This question came up a few weeks ago in my Q&A. For me, this is a really important question.

Now the answer to this isn’t specific to cardio and lifting. This answer captures everything in training. Let’s be honest: you can’t do everything at once. 

I’ll list some things that are pretty common to want to work on.

• Run a ½ marathon – (Increase endurance )
• Run a faster 5k – (increase endurance and improve lactate threshold)
• Improve hill sprint times – (increase phosphagen system and lactate threshold)
• Increase muscle mass – (increase volume/ endurance with weights)
• Get my first chin up or hit a PB on a 3 rep deadlift (increase absolute strength) 
• Jump higher or further – increase power / speed-strength
• Be able to touch my toes
• Increase hip mobility and reduce joint pain 

This list could go on, but notice there are a lot of things here and this list isn’t a wild overestimation of what someone might like to get out of training. 

You simply can’t do it all at once, but you can pick a couple of things to work on and then as you rotate your program (every 12 weeks), you can bring in two new focuses. Then, you can repeat this for a year until you have touched on every aspect of your goals.

With a note that some things won’t work:

If I wanted to build muscle and run a ½ marathon, that would take so much time, and the energy demands would be enormous. So two wouldn’t be a smart move to try and achieve together. 

Or, doing marathon training while hitting three rep max PBs while trying to improve hip mobility. Running at high volumes and compressing the joints under heavy loads is tough on joints. Yes, you should do mobility but more for maintenance. You won’t be improving your mobility much in that period. 

If you have a question for me, please feel free to join in my weekly Q&As which I host on my Instagram channel. 

If you want to get in touch and see how I can help your fitness and become your Online Personal Trainer, click here.