Does cardio kill your gains? How to combine lifting and endurance
October 6, 2026 · 17 min read
Andy Galpin explains the interference effect, Huberman's endurance episode covers concurrent training and recovery, Jeff Cavaliere says where to place conditioning in a week, and Huberman's hormone and daily-routine episodes add rules for which to do first and in what ratio. Most people want both strength and stamina, so knowing when the two actually interfere, and how to order them, saves wasted effort.
The rules, numbers and steps worth keeping in front of you.
- Galpin: interference is real but overblown for most people.
- It shows up with high endurance volume, running-style pounding, too little food and a goal of maximum size.
- Galpin: conversational-pace work barely interferes. Hard intervals may help growth.
- Cavaliere: split the week about 60/40 toward strength, three lifting days and two conditioning days.
- Huberman: three to two, flipped every 10 to 12 weeks.
- Cavaliere and Huberman: in a shared session, lift first and do cardio after.
- Huberman: on separate days, order makes no difference.
- Huberman: leave four to six hours between sessions, ideally 24.
- Keep hard sessions to about an hour.
- Galpin: choose cycling, rowing, swimming, sled pushes or uphill walking over long runs.
- Galpin: once a week, do four to eight all-out efforts of at least 30 seconds.
- Huberman: at least five sets per muscle per week keeps muscle.
- Wait four to six hours after lifting before an ice bath.
- Cavaliere: skip training if grip strength is down about 10 percent.
This is the short form. The full insight has every expert's reasoning, their own words and the sources.