Should You Do Cardio Before or After Weights?

Whether you’re an avid runner who’s just learning the difference between a barbell and a dumbbell, or a weightlifting powerhouse who wants to try running, there’s an important question that arises when you’re combining cardio and strength into your workout routine. Should you do cardio before or after weights? 

The answer depends on your goals – and each workout design has its advantages. Let’s get into the details.

Should You Do Cardio Before or After Weights? Initial Questions

These questions should guide your approach to the question of cardio before or after weights: 

1. What’s most important for you to achieve or improve? As a rule of thumb, put your fitness priority first in your workout.
2. Do you have any challenges or safety concerns? If either of your cardio or weights exercises are new or unfamiliar, it’s a safer choice to do the more challenging part of your workout when your muscles are freshest.
3. What’s most practical and sustainable? The best exercise routine is the one you stick to. If there’s a way of doing things that feels right, mentally or physically, then listen to that and take it into account.
4. What kind of cardio and weight training workouts do you have planned? You might want to do the more strenuous task first – or last, depending on what you are looking to achieve.

With those principles in mind, here are some more specifics to consider about whether to start with cardio or weights.

What Are the Benefits of Cardio Before Weights?

Here’s what you may gain when you hit the cardio portion of your workout before you do your strength training. These benefits also depend on each individual, as well as how much cardio you’re doing, and for what purpose. 

• The Cardio Warmup: Getting your blood flowing and warming up muscles will help them get to work when it comes to strength training. So it can be a good idea to warm up for 5-10 minutes doing some form of cardio exercise to get your workout started.
• Better Focus on Endurance Training: If your passion and priority lie with your endurance training, whether that’s cycling, swimming, or trail running, then put it first.
• If Running is Harder, Do It First: Again, the most important thing about any exercise routine is that you stick with it. If you’re liable to skip running after a tiring workout in the weight room, then run first and get it out of the way. You don’t want to be dreading it any longer than you have to. 

In general, if you’re not lifting heavy weights or making it a top priority in your workout routine, it’s okay to leave them for after your cardio workout. But if building strength is a significant goal, it may need to take precedence. Here are some more to think about. 

What Are the Benefits of Cardio After Weights?

When you finish your workout with cardio, you’re giving your body’s best energy to strength training. And that has some substantial benefits, including:

• Safer Lifting: If you’re new to weights or have any safety concerns, lifting when your body’s freshest and your muscles and focus are sharp can be less risky.
• Lift With More Strength: When you lift before you’ve spent a lot of your body’s energy on cardio, you’ll be stronger and more likely to level up in weights. If you’d rather get stronger than faster at this part of your training, then put weights up front in your workout.
• Weights Won’t Feel As Heavy: Lifting while tired can be miserable. You may find to maximize your enjoyment in the weight room–and to be sure you’ll do it–try doing weights before cardio. 

Again, your safety, comfort, and enjoyment of exercise is critical to how you design your workouts. 

You may also choose certain days that give emphasis to each activity. For example, if you’re a road or trail racer who does easy runs along with long runs and tempo workouts, you may do strength training before your easy runs but after a tempo workout or speed training session.  

Altra Shoes Designed for Cardio and Weightlifting

If you need an all-in-one shoe for running and lifting, you’ve come to the right place. Most running shoes are not the ideal shoe for weightlifting – but most running shoes aren’t made with The Altra Fit.

Our shoes have two key elements. The first is a roomy toe box that allows your digits to fully spread out. That’s helpful for unlocking your natural stride while running. But it can also better for balance when you’re lowering into a squat.

Second is our Zero-to-Low Drop design. This means there’s little or no distance between your heel and your toes. In other words, you’re flat on the ground. This can help with more functional movement while running, and offer a sound weight distribution for lifting.

Altra has gym training shoes for men and women, including our Escalante 5. With a low cushion, you can squat close to the ground on a plane that’s parallel to the floor.

While you’re deciding if you should do cardio before or after weights, make sure you have the right shoes for the job. Altra Running has you covered.