Should you do cardio before or after lifting weights?
When deciding whether to do cardio before or after lifting weights, it's important to recognize that both forms of exercise are crucial for overall health. The American Cancer Society's guidelines emphasize the importance of regular physical activity for disease prevention [1], while brisk walking, a common cardio activity, can help increase moderate-to-vigorous activity bouts [2]. On the strength side, muscle-strengthening activities are particularly beneficial, yet women tend to engage in them less than men [3]. People today want to remain active as they age [4], and the optimal order of cardio and weights ultimately depends on your specific goals, such as improving cardiovascular endurance or maximizing strength gains. While the evidence doesn't provide a definitive answer on sequencing, it underscores the value of incorporating both into your routine.
Practical Playbook
Identify your primary goal first
Want bigger legs? Lead with squats, deadlifts. Drop your glycogen on the treadmill first and your heavy sets will suffer, reps drop 15-20% in some studies. Cardio before lifting crushes peak power output. If fat loss is the target, order matters less than total volume and protein intake.
What happens if you run before you lift?
Your legs get shaky on the bench press. Not ideal. One study from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning found barbell squat 1RM decreased 8% after a 30-minute run. The nervous system’s fried. If you must do both in one session, keep the run under 20 minutes and moderate intensity, no intervals.
Try a split-session approach if performance matters
Do morning cardio, afternoon lift. Or reverse. You’ll get the best of both worlds without the tradeoff. I’ve seen people add 10 kg to their deadlift just by separating them by 6 hours. Log both workouts in Dorsi to track cumulative load across the day, it adjusts your readiness score automatically.
Skip cardio before heavy leg day
You need every ounce of energy for compound movements like squats and leg press. Pre-lift cardio drains your fuel tank. Save it for after, your legs will be pumped already from the weights, so a 20-minute incline walk afterward feels like a finisher. Your recovery won't suffer as much either.
Common Mistakes
- Mistake
- Starting every workout with 20 minutes of running, then lifting lighter because you're already winded.
- Why
- This pre-exhaustion reduces your max effort on compound lifts, which means less strength stimulus over time.
- Fix
- If your primary goal is strength, do weights first, your nervous system is freshest. Reserve cardio for after or on separate days.
- Mistake
- Pounding the treadmill for 45 minutes after heavy deadlifts, turning your cool-down into a second workout.
- Why
- That extra volume taxes recovery and can increase injury risk when your form is already slipping from fatigue.
- Fix
- Keep post-lifting cardio low intensity (brisk walk, incline walk) and under 20 minutes. Save the tempo runs for upper-body or rest days.
- Mistake
- Never doing both in the same session because you read somewhere that they 'interfere' with each other.
- Why
- The interference effect is real but overstated for most people, it mainly matters for elite athletes training for both power and endurance simultaneously. For general fitness, combined sessions are fine.
- Fix
- If you only have 45 minutes, alternate between weight days and cardio days rather than skipping one entirely. Or do a superset-style circuit that blends both.
- Mistake
- Doing intense cardio right before squats or deadlifts, then wondering why your lower back gives out early.
- Why
- Running or cycling pre-fatigues your legs and core, which are the foundation for those lifts. You're essentially squatting with a tired engine.
- Fix
- Keep pre-lifting cardio warm-up (5-10 minutes light jog or bike) and push hard only after you've finished your main strength work.
Frequently asked questions
From the Dorsi blog
Sources we drew from
- 1
Lawrence H. Kushi et al. · 2006 · CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians
The American Cancer Society (ACS) publishes Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines to serve as a foundation for its communication, policy, and community strategies and ultimately, to affect dietary and physical activity patterns among…
- 2
Tess Harris et al. · 2015 · PLoS Medicine
BACKGROUND: Brisk walking in older people can increase step-counts and moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) in ≥10-minute bouts, as advised in World Health Organization guidelines.
- 3How women engage in muscle-strengthening exercises: a qualitative study from the WISH project.Peer-reviewed
Rosaini ND et al. · 2026 · BMC public health
BACKGROUND: While the benefits of muscle-strengthening activities are well established, national surveillance data suggest that women do fewer muscle-strengthening activities than men.
- 4
Suzanne Witjes et al. · 2016 · Sports Medicine
BACKGROUND: People today are living longer and want to remain active.
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