Cardio or Weights First? The Best Workout Order
Want to maximize your fitness results? It's all about workout order! I’m sharing three key points to help you decide whether to do strength training before or after cardio. We'll cover muscle fatigue, understanding the energy systems, and how to balance strength and cardio for your specific goals.
Hi friends, welcome. If you’re new here, my name is Dakota. I’m a final-year master's student in exercise science, and I’ve worked in fitness for over 5 years.
Deciding to do strength training before or after cardio wasn't always easy to figure out. This became a big conflict for my own fitness journey when I started training for a half-marathon sometime ago.
I wasn’t sure if I should be doing strength training before or after my cardio. But over the last few years, I’ve worked with a few hundred clients and discovered three key points to consider that can make it easy for you to decide if you should do strength training before or after cardio.
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You’ll have more energy for strength training when your muscles are fresh. This allos you to lift heavier weights and get the most out of your workout. Strength training before running can lead to better muscle growth and development.
There are exceptions. If you primary goal is to improve running endurance, you may want to run first. If you’re already fatigued from a previous workout, it’s okay to run first or skip strength training altogether. The best order is the one that works best for you. Experiment and see which order you prefer.
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Fat loss will be primarily driven by a caloric deficit. However, more muscle means your body burns more caloires all day long, even when you’re resting. This is the long term plan behind weight lifting. Cardio is better for burning more total calories during a workout session, but the calorie burn isn’t as permanent as building muscle long term.
Think of it this way: weights are like building a furnace in your body to burn fat, while cardio is like throwing some extra logs on the fire. Both help, but the furnace is more efficient in the long run.
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To make the most out of combined cardio, you must identify your main goal. If it’s building strength or muscle, do weights first. If it’s improving your running or cycling endurance, do cardio first.
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The order of a workout generally goes like this: warm-up, strength training, cardio, and cool-down. Strength training and cardio will sometimes be switched depending on the goal you have. Generally, if you are doing strength training and cardio together, it’s best to do strength training first. This is because you’ll have more energy to lift weight when your muscles are fresh.
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Rest days are an important things to plan and organize into any training program. Most people should aim for 1 to 3 rest days weekly. It will depend on a few things:
How intense are your workouts?
What kind of workouts are you doing?
What’s your fitness level?
What are your goals?
References
Schumann, M., Feuerbacher, J. F., Sünkeler, M., Freitag, N., Rønnestad, B. R., Doma, K., & Lundberg, T. R. (2022). Compatibility of concurrent aerobic and strength training for skeletal muscle size and function: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 52(3), 601–612.
Tan, J., Krasilshchikov, O., Kuan, G., Hashim, H. A., Aldhahi, M. I., Al-Mhanna, S. B., & Badicu, G. (2023). T The effects of combining aerobic and heavy resistance training on body composition, muscle hypertrophy, and exercise satisfaction in physically active adults. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 11(17), 2443.
Thomas, A. C. Q., Brown, A., Hatt, A. A., Manta, K., Costa-Parke, A., Kamal, M., Joanisse, S., McGlory, C., Phillips, S. M., Kumbhare, D., & Parise, G. (2022). Short-term aerobic conditioning prior to resistance training augments muscle hypertrophy and satellite cell content in healthy young men and women. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, 36(9), e22500.
