No 'que' after 'après'

Question

Travaillez votre foutu cardio, après il est jamais trop tard.

Why in this sentence is que not following après?

I would imagine that que follows après when using indicative tense.

Answer 1

I take après here to be adding another good reason to do the cardio. "In any case." You could also think of it as meaning "after all" (après tout) or "besides" (après toutes ces raisons il y en a une autre).

Fine, do your damn cardio. In any case, it's never too late.

This usage is considered informal. A standard alternative might be en tout cas, and a formal alternative might be il faut admettre que.

A somewhat subtle discourse note: the foutu suggests a context where either (a) the person who should do the cardio has insisted on doing so and annoyed the speaker, who is here giving in but also conceding that there's a good reason to do so, or (b) the person who should do the cardio is refusing to and needs to be told to do it, and hence needs an extra motivation. Either context licences the "but also" sense of après.

Answer 2

This sentence is odd without context but I guess its meaning is:

Work your bloody cardio. Later/after/that said*, it's never too late.

(*Thanks @StéphaneGimenez)

With que, we would use the subjunctive but the sentence becomes meaningless:

Travaillez votre foutu cardio, après qu'il (ne) soit/est jamais trop tard.

Work your bloody cardio after that it is never too late. (??: i.e. "Don't work your cardio before it is never too late.")

What would work with que is:

Travaillez votre foutu cardio avant qu'il ne soit trop tard.

Work your bloody cardio before it's too late.