Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Health & Fitness

Should you do cardio before or after weights? The answer depends on your goals

Yes, the order of your workouts matters

By
push press exercise man lifting weight over head in gym
Victor Freitas / Unsplash

Fitness centers and gyms are full of equipment that can quickly become overwhelming, especially if you’re new to working out. Standard “cardio” equipment like treadmills and stair masters are great for working up a sweat and getting your heart rate up. Yet, weight machines and free weights for resistance training are excellent choices for building strength and gaining muscle mass.

Each of these varieties of workout equipment offers unique benefits and can be incorporated into a well-rounded and balanced fitness routine. But which should you do first? Should you do cardio before or after weights? The answer depends on your current fitness goals.

Recommended Videos

Should you do cardio before or after weights?

Person in shorts and tennis shoes walking on treadmill
Pixabay

Before you can determine which gym equipment to head to first in your gym session, it’s important to acknowledge your current fitness goals. For example, endurance athletes or those looking to improve cardio fitness are likely to have a fitness routine that is more cardio-based and includes activities such as running or cycling. While this doesn’t mean these athletes aren’t also interested in building strength or enhancing their muscle size, their primary fitness goal is based on improving cardiovascular endurance.

Tough workouts require reliable gear that is suitably stretchy and comfortable. That kind of apparel leaves you plenty of room to maneuver, yet it’s put together well enough to last and keep you looking great. A top contender in that realm is Lululemon with its exceptional variety of active and technical apparel. It’s forever fresh, to complete your look, but flexible and cozy to keep you moving, happy, and fulfilled. Come check out your next favorite workout outfit. You won’t regret it.

On the other hand, bodybuilders or gym-goers looking to pack on muscle mass tend to have a more strength-focused fitness routine. Again, this group of people may still do cardio but are more focused on building lean muscle mass instead of a goal of fat loss.

Related

To effectively determine if you should do cardio before or after weights, consider your primary goals for your health and body composition. Your main goal should be the exercise you tackle first when hitting the gym, and it will consume more of your time and energy.

Doing cardio before weightlifting

a man on a treadmill
William Choquette / Pexels

Doing cardio exercises (such as walking, running, cycling, etc) before weightlifting is important for those who are focused on enhancing their cardiovascular fitness. For example, marathon runners who want to improve endurance, speed, and performance should perform cardio while they’re most energetic. Heading to lift weights before cardio can leave you feeling tired and unable to continue to perform as you’d like to. The research also supported this concept, which found that athletes who lifted before cardio had a higher heart rate during the cardio exercise. The increased heart rate affected their ability to maintain ideal paces while running.

Adding weightlifting sessions into your gym routine is still important to lower your risk of injury and keep your body strong. Cardio-focused athletes should aim for two to three lifting sessions per week, performed after cardio.

Doing cardio after weightlifting

man wearing black shirt laying on bench in gym lifting weights
Shoham Avisrur / Unsplash

Lifting weights before cardio is the best bet for most average gym-goers looking to burn fat or gain muscle mass. In a 2019 study, researchers found that performing cardio after weight lifting burned more fat in the first 15 minutes of the cardio session vs. doing cardio before lifting. Although outdated fitness trends once focused on cardio-heavy workouts for weight loss, experts today agree that a combination of a weightlifting and cardio training plan produces the best results for body recomposition.

If your goal is to build muscle and increase strength, you’ll also want to hit the weight rack before doing any cardio. During a weight training session, your body uses the stored glycogen in your muscles for fuel and energy. If you were to get into an intense cardio session before lifting, your body’s glycogen stores may be depleted by the time you get to your lift. As a result, your depleted muscles could affect your performance and impair your ability to crush your lift. With this in mind, it’s best to do cardio after lifting if your primary goal is to gain muscle mass.

Incorporating cardio vs. strength training into your routine

Aerobic cardio gym equipment.
Anna Tis / Pexels

The question of “should you do cardio before or after weights?” will result in a different answer depending on your fitness goals. However, experts agree on one thing — it’s not a matter of one vs. the other. Regardless of your short-term fitness goals, adding cardiovascular and strength training into your routine is best for the long term. As your goals change naturally over time, your fitness routine can easily be adapted to do cardio before weightlifting or vice versa.

Strength training is important to keep your bones strong and stay strong and mobile as you age. On the other hand, cardio exercise is vital for keeping your heart healthy, strengthening your immune system, and supporting your mental wellness. Creating a gym schedule that involves exercises you enjoy and a mix of both cardio and strength training can help you boost your overall health and wellness, both in the short and long term.

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Emily Caldwell
Emily Caldwell
Contributor
Emily is an accomplished freelance journalist with over seven years of experience in food, beverage, health, fitness, and…
Does working out too close to bedtime affect your sleep quality? Study finds out
Could there be a negative side to exercising later in the evening?
kettlebell at sunset next to fence workout

Sometimes, later in the evening seems to be the only or the best time to work out. Maybe the daytime tangled you up with responsibilities, and now it’s dark outside, and instead of putting on your pajamas, you’re lacing up your sneakers. As the old adage goes, ‘Any exercise is better than no exercise,’ and getting your muscles moving provides numerous health benefits, from lowering your blood pressure to boosting your mood and cardiovascular fitness. 

However, some question whether working out too close to bedtime negatively affects sleep quality. Could there be a downside to getting your fitness in and those endorphins flowing later in the day? Researchers set out to explore these questions in a recent study. 
The study

Read more
Jumpstart your new year fitness goals with TikTok’s viral Winter Arc challenge
Now is the season to prioritize and improve your athletic performance
man running wearing hoodie outside two shirts

It’s the same story every January; the gym is bursting with people eager to fulfill their new year’s fitness resolutions. Before that, in the months leading up to the holidays, people tend to kick back a little and slow down with their training routines. You can start that weekly run, swim, or circuit class after the new year. 'New year, new you' is often the echoed phrase. TikTok’s viral Winter Arc challenge is switching things up and encouraging people to pick up the pace sooner. Let’s look at the Winter Arc challenge and top tips to help you get ahead with your fitness goals.
The latest trending TikTok fitness challenge

‘Winter Arc’ is a 90-day challenge trending on TikTok where you use the last three months of the year to focus on health and fitness objectives and personal development, such as joining a running club, improving your nutrition, or starting a five-day workout plan. Instead of the fall being leisurely time off or a time to sink into your couch and hibernate with a warm beverage, this challenge looks at the holidays as a time to jumpstart your health and fitness goals. The only rule is that you must stay consistent and disciplined to make noticeable progress by the new year.
The idea behind the Winter Arc

Read more
Sculpt your upper back with dead hangs: The ultimate guide
Decompress your spine and carve upper body muscle with this simple, effective exercise.
Man doing hanging hold or dead hang exercises

The dead hang is not as gruesome as the name sounds; it is essentially the bottom part of the pull-up, where you hang from the bar to build muscular endurance and strength. It’s a killer move for improving your grip strength, stretching and strengthening your upper body, and more. You can master dead hangs to help you achieve a pull-up and improve your performance. Pull-ups are a challenging move that requires you to lift your entire body using only your arms, and dead hangs are a perfect stepping stone to help you get there. Read on for everything you need to know about dead hangs.
What are dead hangs?

The actual execution of a dead hang is fairly simple: all you do is hang from a pull-up bar or another sturdy object that can support your body weight and just hold that pose with your arms fully extended and your feet lifted off the ground. Fitness enthusiasts will often use hanging bar exercises like the dead hang to help stretch and strengthen the upper body. If you spend hours sitting at a desk or doing other activities that result in you rounding your spine, dead hangs work extremely well to lengthen those muscles while also fostering strength and stamina. 
What are the benefits of dead hangs?

Read more