefs and looks at just what research science has—and has not—proven to be true:

Should I exercise when I'm sick?
Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running?
What role does my brain play in fatigue?
Will running ruin my knees?
To lose weight, is it better to eat less or exercise more?
How should I adapt my workout routine as I get older?
Does it matter what I'm thinking about when I train?
Will drinking coffee help or hinder my performance?
Should I have sex the night before a competition?

This myth-busting book covers the full spectrum of exercise science and offers the latest in research from around the globe, as well as helpful diagrams and plenty of practical tips on using proven science to improve fitness, reach weight loss goals, and achieve better competition results.

Print length

317 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Mariner Books
Publication date

May 24, 2011
Dimensions

8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
ISBN-10

006200753X
ISBN-13

978-0062007537
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Authoritative and easy to use. . . . This book answers all the big questions.” — Amby Burfoot, Runner’s World

“Factual, informative and empowering....a refreshing perspective on fitness and well-being.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Once in a while in the crowded fitness & health genre a book comes out that stands out from rest...[I]f there’s only one fitness book you ever buy this should be the one.” — BC Living

From the Back Cover

There's plenty of conventional wisdom on health and fitness—but how much of it is scientifically sound? The truth is: less than you'd think.

In Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?, physicist and award-winning journalist Alex Hutchinson tackles dozens of commonly held beliefs and looks at just what research science has—and has not—proven to be true:

Should I exercise when I'm sick? • Do I get the same workout from the elliptical machine that I get from running? • What role does my brain play in fatigue? • Will running ruin my knees? • To lose weight, is it better to eat less or exercise more? • How should I adapt my workout routine as I get older? • Does it matter what I'm thinking about when I train? • Will drinking coffee help or hinder my performance? • Should I have sex the night before a competition?

This myth-busting book covers the full spectrum of exercise science and offers the latest in research from around the globe, as well as helpful diagrams and plenty of practical tips on using proven science to improve fitness, reach weight loss goals, and achieve better competition results.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mariner Books; Illustrated edition (May 24, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 317 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 006200753X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0062007537
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #238,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #328 in Sports Psychology (Books)
- #663 in Anatomy (Books)
- #3,111 in Exercise & Fitness (Books)

Customer Reviews:
276 ratings

About the author

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Alex Hutchinson

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Alex Hutchinson (@sweatscience) is National Magazine Award-winning journalist who writes about the science of endurance for Runner’s World and Outside, and frequently contributes to other publications such as the New York Times and the New Yorker. A former long-distance runner for the Canadian national team, he holds a master’s in journalism from Columbia and a Ph.D. in physics from Cambridge, and he did his post-doctoral research with the National Security Agency.

Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		27%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Mary Ann Merlin

Informative and quick to the point

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2017

Verified Purchase

For an accurate view of the latest studies this book becomes a must read. If you were a decent in the know athlete 20 years ago, trust me a lot has changed. Read the scientific studies and above all think for yourself. You'll be surprise how much crap was passed off as fact. Ah, the good old days, it's a miracle we survived. Not kidding.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

Cobscookie

5 stars for great content

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2021

Verified Purchase

I bought this because anything by Alex Hutchinson (book or magazine article) is excellent—informative, well researched, and worthwhile, if you’re an athlete addicted to soaking up readable sport science. I’m just getting started on this volume, and it is meeting all my expectations. My only criticism is that it has a terrible title that does not successfully convey the book's purpose at all. Since this book was released in 2011, it’s probably due for a revised edition. I hope Hutchinson finds a new publisher who can do a better job with the title (and the cover design).

One person found this helpful

Helpful

-A.Top Contributor: Fountain Pens

i go back to this book again and again

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2013

Verified Purchase

As a beginning exerciser, this book had most of the issues discussed in researching fitness from various sources. Id read or learn information somewhere and instead of facts, which are actually pretty hard to find in fitness reading, id find a lot of conflicting bits and pieces. Id have a question, and find lots of products but not much about how my body works or why id have a particular experience. This book is like a literature review of scientific studies done on all those little and not so little questions and debates about fitness and exercise. The author gives this bit, then that bit, from each study of a topic, and then gives an overview of the answer, with a lot of "it depends on the situation" yet still with specific conclusions and answers. Which is GOOD.

So, as i progress in my own training and have a question, and i keep reviewing different parts of the book when i remember a topic in it that suddenly has a relevance. And the chapters have specific information but really are a compass to help navigate a lot of information out there that is conflicting and confusing and often just out there to sucker you into buying a product. This book had a range of information, citations if you want to go further into something, was fun and interesting to read, and really well presented. Totally worthwhile. If you like the kindle sample, buy the book, i was not disappointed with the rest of the book.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

A. Delbosc

A handy little guide to common questions about exercise

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2012

Verified Purchase

I've only recently started to take exercise more seriously, so I came to this book as an amateur not an athlete. Some of the advice is very much oriented to the more elite athletes hoping to squeeze something extra out of their workout regimes. But there was more than enough in this book to keep me thinking and even change a few things about my routine. Perhaps elite athletes will find some of the basics 'obvious,' but I found it very useful to learn about the role of warm-ups, static stretching and dynamic stretching; whether or not to mix up cardio and weights; just how much weight you should be lifting; just how much you should push yourself in cardio; whether there really is a 'fat burning zone.'

The book is very well-written and even the chapters that weren't directly relevant to me were interesting to read. I appreciated the author's attitude - if the research isn't clear about something, he's not afraid to say we don't know!

One comment on the Kindle edition: looking at the Amazon previews, it appears that the printed edition has some inset fact boxes. They aren't highlighted as such on the Kindle, so sometimes the text skips to something slightly unrelated then back into the main text. It didn't happen often but it was confusing the first few times. The images replicated just fine, though.

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

read this first!

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2013

Verified Purchase

The volume of fluff, bad information, marketing hype, and flat lies in the health and fitness industry is overwhelming for the average person. You can't tell whether the latest "hype your metabolism" or "fat busting DVD" will really work or even really matters. high carb? paleo? What do I eat? cardio or weights? blah blah blah blah blah. They want your dollar and they don't care whether they're helping you or not.

So spend your first fitness dollar here - because this guy has looked at the evidence, and will save you a ton of work and misunderstanding.

This isn't the book for finding a beginner running routine, and it doesn't have a list of workouts and exercises. but it WILL tell you which approaches actually have some science behind them and which ones are just myth. Read it, keep it on your Kindle, and use it before you spend your fitness dollars on fat burning pills and exercise equipment. He'll help you figure out what works, what doesn't, and most important, why.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Physioz (Sports Physio - Australia)

Busts Popular Exercise Mythology

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

As a Sports Physio, I get into discussions regarding many of the topics covered in this book -it's absolutely brilliant for busting many of the prevailing myths/folklore you'll encounter in the gym, at the track or even in the pub when people get to discussing exercising. Unlike the plethora of websites (and books) peddling the particular author's own opinion, usually backed up by some pseudo-scientific study (studies), this book is 'evidence-based' insofar as there is 'evidence'. Where the science is inconclusive, or even absent, the author is honest enough to say so. So NO your muscles don't get stiff from lactic acid; and YES runners are less likely to suffer osteo-arthritic knees than non-runners. If you have even a passing interest in exercise (as an exerciser or purely for information) this book is worth every penny.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Pjm

Nice

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

Fantastic book. I wish all authors could be this clear and concise. The information contained in it I suspect the target audience is for novice individuals embarking upon physical fitness. Although I think even expert trainers can learn from this book. It's current, relevant, and packed full of good stuff regarding physical fitness training in a healthy way.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Jeremy Bee

Some valuable insights but bitty and very focused on endurance sports

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

This deals with a lot of recent sports research in a very accessible manner. In some ways it's too accessible, since the author rarely discusses experiments in detail, and a lot depends on whether you think the author is authorative. I did, on balance, but I could be wrong. Because of the nature of the book - it clearly started life as brief newspaper columns - it also doesn't always make links between different areas of research and I
think many of the key takeaways will already be familiar to people who take even a passing interest in exercise (the move away from static stretching; the idea that you do need to do some strength training regardless of your main sport; the notion that the amount of sleep affects athletic performance)

By far the biggest problem for me, though, was the overwhelming bias towards endurance sports, and running in particular. I don't think this is entirely the author's fault. It is far easier to do good quantative science work with clear output variables (faster or further?) than with the messier, correlational world of multidimensional sports requiring different physical attributes, and I am sure the book reflects an unavoidable bias in sports science. Nevertheless, the author, a runner himself, barely considers a broader range of sports. Rowing and cycling (as endurance sports) are discussed several times, but often to support other studies on running. The demands of the world's most popular team sports however are barely touched on - there's a brief discussion of how football and basketball needing both endurance and speed (no shit!) but few practical tips about how to apply the science to amateur training - unlike the wealth of advice for runners of all levels. Coverage of other sports is even worse. Tennis and other racquet sports are barely mentioned and my own sport (martial arts) is not mentioned at all outside of a brief discussion of weight cutting - the author has little to say about these sports save generalities about diet, sleep, and recovery. Even discussions of core strength and skill acquisition (far more important in virtually any sport other than running) eventually return to takeaway points - for runners.

That's not to say it is a bad book, necessarily. Whatever sport or exercise you're doing, if you're relatively new and want to build on scientifically solid principles, you will find some of the advice applicable (and even motivational- he's unquestionably good on the general health benefits of exercise) and runners will find a lot of targeted advice regardless of their level - this is also useful for anyone looking to include aerobic exercise in their general training. Unfortunately, more serious athletes in strength or skill based sports may, like me, end up wishing the author was as interested in these areas as he is in running.

6 people found this helpful

MikeHotel

High quality information presented in a very good Q&A format

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2015

Verified Purchase

If you're looking for an instructional guide then you will be better served elsewhere. Instead, what this book does is take a series of questions we've probably all asked at some stage and presents a comprehensive answer to each in plain English.

If you've ever ventured online for sports science information and advice then you'll probably agree the wheat to chaff ratio is very poor. By contrast the references section at the back of this book is 36 pages long.

You can get a very good idea of what the book is like by reading the preview pages on Amazon. This is one of those books you can read cover to cover and then keep on the shelf as a reference. Highly recommended.

10 people found this helpful

S. Padazis

Excellent review of the studies of scports science by a read scientist (Physics PhD and all)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

In his book excellent book, Alex tries to answer all the qusestions about training using ONLY the scientific evidence. Some of the myths you might have heard in the field, in the track and in the gym will be debunked. Highly recommended if you are serious about training.

One person found this helpful

champion the wonder horse

good book. interesting read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Well worth a read. Q & A format and pulling together a lot of sources (the references take up quite a lot of space at the end!).

Confirmed some of the things I've noticed; and gave me some useful info on areas where I've been going wrong.

An easy read too. Anyone doing any amount of fitness should find something of interest here.

One person found this helpful

Bluebell

Great book. One to keep

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 16, 2016

Verified Purchase

I'm finding this an invaluable book. It's good to have the facts laid out for you with no agenda. It's a book I think I will be going to for years.

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Which Comes First, Cardio or Weights?: Fitness Myths, Training Truths, and Other Surprising Discoveries from the Science of Exercise Paperback – Illustrated, May 24, 2011

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