How to Balance Cardio & Strength Training in Your Fitness Routine

Whatever your fitness goals, you’ll want to include a mix of cardiovascular and strength training exercises to contribute to whole-body fitness. Each type of workout has benefits that are good for every level of training—from experienced athletes to beginners establishing their routines. There are many ways to effectively combine cardio and strength training, allowing you to design a routine that helps you reach your personal goals and continues to be interesting, fun, and challenging. As you review the information below, remember to always consult with your physician before starting an exercise program.

Cardio vs. Strength Training

Cardiovascular (cardio) exercise is simply any activity that increases your heart rate. The term cardio exercise is often used interchangeably with aerobic exercise. Aerobic means “with oxygen.” When you do cardio/aerobic activity, your heart beats faster and your cells use oxygen for fuel—that’s why you breathe more heavily, too.

Strength training uses resistance to build muscle. This resistance can be external, using equipment like dumbbells or bands, or it can use your bodyweight as the resistance. A pushup is an example of using bodyweight resistance. Both types of resistance help build muscle and they can be combined. For example, holding dumbbells while doing a squat adds external resistance to bodyweight resistance for an increased challenge. 

For healthy adults aged 18-65, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the CDC recommend participating in moderate cardio physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for a total of 150 minutes per week. If you’re up for it, you can instead do vigorous cardio activity for a minimum of 20 minutes, 3 days a week, for 60 minutes total per week. Moderate vs. vigorous activity is based on target heart rate, and that’s based on your age. The CDC defines “moderate” as activity that increases your heart rate to 64%-76% of your maximum, and they provide guidance for calculating your maximum heart rate and measuring your pulse. Another quick way to check: If you can easily carry on a conversation while exercising, you’re probably at a moderate level. 

Along with cardio, the ACSM and CDC also recommend performing strength training at least two days per week, working all major muscle groups—shoulders, chest, back, arms, and core in the upper body; and calves, thighs, and gluteus in the lower body. You’ll want to alternate strength training to focus on different muscles in each session, allowing a muscle group time to recover and rebuild before you work it again. The National Academy of Sports Medicine recommends allowing for 48-72 hours of rest between exercising major muscle groups. In contrast to cardio, strength training is less about committing a certain amount of time, and instead focuses on completing enough reps at sufficient weight to fatigue the muscles. The right reps and weight will vary based on your personal level of fitness and goals, but a good rule of thumb is to do three sets of 10-15 reps of a given strength training exercise.

Benefits of Cardio

The goal with cardio is to elevate the heart rate and keep it elevated for an extended period of time. The potential benefits go well beyond the heart, though. With cardio, the body activates its cardiovascular, circulatory, and respiratory systems. Blood flow is increased to all the internal organs and, in particular, cardio can help improve the function, strength, and efficiency of the lungs and heart. All of this can be beneficial to overall health and athletic performance. The Cleveland Clinic lists building stronger bones, gaining muscle strength and endurance, and improving balance as some of the potential benefits of cardio exercise. 

Benefits of Strength Training

In contrast to cardio, strength training is anaerobic exercise, meaning the cells don’t use oxygen to produce fuel. It activates different processes in the body, which is why it’s important to do both types of training. When muscles are adequately challenged, the muscle fibers get microscopic tears. As these tears are fused together in the healing process, muscles grow and develop strength. Like cardio, strength training has many related benefits. It can improve bone density, and it can be good for balance. Increased muscle mass also helps with resting metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories even when you’re not exercising.

Quick Comparison: Cardio vs. Strength Training

Combining Cardio & Strength Training

Cardio and strength training can be combined in almost endless ways to work the whole body and keep workouts interesting. Try different approaches to see what works for you. If your routine gets stale, mix it up. 

Alternating days: Focus on cardio and strength only on certain days. Divide your strength days into upper body and lower body. From week to week, work different muscles in the upper and lower body. For example, if you worked biceps and the chest one week, focus on abs and the back the next week. 

Mix cardio and strength in one session: Alternate between cardio and strength in one trip to the gym. For example, do 15 minutes of jogging on the treadmill, followed by dumbbell curls. Hit the exercise bike for another 15 minutes, then work the lower body on the leg press. Keep in mind that some strength exercises—such as squats—work multiple muscle groups. That’s great for getting more out of a single movement, but make sure you’re allowing all of the involved muscles to recover between sessions.

High-intensity interval training (HIIT): HIIT is a popular way to combine cardio and strength training. HIIT keeps the heart rate up as you transition rapidly between different types of exercises in a circuit, alternating between aerobic and resistance activities. Some exercises, like burpees, combine strength and cardio in one move.

As you develop better strength and endurance, continue to challenge yourself. For cardio, you can amp up the intensity by going more vigorously, going for longer, or adding resistance. Extend a brisk treadmill walk from 30 to 45 minutes, raise the incline, or bump up your pace. With strength training, gradually add more weight. This may require going down in reps until you build up more strength and endurance. Over time, it will take more weight and more reps for you to feel fatigue. That means you’re getting stronger.

However you choose to craft your cardio and strength routine, there are a couple of things any balanced workout includes:

Warmups and cooldowns: Research isn’t settled on whether warmups or cooldowns help prevent injury or soreness, but warmups do help activate the body, especially ahead of aerobic exercise. Cooldowns help bring your heart rate, body temperature, and blood pressure back down to pre-exercise levels. Incorporating stretching into your workout aids flexibility and range of motion. If you’re looking to stretch at the start or end of your workout, make sure you do it when your muscles are warm.

Rest days: Rest belongs in your routine. Your body needs time to recover, and not even elite athletes should be in the gym every day. Rest days can truly be for resting, where you do no physical activity, or you can take an active rest day, where you do light physical activity (walk the dog, do a little yoga, etc.). Like proper hydration and nutrition, rest is part of fueling your body for its work.

Making both cardio and strength training part of your routine helps you get a full-body workout with a wide range of potential benefits. But perhaps the best perk is that your workout routine never has to get old. By adding new challenges to both types of activities, alternating days, incorporating circuits, and working different parts of the body, you can find new ways to advance your progress.