🏃♂️ When Should You Do Cardio? Before or After Weights? 💪
This is one of the most common fitness questions I get:
👉 “Should I do cardio before or after strength training?”
The short answer? 9 times out of 10, AFTER weights or on a separate day! 🏋️♂️🔥
💡 Why Should You Do Cardio AFTER Strength Training?
For most people, the goal is to build strength, muscle, and overall fitness while staying lean. To do that, strength training should come first for a few key reasons:
✅ Maximizes Energy for Lifting – You need stored glycogen (your body’s fuel) to lift heavy and progressively overload. If you burn that energy during cardio first, your lifts will suffer. 🏋️♂️❌
✅ Better Strength Gains – If your goal is to build muscle, you want to train with intensity. Doing cardio first will leave you fatigued, making heavy lifts much harder.
✅ Improves Fat Burning – Strength training first depletes glycogen, so when you do cardio after, your body is more likely to burn fat for energy instead of carbs. 🔥
🚀 The Best Ways to Structure Cardio & Weights
1️⃣ Ideal Setup: Cardio on a Separate Day
✔️ If possible, do cardio & weights on different days to give your body time to recover.
💡 Example:
🏋️♂️ Monday – Strength Training
🏃♀️ Tuesday – Cardio
🏋️♂️ Wednesday – Strength Training
🏃♀️ Thursday – Cardio
2️⃣ Strength First, Then Cardio (If You Have to Do Both)
✔️ Warm-up with 5-10 mins of light cardio (walk, jump rope, or cycling).
✔️ Lift weights with full energy & intensity.
✔️ Finish with cardio (LISS or moderate-intensity preferred).
💡 Example:
🏋️♂️ Strength Training: Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press
🏃♀️ Cardio: 20-30 min incline walk or cycling
3️⃣ Fasted Low-Intensity Cardio in the Morning
✔️ If you want to do both in one day, you can do low-intensity cardio (like walking) in the morning and lift weights in the evening after eating.
💡 Example:
☀️ AM – 30 min fasted walk 🏃♂️
🌙 PM – Strength Training 🏋️♀️
⚠️ When to Prioritize Cardio First?
The ONLY time cardio should come first is if cardio performance is your #1 goal – like training for a marathon, triathlon, or endurance event.
In that case:
✔️ Prioritize running, cycling, or endurance training.
✔️ Strength train on separate days or after light cardio.
🔥 Final Thoughts: Lift First, Cardio Later!
✔️ Do cardio AFTER strength training to maximize energy & muscle gains.
✔️ If possible, do cardio & weights on separate days for best results.
✔️ Fasted low-intensity cardio in the morning is an option if you train later in the day.
✔️ Prioritize cardio only if endurance training is your main goal.
💬 When do YOU do cardio? Let me know in the comments & tag a friend who should see this! ⬇️🔥
People focus so much on which burns more calories but this isn’t even the important part. When you focus solely on calories, you’re still focusing on losing weight vs losing fat.
Calorie/energy balance is about weight loss — not fat loss.
The true benefit to strength training is how it forces your body to DISTRIBUTE that energy. A good lift puts your body into a state where it knows it needs to send nutrients to the muscles.
Think of it this way:
When you lift weights or aim to get stronger while you’re in a calorie deficit — however you create that deficit — you’re essentially telling your body:
“Hey, um, I know you need energy because you’re not getting enough from food, but we’re doing these deadlifts and trying to do chin ups, so you’re gonna have to take fat for energy because I clearly need the muscle.”
Without any fancy words, that is basically what’s happening. Weight training and protein signals to your body the muscle has to stay. Your body isn’t dumb, it does what it needs to do to support your body’s environment and needs.
But if all you do is cardio your body will eventually decide that muscle can go along with the fat.
And if that happens, you aren’t getting leaner — just smaller.
And that’s not what you signed up for right?
So no, I don’t have a problem with cardio. I just have science and a simple way to explain that cardio alone isn’t gonna help get you get lean.
By all means, you can do just cardio and lose fat — but eventually it’ll come with losing muscle. And if you just like cardio? Go for it.
HOW TO GET LEAN DOING LESS CARDIO
Hear me out. This post is NOT hating on cardio.
While there were many years that I was the quintessential cardio bunny, spending the majority of my time on the step mill or treadmill, there was also a time not too long ago where I swore off cardio completely, believing it would make me lose all of my hard earned muscle.
These days, my stance is a little more neutral.
I definitely believe moderate amounts of cardio has it’s place in a well rounded exercise program. It’s good for your heart (v important), can help with recovery, and many people like the way it makes them feel.
BUT. And this is a very strong but…If your goal is to improve the look of your physique, it isn’t the most useful tool. Think of it more as the icing on the cake. Something you add in either because you 1) legit like to do it, or 2) You want to burn more calories without having to eat less food.
If your main goal is to have a lean, toned physique, you’d be far better off prioritizing the following:
Eating in a calorie deficit to burn most of your body fat.
Strength training to help build or maintain your muscle and create the sexy silhouette.
Prioritizing protein for muscle building/maintenance and keeping you full.
Burning more calories by walking more and increasing your non exercise activity.
Being consistent and staying patient
Fat loss doesn’t happen overnight. And the more you try to cardio your way there, the worse off you will likely be.
A few other cardio considerations…
It’s time consuming! Most of the clients I work with don’t have extra hours in the day to devote to exercise. They need the minimal effective dose that will get them results in the least amount of time. And you do that by strength training and eating fewer calories.
Over doing it can increase hunger, decrease thyroid hormone, make you lose muscle, and lead to overuse injuries.
The Best Time to Do Cardio
The great debate on when to do cardio! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The reality is, it depends on your ultimate goal. If you’re looking for more cardiovascular endurance. You can put a bigger focus on it. It may also be better to do prior to weights. However you still should not eliminate weight training. It will actually help you especially with the muscular endurance.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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If fat loss is your goal, the best time to do cardio would be after your weight training session. This way your glycogen stores are already being mobilized and you’ll be burning more fat. The best for fat burning is to actually combine weights and cardio together. .⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
So if you’re like me you don’t do traditional cardio ever. ? I just lift weights faster! But in all seriousness, I do more of the metabolic conditioning after my strength sessions for my cardio.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The benefits are unbelievable and great for your heart as well. So no matter what you choose, it’s important to do something.
This question still gets asked all the time when should I do cardio? So here’s a little repost I did at the beginning of the year.⠀
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Firstly, cardio can be in any form. Not just jumping on a treadmill for 20 minutes, it could be boxing for 1hr it could be going for a walk with the dog, it could be running around like a dickhead at F45 For 45 minutes.⠀
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Either way cardio is cardio in my eyes it all is dependant on your goal.⠀
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The general rule I give to people is prioritise it around you specific goal.⠀
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If your goal is to run a marathon or some type of endurance competition, then cardio may be a priority on a given day.⠀
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Likewise, if your goal is to get strong and increase your muscle mass then strength training is your priority and use cardio as a supplement for recovery.⠀
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If you are wondering when is it the best time to burn fat neither. Focus should be around creating a negative energy balance (calorie deficit) whether you do it before or after strength training it won’t matter if you’re in an energy surplus. You won’t lose fat. It just compliments the calorie deficit you are trying to create.⠀
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Overall cardio is very important for your cardiovascular system, overall health and can help with recovery via the EPOC effect ;). So do it whenever you feel happiest doing it. Just don’t think cardio is magic, like anything prioritise everything towards your goal so you give yourself as much chance of reaching that goal you can.⠀
