Exercise Order: Should You Run or Lift First for Your Fitness Goals?

Should I run or workout first?

The optimal order for combining cardiovascular exercise (running) and resistance training (workout) depends primarily on your specific fitness goals, as each sequence offers distinct physiological advantages and disadvantages.

Understanding Exercise Interference

When you combine different types of exercise, particularly endurance and strength training, you engage in what's known as concurrent training. Research suggests that these two modalities can sometimes interfere with each other's specific adaptations, a phenomenon often referred to as the "interference effect." This is partly due to competing molecular signaling pathways: resistance training primarily activates pathways related to muscle growth (e.g., mTOR), while endurance training activates pathways related to mitochondrial biogenesis and aerobic capacity (e.g., AMPK). The sequence and timing of these activities can influence which adaptations are prioritized.

Prioritizing Your Goals

The decision of whether to run or lift first hinges on what you aim to achieve most effectively.

• Goal 1: Maximizing Strength and Hypertrophy (Muscle Gain)
  • Lift First: If your primary objective is to build muscle mass, increase strength, or improve power, performing resistance training before cardio is generally recommended.
  • Rationale: Lifting requires maximal neural drive, strength, and access to readily available glycogen stores. Performing cardio first can deplete glycogen, induce central and peripheral fatigue, and impair your ability to lift heavy weights with proper form and intensity. This can compromise the quality of your strength training session, potentially limiting your strength gains and hypertrophic response.
• Goal 2: Optimizing Endurance and Cardiovascular Fitness
  • Run First: If your main goal is to improve your running performance, increase endurance, or enhance cardiovascular fitness, it's often more beneficial to perform your run before your resistance training.
  • Rationale: Running requires fresh legs, optimal cardiovascular capacity, and specific neuromuscular coordination. Performing a demanding resistance workout beforehand can lead to localized muscle fatigue, reduced running economy, and a higher perceived effort, making it harder to maintain your desired pace, distance, or intensity for your run.
• Goal 3: Fat Loss and Body Composition
  • Both Approaches Can Be Effective: For fat loss, the total energy expenditure and consistency of your training are often more critical than the specific order. Both resistance training and cardio contribute to calorie burning and metabolic improvements.
  • Considerations:
    • Lifting first: Can lead to a higher EPOC (Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption), burning more calories post-workout.
    • Running first: If it's high-intensity interval training (HIIT) running, it can also lead to significant calorie burn and EPOC.
    • Overall: Focus on maintaining high intensity and volume for both modalities, regardless of order, and ensure a calorie deficit through diet.
• Goal 4: General Fitness and Health
  • Flexibility in Order: If your goal is simply to maintain general fitness, improve overall health, or you're a beginner, the order may be less critical. The most important factor is consistency and enjoyment.
  • Practicality: Choose the order that allows you to adhere to your workout routine most consistently and comfortably.

The "When" and "How" of Concurrent Training

If you plan to perform both running and resistance training on the same day, consider these strategies:

• Separating Sessions: The ideal scenario for minimizing the interference effect is to separate your cardio and strength sessions by at least 6-8 hours, or even train them on different days. This allows for recovery and ensures that the physiological adaptations from one modality are not immediately hindered by the other.
• Combining Sessions (Same Day):
  • Warm-up: Regardless of the order, always include a dynamic warm-up specific to the exercise you're about to perform. A brief, low-intensity cardio warm-up (5-10 minutes) can precede lifting, and dynamic stretches and light jogging can precede a run.
  • Order within a Combined Session: As established, prioritize based on your main goal.
  • Recovery Between Modalities: If you must combine them back-to-back, a short break (e.g., 10-20 minutes) between the two modalities can allow for some recovery, rehydration, and perhaps a quick snack if the overall session is long.
  • Nutrition and Hydration: Ensure adequate hydration and consider intra-workout carbohydrates if your combined session is long and intense, to maintain energy levels.

Physiological Rationale for Each Approach

Delving deeper into the science behind the sequencing:

• Why Lift First?
  • Maximal Force Production: Resistance training demands high levels of neuromuscular activation. Fresh muscles and an unfatigued central nervous system allow for heavier lifts and more explosive movements, which are crucial for strength and power development.
  • Glycogen Stores: Lifting primarily relies on anaerobic pathways and muscle glycogen. Starting with lifting ensures these stores are maximal, allowing for higher volume and intensity.
  • Reduced Injury Risk: Performing complex lifts when fresh reduces the risk of form breakdown and potential injury that can arise from fatigue.
• Why Run First?
  • Cardiovascular Adaptations: To maximize improvements in VO2 max, running economy, and lactate threshold, your cardiovascular system needs to be challenged without pre-existing fatigue from strength work.
  • Endurance Performance: Running while fresh ensures you can hit your target pace, distance, and heart rate zones, which are essential for specific endurance adaptations.
  • Specific Skill Development: Running is a skill. Practicing this skill with optimal form when not fatigued improves efficiency and reduces the risk of overuse injuries.

Practical Recommendations and Considerations

• Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to how your body responds to different orders. Some individuals may tolerate concurrent training better than others. Fatigue, performance decrements, and recovery time are key indicators.
• Warm-up and Cool-down: Always incorporate a proper warm-up before each activity and a cool-down afterward, regardless of the order.
• Session Length and Intensity: Be mindful of the total duration and intensity of your combined workout. Excessive volume can lead to overtraining and hinder recovery.
• Training Experience: Beginners may benefit from separating sessions or focusing on one modality until a base level of fitness is established. More advanced athletes may strategically manipulate the order to target specific adaptations.
• Time Constraints: Life happens. If your schedule only allows for back-to-back training, prioritize the modality that aligns with your most important goal for that training block.

Conclusion: Tailoring Your Training Schedule

There is no universally "correct" answer to whether you should run or workout first. The optimal sequencing of cardio and resistance training is highly individual and should be dictated by your primary fitness goals, current fitness level, recovery capacity, and practical constraints. By understanding the physiological implications of each approach, you can intelligently design a training schedule that maximizes your efforts and helps you achieve your desired results efficiently and safely.