As Everyday Athletes, we’ve got a heap of other life commitments to juggle outside of training – family, work, social life, Aus Open highlights…

So we’re after bang-for-your-buck training tools.

Effective and efficient.

Which can mean doing both strength and cardio training in the same session (known as "concurrent training").

But there’s a lot of chat about the downside of concurrent training...

The problem is the “interference effect” – that different training types cause different adaptations in the body. And so, they interfere with each other. And we don’t get as much progress in either.

The good news...

A recently published systematic review and meta-analysis of concurrent training reckons:

Doing both strength and cardio in the same session “may have a small negative effect”. But not enough to concern the everyday athlete.

Here’s the thing:

Olympic athletes, pros or anyone with a really specific strength goal can’t afford that small negative effect. That small extra % could be the gold medal difference.

For everyone else, it’s a worthwhile trade-off (for the convenience).

‍(But if you are way more focused on strength/hypertrophy) note that duration, intensity and type of cardio influenced the effects on strength improvements.

So look for a shorter, chiller and/or lower-impact (bike, ski erg > running) cardio hit.

Otherwise, happy days.