How to Log Cardio Alongside Your Lifting

Quick answer: Log cardio the same way you log a set: one line, with the modality, the duration, and one number that shows effort or output. Treadmill 25 min, 5.5 incline 8 or Row 5k, 22:14 is enough. Keep it in the same place as your lifts so you can see the whole week at once.

Your lifting log is immaculate. Every set, every weight, every rep, going back months.

Your cardio lives nowhere. Maybe a watch has it, maybe you did 20 minutes on a bike and told yourself you would remember. Two months later you cannot answer the simplest question about it: are you doing more or less than you were?

Why bother logging cardio at all?

Because the most common reason lifters avoid cardio is a fear they can measure, and are not measuring.

The worry is that cardio eats gains. A 2022 meta-analysis in Sports Medicine pooled 43 studies comparing strength training alone against strength training plus aerobic work. Muscle growth was untouched (standardised difference of -0.01, nowhere near significant). Maximal strength was untouched (-0.06). Explosive strength took a small hit (-0.28), and that hit was worse when the cardio and the lifting happened in the same session.

So the honest summary is: cardio is not stealing your muscle, but where you put it in the week might cost you a little power.

You cannot check that without a record. If your squat stalls the month you started running four times a week, that is either a coincidence or a signal, and only your log can tell the two apart.

There is also the boring health case. The WHO 2020 physical activity guidelines ask adults for 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, on top of regular strength work. Most lifters assume they are somewhere in that band. Very few have counted.

What should you actually write down for cardio?

A cardio entry needs three things and nothing else.

Modality. What you did. Treadmill, Bike, Row, Stairs, Walk. The word matters because 20 minutes of rowing and 20 minutes of walking are not comparable, and future-you will not remember which it was.

Duration or distance. Whichever one you controlled. If you set a timer, log minutes. If you set a distance, log the distance and the time it took.

One effort or output number. This is the part people skip, and it is the part that makes the entry useful. Pick whichever is easiest to see:

• Average heart rate, if you wear a watch.
• Speed and incline, or watts, or resistance level, off the machine display.
• An RPE from 1 to 10, if you have neither.

That is it. Bike 20 min, RPE 6 is a complete, comparable, useful entry. If you are already comfortable with effort ratings, our guide to RPE vs RIR covers how to keep those numbers honest.

What about steps and daily walking?

Leave them out of your workout log. Step counts belong to your phone, which already tracks them without you doing anything, and mixing passive daily movement into a training record makes both harder to read. Log deliberate cardio sessions only.

Where should cardio go in the log?

In the same session entry as the lifting it happened next to.

The temptation is to keep a separate cardio log, or to let a running app own it. Both feel tidy and both destroy the thing you actually want, which is the ability to look at one week and see everything that happened in it.

If you did 20 minutes on the bike after squats, that goes at the bottom of the squat session. Same date, same note, one entry:

Tue 12 Aug
Squat 100kg 5x5
RDL 80kg 3x8
Leg press 140kg 3x12
Bike 20 min, RPE 6

When your squat numbers wobble in October, this is the file that tells you whether October was also the month you added three conditioning sessions a week.

How do you track progress on cardio?

Lifting progress is obvious: the weight goes up. Cardio progress is quieter, because the thing that improves is usually not the number you were watching.

Hold one variable and watch the other. That is the whole method.

• Fix the effort, watch the output. Same RPE 6, but you covered 5.2 km instead of 4.8 km. That is progress.
• Fix the output, watch the effort. Same 5k, same time, but your average heart rate dropped from 162 to 154. That is progress too, and arguably a better sign.
• Fix both, watch the duration. Same pace, same feel, but you held it for 30 minutes instead of 20.

You cannot run any of these comparisons from memory. They need two entries, months apart, sitting somewhere you can find them.

Should you log cardio in the same place as your lifts?

The pattern most people land in is the worst of all worlds: lifts in an app, cardio in a watch, and no single place where the week exists. Splitting your training across two systems means you never see the interaction between them, which is the only interesting thing about training both.

A simple starting plan

1. Pick your one effort number this week. Heart rate if you have a watch, machine output if you do not, RPE if neither. Do not change it later; consistency beats precision.
2. Add cardio to the bottom of the same session entry. Not a new note, not a new app. One line under the last set.
3. Use a fixed format and never vary it. Modality, duration, number. Row 15 min, RPE 7. The format is what makes it comparable in three months.
4. Add up your weekly minutes once a month. One number, once a month, and you will know whether you are anywhere near the 150 minute guideline instead of guessing.
5. After eight weeks, run one comparison. Pick the session you repeat most, and check whether the same effort now buys more distance. If it does, cardio is working. If your lifts also held, the interference worry was theoretical.

If you are building the week from scratch and want to see how the lifting and conditioning sit together, get a free private link to the workout plan optimizer and paste the plan in.

Keeping both in one place without a second app

If you already log lifts in a notes app or a notebook, you have a working system and there is no reason to abandon it. Adding Bike 20 min, RPE 6 to the bottom of a note takes two seconds.

The gap opens later. Eight weeks of plain text holds the answer to "is my conditioning improving and did it cost me anything on the bar", but getting the answer out means scrolling and arithmetic, so almost nobody does it.

Gym Note Plus closes that gap without changing how you write. Keep typing sessions as plain text and it structures them for you:

• Lifts and cardio in one session, because they were one session.
• Per-exercise trends built automatically, so you can see the squat line and the month you added running on the same timeline.
• No menu-driven entry. Nothing to select mid-set, which is why the cardio line actually gets written.

Paste your last week into the free notes to workout translator to see what your own format turns into.

Cardio you did not write down is cardio you cannot defend when your squat stalls, and cannot take credit for when your resting heart rate drops.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you log cardio in a workout log?

Write one line in the same session entry as your lifting, containing three things: the modality, the duration or distance, and one number for effort or output. For example, Treadmill 25 min, avg HR 148. Keeping the format identical every time is what makes entries comparable months later.

Should cardio and weights be tracked in the same app?

Yes. Splitting them across a lifting app and a running watch means you never see the two together, and the interaction is the useful part. When a lift stalls, a single combined log shows whether your conditioning volume changed in the same period. Separate logs cannot answer that question.

Does cardio ruin muscle gains?

Largely no. A 2022 Sports Medicine meta-analysis of 43 studies found concurrent aerobic and strength training left muscle growth and maximal strength unaffected. Explosive strength was slightly reduced, especially when cardio and lifting happened in the same session rather than being separated by at least three hours.

What should you track for cardio progress?

Hold one variable constant and watch another. Same perceived effort with more distance covered is progress. Same distance and time with a lower average heart rate is progress. Same pace held for longer is progress. All three comparisons need at least two logged sessions weeks apart.

How much cardio should a lifter do per week?

The WHO 2020 guidelines recommend 150 to 300 minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, alongside regular strength training. Most lifters overestimate how close they are to that range, which is a good argument for counting the minutes rather than guessing.

Final Takeaways

• One line, three parts. Modality, duration, one effort number. That format is the entire system.
• Same entry as the lifting. A separate cardio log hides exactly the comparison you will want later.
• Progress means holding one variable and watching another, not chasing a bigger number on both at once.
• The interference worry is small and testable. Explosive strength is the only thing the research flags, and only for same-session training. Your log settles it for you.
• If you are already logging lifts in plain text, our guides to what to write down at the gym and how to track gym progress cover the rest of the entry.