“Don’t cardio yourself to death.” The dreadmill. Cardio queen.

Cardio is taking a bit of a hit these days as strength training edges itself into the spotlight. While the latter is absolutely deserving attention (and its rise in the cultural conversation is long overdue), it shouldn’t be at the expense of cardio.

Aerobic activity has indeed been downplayed lately, said Bradley Schoenfeld, PhD, CSCS, strength researcher, and professor in exercise science at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York. But “there are huge health benefits to having an efficient and fine-tuned cardiovascular system,” he said. Beyond heart health, cardio benefits your lungs and, well, your whole body to some degree. “Cardiorespiratory fitness is correlated with longevity,” Schoenfeld said.

Stephen Ranellone, CSCS, FRCms, FMS, exercise physiologist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, agreed: “We swing in one way and then we swing the other way,” he said about fitness and wellness trends. For example, one day eggs are good for you, and the next they’re lethal (social media rarely helps these messages). The same could be said for the conversation around cardio — it’s been touted as a necessary evil as well as a cure-all and, more recently, in direct conflict with strength training.

The truth is both are good for you, and finding a sweet spot where you do both concurrently may be the best overall choice. “I am a strength and conditioning coach by trade, so I’m definitely biased toward strength training, but absolutely, you should never spend time only at one end of the spectrum,” said Ranellone.

The good news is that no one has to suddenly double their workout time — there are research-backed ways to do both that aren’t complicated. (Yes, even if someone’s not doing either!)

Why You Shouldn’t Pick a Side

There’s a popular term thrown around on social media these days — hybrid athlete — which basically just means someone who lifts weights and does some form of cardio, such as running. While running extreme distances and lifting incredibly heavy weights are not advisable, everybody should be a “hybrid athlete” to some degree.

The more scientific term for what a hybrid athlete does is concurrent training, which is training for strength and endurance simultaneously. Ranellone said there’s a myth out there that too much cardio “kills” your strength gains, whereas too much strength training inhibits how much endurance you can build. This is sometimes called “the interference effect.”

But research shows that, for the general population — a group that has anywhere from no to low to mid-level fitness — it’s possible to increase cardiovascular health and overall strength at the same time. And, in fact, a review published in Sports states that combining the two leads to “superior” health adaptations, including improvements in metabolic rate, insulin sensitivity, body composition, muscle, strength, power, and endurance.

Schoenfeld said it would be really difficult for the average person to do so much of either discipline to the point of negative effects. “For most, there’s at worst a neutral effect. Research shows the interference effect is largely overblown.”

Aerobics and resistance exercise provide different health benefits, said Duck-chul Lee, PhD, professor in the Department of Health and Human Development and director of the Physical Activity Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.

While the aerobic exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness (including improving things such as cholesterol and blood pressure), strength training improves physical capability and balance, helps blood glucose management, and protects against sarcopenia and osteoporosis, Lee said. Ranellone added that strength training also wards off injury — whether you’re an athlete or just want to extend your healthspan.

Cardio also helps support your strength training, Ranellone said, in that it’s your heart that pumps and delivers oxygen to your muscles while you’re lifting weights. So if you’re not doing cardio, “you’re holding yourself back” in the weight room.

That said, cardio still is the more widely adopted exercise and for most people there’s still too little resistance training, Lee pointed out. “About half of US adults meet the aerobic exercise guidelines, but only 20% meet the resistance exercise guidelines,” he said. Resistance training is all the more critical in the age of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, said Lee. “That is a magic drug for weight loss,” he said. “However, the most common side effect is muscle loss.” So it’s critical that people on these medications strength train.

What Does a ‘Sweet Spot’ Between Cardio and Strength Training Look Like?

It turns out that this is highly individual and based on many factors. Schoenfeld pointed to a study published in The Journal of Physiology that found that some people get the benefits of cardio at lower “doses,” whereas other people need more of it to get the same effects. “It shows that there’s this individual factor that’s involved in terms of response,” Schoenfeld said, which means that figuring out the optimal amount of cardio — and strength training for that matter — involves some level of experimentation and intuitiveness.

The most basic way for any person to start is using the current physical activity guidelines for Americans: At least 150-300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity or 75-150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, as well as muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

Schoenfeld said that if most people were to adhere to these guidelines, they’d be better off, though as previously stated, everyone will have to play with the mix to get what they ultimately want.

And if the guidelines are still too much for some folks? For someone with low fitness or starting from scratch, any mix will bring some benefits.

Efficient Ways to Hit Your Cardio and Strength Goals

Try a 50-50 split.
In 2024, Lee conducted a novel study to see what would happen if people replaced half of their aerobic training workouts with resistance training. Similar studies have been done, but they doubled the total amount of exercise (so participants would go from doing 1 hour of aerobic activity to doing that plus 1 hour of resistance training). In his study, participants did 30 minutes of each back-to-back on 3 days a week, whereas control groups did either just 60 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or just 60 minutes of resistance exercise. The result: The hybrid group got the same cardiovascular benefits as those doing an hour of cardio — but they also got the muscle-strengthening benefits of resistance training, all in the same amount of time.

Schoenfeld and Ranellone said you could also lift for 30 minutes in the morning, then do 30 minutes of cardio in the evening if that’s more convenient.

Make your cardio harder, not longer.
Working at higher intensities can get you similar benefits to those that you’d get from working at moderate intensities but in less time. There’s also evidence that doing high-intensity interval training can have more of a positive effect on your VO₂ max (which is associated with longevity) than more moderate-intensity cardio, Schoenfeld said. “The lower your intensity of aerobic training, the more duration you have to do to achieve benefit,” he said. Ideally, the experts agreed, you’d do a variety of intensities throughout the week, getting in some moderate cardio and some at higher intensities.

Try strength circuits and complexes.
“Simply doing resistance training will get [you] some cardiovascular and even some respiratory benefits, depending upon how it’s performed,” Schoenfeld said. Specifically, increase the number of repetitions you’re doing for each exercise and perform them in a circuit fashion with as little rest as possible between sets, he said. Although he reiterates that separate structured cardio will get you even better results.

“I’m really big on circuit training,” Ranellone added. Not only does it support muscle growth, but also you “absolutely get the cardiovascular effect to it,” he said. After he does some straight sets of strength training exercises, he likes to finish his workout with a “complex” with a 45-pound barbell. He does eight each of hang cleans, push presses, squats, bent-over rows, and good mornings without putting the barbell down. “By the end, my heart is pumping out of my chest for that aerobic component,” he said. For someone new to exercise, he said, you can start with a series of exercises such as eight each of wall push-ups, bodyweight squats, good mornings, and walking lunges. After 3-4 weeks, add 5-pound dumbbells.

Consider your goals.
If you’re more interested in putting on muscle and/or building strength, you may benefit from less vigorous cardio compared to more moderate cardio, according to the review published in Sports. While for the most part it makes sense to lift first, then do cardio, you could consider flipping the order if your primary goal is to build endurance, according to the same research. Finally, the study authors suggest a specific ratio depending on your primary focus (strength vs cardio). If it’s strength, go for a 2:1 or 3:1 ratio between resistance and endurance sessions per week (so you may do four resistance workouts and two cardio sessions, for example). Meanwhile, a 1:1 or 1:2 ratio (so two of each or two strength and four cardio) leads to a better improvement of endurance capacity.

The experts cited in this article report no relevant disclosures.