Lifting vs. Cardio: Do You Need One, the Other, or Both?

• By Josh Vecchio, Certified Personal Trainer at Cambridge Athletic Club

• B.S. In Biology, Minor in Exercise Science

• Contact: joshvecchio@cambridgeathletic.com

• Click HERE to book a complimentary Personal Fitness Evaluation with Josh.

If you only lift or only do cardio, you're leaving some of your health and fitness potential on the table.

Maybe you avoid cardio because you think it will “kill your gains.” Maybe you prioritize cardio for fat loss and assume strength training is only worthwhile if you want bigger muscles.

Perhaps your preference has nothing to do with physiology. You might enjoy lifting but rarely make time for cardio because it’s “boring.” Or you feel comfortable on the elliptical but aren’t sure where to begin with weights.

Whatever your reasoning, strength training and cardio offer unique benefits that complement one another and generally lead to better health and fitness outcomes than either one in isolation.

That's why, for most people seeking better health and well-rounded fitness, a combination of the two deserves a place in your week.

Let’s unpack what each contributes, whether cardio interferes with lifting, and how to implement both into your routine.

Strengths of Strength Training

Fat Loss

I wanted to start with fat loss because a common belief is that cardio is for losing fat and strength training is for gaining muscle.

While cardio does burn calories and is great for overall health, strength training offers a unique fat-loss benefit that cardio can't deliver at the same level: building muscle.

Why does that matter for fat loss?

Because having more muscle mass increases your basal metabolic rate (the number of calories your body burns at rest), which is a key driver of sustainable fat loss over the long-term.

Strength training is also valuable when your goal is to lose fat while maintaining strength and improving your physique, because you probably want to lose the fat while keeping (or building) muscle underneath it.

If you’re focused on fat loss, don’t overlook strength training in that equation.

Muscle and Strength

This is the obvious candidate, which is why I put it after fat loss.

With consistent training and gradual progression, your muscles can become stronger and grow larger (3).

Those benefits extend beyond how you look. Carrying groceries, lifting a suitcase, and getting up from a low chair all require strength. Maintaining that capability becomes increasingly important as you age (3).

You don’t need to master every barbell lift to get started. Machines, dumbbells, resistance bands, and bodyweight exercises can all play a role.

Start with movements you can control, learn how to perform them, and gradually increase the challenge.

Bone Density

Strength training doesn't just challenge your muscles. It also loads your bones, providing a stimulus that can help maintain, and sometimes improve, bone mineral density in a way that cardio can't replicate (4).

That becomes particularly important as you age, when declining bone density can increase your vulnerability to fractures.

Weight-bearing cardio activities like running can also benefit bone density, but not to the same extent as strength training with weights, so resistance training is a useful complement (4).

Limitations of Strength Training

You don’t need to lift every day to benefit.

If you're strength training properly, meaning, using the right lifts under the right parameters with enough intensity and effort, two to five strength sessions is all you need.

But depending on the number of days you strength train, that leaves several other days in the week where you're not exercising at all. That's where cardio comes in.

Cardio can fill in the faps on the the days you don’t lift, or alongside your strength sessions, keeping you burning calories through exercise consistently throughout the week.

You'll also derive the unique health benefits cardio offers that conventional lifting doesn't (more on those in a moment).

Another perceived “limitation” of strength training is that it is much easier to do incorrectly than cardio. Hopping on an elliptical and pedalling away is pretty hard to mess up.

A deadlift on the other hand can mess you up, if you mess it up.

But not knowing how to strength train is a poor reason to avoid it.

That would be like avoiding driving because you’ve never learned how to drive. Once you learn, you have another way to get to your destination.

Thankfully, there is a “driver’s ed” equivalent for strength training.

It’s called personal training. And I offer it right here at CAC.

So if you want to derive the health and aesthetic benefits of strength training but you don't know where to start, book a complimentary Personal Fitness Evaluation with me and I'll show you how to implement strength training into your routine.

Strengths of Cardiovascular Training

Before moving forward, we need to define our terms. Cardio includes activities such as brisk walking, cycling, swimming, and running, and these can be performed at different intensities that correspond with different heart rate zones.

For this article, the focus is aerobic cardio: activity that relies substantially on oxygen-dependent energy production at a moderate effort over a sustained period of time (usually 15-60 minutes).

A practical way to define "moderate" intensity is the “talk test”: you should be able talk out loud without gasping, but still be breathing hard. During high intensity activity, you generally cannot say more than a few words without pausing for breath (6).

While lifting can benefit cardiovascular health, getting your heart rate up during a hard set isn’t the same as training your ability to sustain activity.

Cardio develops aerobic fitness, which is defined as your body’s ability to deliver and use oxygen, more directly than conventional strength training (5).

That matters whether you’re running, cycling, playing a sport, climbing stairs, hiking, or keeping up with your kids!

Regular aerobic activity also supports heart health and can help lower blood pressure. Its contribution to energy expenditure can support weight loss too (3).

Does Cardio Blunt Strength Training Results?

All too often, gymgoers looking to maximize muscle growth avoid cardio because they fear it will “kill their gains”(gymbro speak for undermining muscle growth).

To the contrary, research consistently shows that cardiovascular training does not disrupt muscle growth or strength development, provided that cardio is additive and doesn't replace strength training volume (meaning, you're not reducing the number of lifting sessions you perform per week to make room for cardio).

A 2022 review of 43 studies found that adding aerobic exercise to a matched strength-training program did not significantly reduce whole-muscle growth or maximal-strength gains.

None of the variables below influenced the results:

• Type of aerobic training (cycling vs. running).

• When aerobic training was performed (before or after strength training).

• Frequency of aerobic training (> 5 vs. < 5 weekly sessions).

• Training status (untrained vs. active).

• Mean age (< 40 vs. > 40 years).

The review did find a small negative effect on explosive-strength development, particularly when both types of exercise occurred in the same session (7).

Explosive strength is your ability to produce force quickly. It matters for activities like vertical jumps, short sprints, and power cleans.

The translation is that unless you're training to maximize how high you can jump, fast you can sprint, or how much you can olympic lift, cardio isn't going to interfere with the strength training adaptations most people care about: muscle growth and overall strength, especially when cardio and strength training are performed in separate sessions.

Still, pay attention to whether added cardio leaves you too fatigued to perform your lifting well. If explosive performance is a high priority, consider separating demanding cardio and strength work rather than performing both in the same session (7).

What I’ve Noticed Training Others and Myself

In all my experience as a certified personal trainer, I've found that clients who also do some form of cardio outside of strength training (whether they be runners, cyclists, combat sport athletes, crossfitters, squash players, etc) display much strength training performance than those who don't

They don't need to rest as long between sets.

They can perform more reps.

They can make it through an entire session without getting totally exhausted.

They recover better between sessions.

And importantly, they are better at staying focused (which is one of the most overlooked aspects of training), probably because cardio requires a sustained focused effort.

My observation maps onto my own anecdotal training experience as well.

When I stay consistent with cardio, I don't get out of breath as easily, and I recover my breath faster. The “burn” takes longer to show up and subsides faster.

I can do supersets (alternating between two exercises) with less rest in between, making my strength training sessions more efficient.

I also notice that I'm less mentally “shocked” by the intensity of strength training — I can maintain my composure better in the midst of a hard set.

As an aside, if aesthetics are a high priority for you, cardio will absolutely enhance your vascularity (how much your veins show).

To be clear, those are personal observations, rather than proof that cardio produces more muscle growth. Still, they illustrate a practical benefit: aerobic fitness can make the experience of strength training feel more manageable.

Why Both Matter for Long-Term Health

The benefits of combining lifting and cardio extend beyond how you look or perform in the gym.

Longevity research reinforce combining both strength and cardio. In a study following more than 416,000 adults, adding muscle-strengthening exercise to aerobic activity was associated with a lower risk of premature death than aerobic activity alone.

Research also shows that regular exercise of any kind reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and several cancers (3).

Together, strength and cardio support your ability to stay active and capable for life, while helping to protect you against the chronic diseases that are now the leading causes of death in our society.

The practical takeaway: train both your strength and your endurance. Each contributes unique mechanisms that support a broader foundation for long-term health.

How to Combine Cardio and Strength Training

Quick note before we continue: you don’t need to exercise every day, but daily movement is reccomended.

The most important considerations are your total workload, intensity, and recovery. Not every day needs to be a hard training day.

For general health, current guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or an equivalent combination. They also recommend strengthening all major muscle groups on at least two days (10).

If you’re currently doing much less, build toward those amounts gradually. Some activity is better than none.

Here’s one example:

• Monday: 45–60 minutes of full-body strength training.

• Tuesday: 30–60 minutes of moderate cycling.

• Thursday: 45–60 minutes of full-body strength training.

• Saturday: 30–60 minutes of moderate swimming, cycling, or another activity you enjoy.

• Throughout the week: Six 15-minute brisk walks.

That provides 150–210 minutes of aerobic activity, assuming the cardio and walks meet moderate intensity, alongside two strength sessions.

If you already enjoy training six days per week and recover well, here are a few illustrative ways to divide those days:

• Muscle gain: Four days of lifting and two days of cardio.

• Balanced: Three days of lifting and three days of cardio.

• Endurance: Two days of lifting and four days of cardio.

You can also lift and do cardio in the same session. For example, you could do 30 minutes of strength training followed by 30 minutes of cardio. Adjust the duration to your goals, workload, schedule, and recovery.

My practical recommendation is to perform the activity you most want to improve first. If strength is your priority, lift before demanding cardio so fatigue is less likely to compromise your performance.

There isn’t one perfect split for everyone. Choose one that you enjoy, supports your goals, fits your schedule, and allows you to recover adequately.

If you’ve been avoiding either lifting or cardio, start by adding one manageable piece of the missing activity this week.

And if you want help putting the pieces together, book a complimentary Personal Fitness Evaluation with me at CAC. We’ll discuss your goals and training history and identify practical next steps for building a routine that works for you.

References

1. Lopez, P., Taaffe, D. R., Galvão, D. A., Newton, R. U., Nonemacher, E. R., Wendt, V. M., Bassanesi, R. N., Turella, D. J. P., & Rech, A. (2022). Resistance training effectiveness on body composition and body weight outcomes in individuals with overweight and obesity across the lifespan: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity Reviews, 23(5), e13428. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13428

2. MacKenzie-Shalders, K., Kelly, J. T., So, D., Coffey, V. G., & Byrne, N. M. (2020). The effect of exercise interventions on resting metabolic rate: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(14), 1635–1649. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2020.1754716

3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, December 4). Benefits of physical activity. https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/benefits/index.html

4. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. (2023, May). Exercise for your bone health. https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/exercise-your-bone-health

5. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Physical activity guidelines for Americans (2nd ed.). https://health.gov/paguidelines/second-edition/pdf/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf

6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, December 4). How to measure physical activity intensity. https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/measuring/index.html

7. Schumann, M., Feuerbacher, J. F., Sünkeler, M., Freitag, N., Rønnestad, B. R., Doma, K., & Lundberg, T. R. (2022). Compatibility of concurrent aerobic and strength training for skeletal muscle size and function: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 52(3), 601–612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-021-01587-7

8. Lundberg, T. R., Feuerbacher, J. F., Sünkeler, M., & Schumann, M. (2022). The effects of concurrent aerobic and strength training on muscle fiber hypertrophy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 52(10), 2391–2403. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-022-01688-x

9. Coleman, C. J., McDonough, D. J., Pope, Z. C., & Pope, C. A. (2022). Dose-response association of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity with mortality: A national cohort study of 416 420 US adults. British Journal of Sports Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2022-105519

10. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, December 20). Adult activity: An overview. https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/guidelines/adults.html