Should You Do Cardio Before or After Weights? What Science Says About Fat Loss and Muscle Gain

Workouts that feature both aerobic exercise and resistance training can be effective at targeting multiple muscle groups in one sweat session, making you a more well-rounded athlete. But a big question with hybrid training is, should you do cardio before or after lifting weights?

A lot depends on your goals, like whether you’re focused on fat loss, muscle gain or performance. You may even want to consider a two-a-day workout, where you do a full workout in the morning and then another full workout later in the day. Whether or not this is doable for you would largely depend on other factors, such as your schedule, fitness level and exercise preferences.

Perhaps the most suitable option may be to do strength training and cardio workouts on alternate days. However you fit these workouts into your schedule, it's important that you engage in both on a regular basis.

• Lift weights before cardio for strength or muscle gain.
• Do cardio first if endurance is your priority.
• For fat loss, total weekly volume and consistency matter more than order.
• Doing cardio and lifting on the same day is effective if you manage intensity and recovery.
• Splitting cardio and lifting into separate days may improve explosive strength and recovery.

Aerobic exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness, which is the ability of your heart and lungs to send oxygen to your muscles for energy. Resistance training, on the other hand, helps to build muscle mass and improve strength. This type of exercise also puts good stress on bones, helping to prevent bone loss by building stronger and denser bones.

When both aerobic exercise and resistance training are part of a regular exercise regimen, the benefits add up. Research published in a 2022 issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that meeting the physical activity recommendations for both aerobic exercise and resistance exercise is associated with up to a 41% lower risk of dying early, compared to sedentary adults.

For context, the recommendation for aerobic exercise is at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity or at least 75 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. For resistance exercise, it's two days per week, targeting all major muscle groups.

Examples of aerobic training include:

• Power walking
• Cycling
• Jogging and running
• Rowing
• HIIT

Examples of strength workouts include:

• Bodyweight exercises
• Lifting weights
• Using resistance bands
• Using weight machines

Depending on your goals, you might want to space out your cardio and weight training. Doing strength and cardio together can undermine your gains, because cardio is a catabolic process and strength training is an anabolic process. This means that cardio breaks down molecules like proteins and lipids for energy, while strength training builds larger, more complex molecules from smaller molecules. Essentially, you can’t burn molecules and build them up at the same time.

One meta-analysis, published in a 2022 issue of Sports Medicine, discovered that while doing both cardio and strength training in a single session did not interfere with muscle growth or improvements in strength, it did reduce measures of explosive strength. This refers to a person’s ability to exert maximum force in the shortest amount of time. By comparison, general strength is your overall muscular strength. Not everyone needs to maximise explosive strength, though. This is mainly a concern for people in sports that require fast acceleration or quick changes of direction, like in sprinting, football, basketball and American football.

But there are plenty of reasons to combine these two forms of exercise, including becoming a more well-rounded athlete.

For fat loss, total calorie burn and workout adherence matter more than the order of your exercise routine. However, lifting first may help preserve muscle mass while you drop fat. Research shows that the more muscle mass you have, the higher your resting metabolic rate, or the number of calories your body burns at rest.

"Most of the time, doing cardio after weights will be more beneficial than an approach where you do cardio first", said Chris Travis, N.A.S.M. CPT. That’s because cardio – a run, an indoor cycling class, HIIT, circuit work – increases your heart and respiratory rate and, simply put, can be quite tiring. You don’t want to be wiped out heading into weight training, Travis said. In other words, you don’t want to lose the impact that weight training can have.

"If you're combining the two into one session, generally speaking, lift first and do cardio second", said Enja Schenck, MS, CSCS. In fact, research has shown that doing strength work prior to endurance training allows you to lift heavier weights (thus improving strength over time), compared to doing cardio before strength work. That same research also concluded that when strength work was done before cardio, it did not impair potential gains from the cardio work.

One more thing to consider: Lifting while feeling fatigued may negatively affect form and increase the risk of injury.

It depends. Prolonged or high-intensity cardio before lifting weights may limit your strength output. However, a short cardio warm-up before strength training can be beneficial, Travis said.

Consider spending five to seven minutes doing one of the following movements before starting cardio.

• Rowing
• Riding a bike
• Jogging on the treadmill
• Walking

Warming up with gentle cardio raises your body temperature and fires up the muscles you're about to use without causing fatigue, Travis explained. Simply put, a short cardio session prepares the body for the hard work ahead.

If cardio endurance is your goal, cardio training should come first. This allows you to focus your energy on pushing your aerobic capacity through exercises focused on running, cycling and swimming, while still leaving room for strength training.

Summary:

• Build muscle or get stronger: Lift first
• Train for an endurance race: Cardio first
• General fitness: Whichever you'll stick with
• Limited time: Combine cardio and lifting in one session, prioritising your main goal first

The right shoe for workouts that combine cardio and strength training is different from the ideal footwear for cardio-only and heavy lifting sessions. If running is your cardio of choice, you need a shoe that provides cushioning. For strength training, you want stability. If you're doing both in one hybrid session, you need the best of both worlds – something that is stable enough for lifting but has enough cushion and flexibility for fast-paced movements or short sprints.

The Nike Free Metcon 7 is a versatile shoe that balances stability and flexibility to support your workout needs across HIIT, light lifting sessions and sprints.