Cardio or strength, strength or cardio: It can become a chicken or the egg type question if you ask anyone who is even remotely into health and fitness.

The good news is, there really is no right or wrong answer about whether to do cardio or strength first when you do a workout. 

However, depending on your goals, choosing cardio or strength to do first can have an impact, so it’s helpful to know some of the science behind your options. 

Some fitness professionals may suggest their clients do cardio AFTER strength training, due to the idea that you’ll use most of your energy doing cardiovascular work and not be able to fully achieve your goals for strength training. However, doing strength work will burn energy too, meaning you may have less energy for your cardio. 

So, when you are making the choice of cardio or strength, it is a great idea to assess your goals – and then choose.

If you are trying to increase aerobic endurance, it’s best to do cardio first. If you are trying to gain muscle strength and hypertrophy (increase in muscle size), it’s best to do strength training first. This line of thought is based on doing the training that is most important to your overall goals and mission first before you are tired. That said, strength training can have a strong cardiovascular component (e.g., HIIT training and metabolic conditioning) so don’t assume that you won’t also be achieving an aerobic endurance goal by lifting weights, depending on your approach. And cardiovascular activities (e.g., sprinting of any kind, burpees) can actually be anaerobic if the exercise is done at a high level of exertion for only a short amount of time (See a future blog post for more on that!) 

At the end of the day, if your fitness goal is just to be active and healthy, then it really doesn’t matter what you do – so do the exercise you enjoy the most first, when you are fresh and ready for it. 

When it comes to exercise – and overall health and fitness – the most important thing you can bring to your workouts is consistency. Like anything, if you don’t enjoy what you do, you won’t keep doing it and if you don’t keep doing it, you can’t reap the benefits!

The bottom line is this: When you do what you love and it feels good and natural to you, it is the right choice for you. Some people love strength training, some love cardio. Some people are training for marathons; others want to just keep active and healthy well into their golden years. 

All of these goals are good and admirable, so try not to stress too hard about doing what is “right” or “correct.” Just keep moving!

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our clients in establishing healthy movement patterns that help maintain strength, flexibility, and mobility. If you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.