You need your cardio exercise to burn fat and improve your heart health. Since cardio is a naturally monotonous activity (i.e., boring), you need to be efficient, creative and get results. You are more likely to quit doing exercises you don’t enjoy.
So, how do you do cardio to get the results you want? Many answers have been given to that question.
Here is what you need to know about how to burn fat with your cardio exercise:
1. Long, slow cardio sessions (45-60 minutes) wastes time and your precious muscle mass also wastes away! Anaerobic cardio sessions, like sprint intervals, have been proven to give superior heart-health and fat-burn. Devote more time to strength training and less time to cardio! That way, you will build more muscle mass and speed up your metabolism.
Traditional long, slow, lower-intensity aerobic exercise on treadmills, bikes, ellipticals, etc. is good for beginners or those who have been inactive.
The progression of your cardio exercise should be low-intensity aerobics to moderate/high-intensity aerobics to high-intensity anaerobic exercise.
2. High intensity cardio (HIC) and high intensity interval cardio training(HIIT) will give you faster body fat burn in less time. You only need to do 20 minutes per session, three times a week.
High intensity cardio (HIC) and high intensity interval cardio training (HIIT) will:
a) significantly boost your metabolism--during and after exercise
b) give you less lean body mass loss
c) give you a faster rate of body fat-to-energy conversion and
d) significantly increase your VO2 maximum capacity
3. Circuit weight training (including bodyweight circuits) has dual benefits as a strength/cardio workout. Circuit weight training is great for the days that you don’t do cardio exercise.
4. Break up your cardio workout into two sessions. An example would be to do two, 10-minute sessions (morning and evening). Research proves that doing a second workout during the day (even a short one) keeps growth hormone levels high throughout the day. This will give you even more fat burn. Growth hormone in your adult body works great to produce the fat-burning results you want.
If HIC or HIIT is too hard on your body, you might want to try a HIC, HIIT and moderate intensity combination during the week. Just get to know your body so you know when to back off.
The evidence is clear----if you want maximum body fat burn in the least amount of time, then HIC and HIIT is the way to go! I personally do two days of HIIT, two days of HIC and two days of circuit weight training per week. I know it works.
Mark Dilworth, BA, PES, CPT is a Certified Personal Trainer and former NCAA Division I athlete. Mark’s Fat Blaster Athletic Training System has been proven to give his clients the fit, sculpted and athletic-type bodies they want. Visit Mark’s sites:
My Fitness Hut http://myfitnesshut.blogspot.com
Her Fitness Hut http://herfitnesshut.com
Sports Fitness Hut http://sportsfitnesshut.blogspot.com