Cardio vs. Strength Training

Tom Wigginton • June 20, 2024

What's the right balance?

Vitruvian Fitness Tom Wigginton Triple Bypass

This is a great question and it may not surprise you that the answer is, "it depends."

For example, the right balance of strength and cardio work may depend on:

what you're trying to accomplish,
what you enjoy doing,
your current health status, and/or
your current fitness status.

In fact, it depends on so many different factors that's it's impossible to say with certainty what's best for everybody.

First, a blanket statement: It is in our best interest to do both cardiovascular exercise and strength training. All the important health organizations have guidelines to achieve a certain minimum of different types exercise. If you're the type of person who prefers to do the bare minimum well, there's your answer.

The American College of Sports Medicine, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association and several other organizations all call for this amount of exercise:

150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of higher intensity cardiovascular exercise per week, (the total time you choose to perform cardiovascular exercise needs to be spread out over multiple days per week)
2 or more total body strength training sessions per week.

But if you feel the best answer for you is probably more nuanced than that, keep reading.

Second, an observation. Some people love doing cardio and hate lifting weights. Other people love to lift weights and hate doing cardio. And some people appreciate and do both. If you're in either of the first two categories, we're going to invite you to rethink your approach.

Let's start with an outline of a generic exercise recommendation for adults who want to be active, strong enough, generally fit, and benefitting from all the purported benefits of exercising.

Do 2-3 days of strength training every week.
Do 3-5 days of cardiovascular training every week.
Play games or do fun active things 2-3 days every week.
Relax 1-2 days every week.

If you do the bare minimum, that's about 8 days of activity. It you do the maximum, that's 13 days. Sound good? :-)

(Note: the term "days" does not imply that you should be lifting weights or doing cardio for 24 hours in a row. Come on now. Don't be silly.)

What's missing from this generic recommendation is a lot of specifics. Obviously.

Start with who you are and why this is important. Follow with what. Decide how.

Here are some different types of exercisers – avatars, archetypes, or personas, if you will.

The Endurance Athlete

If you identify as or aspire to be an "endurance" athlete, you're going to doing more cardio than anything else. Running, biking, swimming, and hiking/rucking sounds most fun to you and hitting the minimum cardio guidelines is easy. Complement those activities with 2 full-body strength sessions per week. And do some yoga or nothing another day that week and you're good. (MAMILs fall into this category.)

The Muscle Mechanic

If you love to lift heavy, that's cool. Lift weights 3 times a week complemented with three days of cardio. And do some yoga or nothing another day that week and you're good.

The SportsBall Gamer

Are you a sporty type who likes playing football, soccer, hockey, volleyball, tennis, golf, pickle ball, rock climbing, fly fishing, kayaking, birdwatching, . . .? Do that! And then you might also lift weights twice a week and do some complementary cardio once or twice a week. Complementary cardio implies you'll do the opposite type of activity that you do while playing your game. For example, if you play soccer, you may benefit from high intensity intervals. If you play hockey, you may benefit from long slow distance training.

The Seasonal Recreationalist

You ski or ride in the winter. You mountain bike, hike and camp in the summer. You do the Bolder Boulder every Memorial Day and the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. You go to Red Rocks for concerts. You ride your cruiser bike to the brew pubs. Welcome to Colorado. For you? Two lifts, three cardios, two tylenol. Call me in the morning.

The Beginner

If you're new to moving, exercising, playing and haven't picked a favorite - no worries! Experiment, mix it up, do a little of everything, and enjoy the process. Eventually, you'll discover your favorite way to move and groove. For you? Two lifts, three cardios, one yoga, one hike/bike/ski/pickle/frisbee.

Finding Your Balance

Who even are you? Contemplate why exercising is important to you and then seek direction. Pick what you want to do. Decide how to do it. Figure out when, for how long, and how intensely. Acknowledge your propensity to repeat your favorite way of working out and resist the urge to do what you always do.

The Short Answer - Cardio vs. Strength Training

Do them both. Split them up depending on why you're exercising, what you're exercising for, what "season" you're in (literally or figuratively), and what you enjoy the most.

Some Final Words

If you're new to exercising or just coming back from a period of time when life distracted you (it happens!), this might seem overwhelming. Exercising every day may sound like it's a lot. If this is your situation, just start by doing something.

The fact is, going from nothing to the minimum will require a significant change in your priorities. Call it a disruption, a paradigm shift, a makeover, reinventing yourself, whatever. The good news is that your future self will be grateful (that's a money-back guarantee).

So, get started. Do a little, then a little more.

And if you don't know how or where to start, ask for help! That's what we do at Vitruvian Fitness®.

Curious to learn more?

We encourage you to do a 14-Day Trial Membership. In 14 days, you will get a private onboarding session that includes the Functional Movement Screen®, then unlimited semi-private training sessions doing the program we design based on that first session. And you’ll get to be a part of one of the most inviting, inclusive, and fun communities you’ll find anywhere. At the end of your trial, you get to decide if you liked it and if you want to continue with a regular 6-month membership. All the options and prices are on our Membership page.

Click here to sign up now!

Our facility is conveniently located on the northwest corner of Denver in beautiful downtown Wheat Ridge.

< Older Post

Newer Post >

You might also enjoy these posts . . .

The Cardio Habit - Making It Stick

By Tom Wigginton • June 5, 2025

How to create a cardio habit and turn it into a cardio lifestyle. We’ve talked about why cardio matters . You’ve got a handle on tr aining zones . And you’ve seen how we program your cardio training to maximize efficiency and results. But knowledge alone doesn’t build consistency. Cardio becomes the life-changing ingredient in your life when it becomes routine. So let’s talk about how to get started and how to make it stick —even if you don’t love it, even if your schedule is full, even if you’ve tried and failed before. This article is written mostly for the dabblers . The key is to get started, keep moving, and eventually create a new identity for yourself as someone who finds joy in their daily cardio habit. And to be clear, this isn’t about becoming a pro athlete. It’s about living longer, living better, protecting your independence as you age, and showing up for the future you want.

Cardio for Life: From Daily Dabblers to Podium Seekers

By Tom Wigginton • May 30, 2025

How to build a cardio plan that matches your goals—whether you're in it to win it or just want to feel 10 years younger. Nobody wants to rust out too early and yet, not everybody wants to race either. Most people fall somewhere in between. Maybe you’re not chasing a podium, but you are chasing longevity and quality of life. Or, maybe you’re not training for a triathlon, but you do like to enjoy a long hike without needing three days to recover. Or maybe you are chasing podiums, glory, and fame! In any case, that's great! In part 1 of this series, we talked about Why Cardio Matters . In part 2, we talked about gauging your effort levels by Decoding Your Training Zones . If you haven’t read those, you will find them helpful. Whether your goal is vitality , confidence , or competition , there’s a cardio plan that fits. The trick is structuring it smartly based on what your body needs and your life allows.

Decoding Training Zones: What They Are and Why They Matter

By Tom Wigginton • May 23, 2025

How you can train smarter to live longer, live better, and stay active and independent — maybe into your 90s or 100s. In our previous article, Why Cardio Matters , we talked about the benefits of doing cardio (like living longer) and introduced you to a few terms that might have been new: Zone 2, VO₂ Max, and lactate clearance. We also offered a general recommendation for how much cardio to do weekly. This article takes the next step: breaking down how the intensity you work at affects the benefits you get from each training session. The science of exercising is rich, complex, exciting, and overwhelming. Besides the fact that it is indeed complicated, it’s made worse by having acronyms for everything, buzzy catchphrases, and intimidating fitness personalities. This is where I’m going to try to make this easier to understand, convey why you should care, and encourage you to add cardio to your daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal lifestyles.

Why Cardio Matters: Fitness, Longevity, and What Most People Miss

By Tom Wigginton • May 16, 2025

“Doing cardio.” What even does that mean? For some people, it’s hopping on the rower, bike, ski erg, treadmill, or elliptical and checking the box for however long Tom said to do it, then sneaking out before anyone asks questions. Others train for sanity. It helps manage stress, clear the mind, and release a flood of feel-good chemistry. Also in this category are people who actually just love to run, bike, swim, or play sportsball purely for the fun. And then there are those training for performance—to win races, set PRs, and push personal limits. All of this is cardio. And yet, when you zoom out and look at the data, it becomes clear that cardiovascular fitness does something that has a very measurable outcome: it extends your lifespan . And while we’ve all heard that cardio is good for your heart, most people don’t realize just how deep that benefit runs. And as in the case of so many other aspects of life, the broader public often benefits from the insights that trickle down from elite performance research. So whether you're reluctantly doing cardio or chasing a vibe, you’re tapping into the same physiological systems that turn podium-seekers into podium winners.

How to Select the Right Weight for Each Lift

By Tom Wigginton • May 9, 2025

Question: “How do I select a weight for an exercise, and when should I go up?” We get this question literally several times every single day. And the answer isn't just “go heavier.” The answer is: it depends. Heavier is better—when heavier is appropriate. Sometimes you should go lighter and move faster. Sometimes you should go longer with the same weight. Sometimes you shouldn’t lift at all. Smart weight selection is about clarity, context, and responsiveness. Here’s how we think through it: 1. Is the Movement High-Quality? Before anything else, we ask: Are you doing the movement well? This is Phase 3 work— movement mastery . If you’re still learning the pattern, ironing out inefficiencies, or rebuilding capacity post-injury, weight selection should support technical precision. That means: Moving in clean lines Feeling the right muscles Owning each rep from start to finish

Strength Training and Prostate Cancer: What the Research Says — and How to Get Started

By Tom Wigginton • May 9, 2025

A prostate cancer diagnosis can feel like a loss of control. Treatments like hormone therapy or radiation are often necessary and effective, but they can come with side effects that chip away at quality of life — fatigue, muscle loss, weight gain, anxiety, and more. But there’s a growing body of research that points to something powerful you can control: your strength. Strength Training as a Therapeutic Tool Over the past decade, studies have consistently shown that regular, structured exercise — particularly strength training — can improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer. Here’s what the science tells us: