{"id":2016,"date":"2026-10-14T16:46:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/14\/doing-a-short-cardio-session-after-weight-training-probably-wont-boost-your-gains-heres-why\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T16:46:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:46:43","slug":"doing-a-short-cardio-session-after-weight-training-probably-wont-boost-your-gains-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/10\/14\/doing-a-short-cardio-session-after-weight-training-probably-wont-boost-your-gains-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing a short cardio session after weight training probably won\u2019t boost your gains \u2013 here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Ljupco Smokovski\/ Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spend long enough on fitness<\/a> social media and you\u2019ll see the same tip. Finish every weight training session with about 15 minutes of cardio to boost your \u201cgains\u201d. But does it actually work? Probably not as much as you\u2019d think. <\/p>\n

Doing cardio and weight training in the same exercise programme is known as \u201cconcurrent training\u201d<\/a>. This includes doing cardio in the same session as your weights, or on separate days. <\/p>\n

For years, people thought concurrent training held back strength and muscle gains. This worry goes back to 1980 when a ten-week study found that people who did both on the same days, within two hours of each other<\/a>, built less strength<\/a> than those who only lifted.<\/p>\n

This became known as the \u201cinterference effect\u201d: the idea that cardio gets in the way of building muscle and strength. And there\u2019s some logic to keeping cardio short. A 2012 review found that the longer and more often people did cardio<\/a> alongside their lifting, the more it ate into their strength, muscle and power gains. That puts a 15-minute bout at the low-risk end.<\/p>\n

But research has come a long way since 1980, and now shows the interference effect may not be as significant as once thought.<\/p>\n

A major 2022 review pooled 43 studies involving 1,090 people. It compared people who did cardio alongside a weights programme against people who only did the weights programme. <\/p>\n

Adding cardio made no real difference<\/a> to how much muscle people built or how much stronger they got. That held whether the cardio was cycling or running.<\/p>\n

A 2026 review of 17 earlier analyses covering 144 studies reached the same conclusion<\/a>. It also found that adding cardio improved aerobic fitness without costing strength, power or muscle.<\/p>\n

This research clearly shows that a cardio finisher isn\u2019t going to wreck progress. But it\u2019s also worth noting that this research didn\u2019t suggest adding cardio made muscle or strength gains any bigger. On average, people who did cardio and weights gained similar muscle and strength to those who only lifted, though there are two exceptions to this finding. <\/p>\n

The first is explosive strength, the kind you use to jump or sprint. This improved slightly less<\/a> when people added cardio. But that dip only showed up when cardio and weights were done within 20 minutes of each other<\/a>. When the two were at least three hours apart, it wasn\u2019t there. A finisher done straight after lifting falls inside that window.<\/p>\n

The second is experience. Across 27 studies, adding cardio held back leg strength gains<\/a> in experienced gym-goers \u2013 but only when both were done in the same session. Beginners saw no clear difference. The 2026 review points out<\/a> that there\u2019s very little research on elite athletes, though, and they\u2019re the people most likely to notice even a small dip in performance. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s also an early hint that adding cardio could affect the muscle fibres themselves. These are the individual cells that make up a muscle.<\/p>\n

\n \"A
\n If you\u2019re worried about muscle gains, cycling could be the safer bet.<\/span>
\n Bohdan Malitskiy\/ Shutterstock<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A review of 15 studies<\/a> found that adding cardio to a weights programme may slightly reduce muscle fibre growth. This effect may be more pronounced with running than cycling \u2013 at least in one type of muscle fibre. But the authors were careful to call this research preliminary, and it didn\u2019t show up when whole muscles were measured.<\/p>\n

Does the order matter?<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re doing both weight training and cardio in one session, lift first. A review from Northumbria University found lifting before cardio provided about 7% greater gains in lower-body strength<\/a> than the other way round.<\/p>\n

A second review<\/a> found the same pattern. But when it came to aerobic fitness, neither review found the order made any difference.<\/p>\n

However, I couldn\u2019t find any studies testing a 15-minute finisher head-on against separate cardio sessions. And the studies that are out there, on average, were judged to be of medium quality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth doing the maths: three 15-minute finishers a week adds up to 45 minutes. The UK\u2019s chief medical officers recommend<\/a> at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus strength work on at least two days.<\/p>\n

That gap matters. High aerobic fitness is linked to about half the risk of early death<\/a> compared with low fitness. Doing both strength and aerobic exercise is linked to a 40% lower risk of early death<\/a> than doing neither. <\/p>\n

How much you do matters too. Even 75 minutes of moderate activity a week<\/a> is linked to a 23% lower risk of early death compared with doing none \u2013 with the biggest gains up to around 150 minutes.<\/p>\n

What about fat loss, the other big selling point of the cardio finisher?<\/p>\n

A 2025 review of 36 studies<\/a> found that people who added cardio to their weight training programme lost about 1kg more fat than those who only lifted \u2013 but only in studies lasting ten weeks or more. That gap also disappeared in studies where both groups trained for the same length of time or burned roughly the same calories. Same-day or separate-day cardio made no difference. <\/p>\n

The bottom line is that if you enjoy doing your cardio after a weight training session, then you should keep doing it. A short finisher won\u2019t hurt your gains, and it works your heart and lungs in ways you might not otherwise with weight training alone.<\/p>\n

If muscle size is your main goal, a bike may be a slightly safer bet than a treadmill. Running, but not cycling, has been linked to smaller gains in muscle size and strength<\/a> \u2013 though the evidence is still thin.<\/p>\n

If power is your priority, or you\u2019re an experienced lifter chasing a personal best, give cardio its own session a few hours later if possible. Just don\u2019t treat a finisher as a shortcut to bigger or stronger \u201cgains\u201d, or as your cardio done for the week. It\u2019s a good start, not the whole job.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Liam T. Pearson-Noseworthy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ljupco Smokovski\/ Shutterstock Spend long enough on fitness social media and you\u2019ll see the same tip. Finish every weight training session with about 15 minutes of cardio to boost your \u201cgains\u201d. But does it actually work? Probably not as much as you\u2019d think. Doing cardio and weight training in the same exercise programme is known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}