For anyone who’s focused on fat loss, there’s no question that one thing you are going to wonder about is where cardio training fits into the picture. Cardio training is by far the most commonly performed exercise when it comes to fat loss.
People decide they want to lose weight and off they go to hop onto the first piece of cardio equipment they find. After all, cardio burns calories and upping your calorie burn is the fastest way to fat loss, right?
Not quite. It is true that you must burn off more calories than you consume over the course of the day to burn off body fat but there is more than one way to go about doing this.
Yes, you could use your actual calorie burn during the workouts to expend the extra energy or you could format your workouts in such a way that they cause you to expend more energy all day long.
Which sounds better to you? Which do you think will get you the fastest RESULTS? I hope you said the last one because if you did, you’re learning!
The best way to boost your fat loss success is get your body burning more calories 24/7. When you do this, you can’t be beat. You’ll be melting off fat in your sleep (dream come true, right?).
This is the big reason why resistance training is so effective for fat loss. Because it causes the body to expend numerous calories after the workout is done while you’re recovering, you’re going to find that it really moves along the rate of progress you see.
Traditional cardio, on the other hand, really doesn’t cause much of a post-workout calorie burn, however as you’re about to find out, there is one form that will change that.
That form is High Intensity Interval Training or H.I.I.T. Cardio. Interval cardio training is by far the superior form of cardio you want to get lean, get in shape, and see the best results possible from your time invested.
And besides that, who really enjoys spending hours and hours on cardio equipment? I sure know I don’t and I’m willing to place a very large guess that you don’t as well.
What if I told you that you could be in and out of the gym in twenty minutes with interval training and still see SUPERIOR fat burning benefits?
Well, that’s precisely what H.I.I.T. cardio is going to do for you. What you’ll be doing during interval cardio training is ramping up the intensity so you’re going at almost 100% full out for 20-30 seconds.
Then once that interval is finished, you back off and perform active rest for another 40-60 seconds. Repeat this process six to ten times, being sure to add a warm-up and cool-down (we don’t need any injuries here!) and your workout session is finished.
Quick. Easy. Effective. That’s what you’re going to get with interval cardio training.
One thing I want to point out right now as well is that if you’re still not quite loving the fact you’ll be on a cardio machine to do this, that’s all the more reason to consider cross training.
While I have nothing against interval cardio training – it is a very effective way to burn fat, I can guarantee you that Cross Training is the superior choice. Even better than intervals.
The reason for this is because with cross training style workouts, now you’re not only working with intervals (since a large component of them will be cardio training), but you’re also working with strength training exercises as well.
So you get large metabolic increases from the interval training along with the high post-workout calorie burn from the weights, plus you have the added variability in there to make it interesting. Then to add to that, because you’re working both cardio and resistance training in the same workout, you now no longer need to dedicate as many total gym sessions per week to your training.
Hopefully that makes you see just how effective cross training style workouts are. If you want to take advantage of these, be sure to see Mayhem Fitness & Cross Training for more details.
Before leaving off on the topic of cardio, I do want to mention that if you are someone who just loves their cardio and really enjoys that time along spent running along on the machine, then you can add some in, but there are a few things you should know about it.
First, lots of moderate paced cardio training can eat away at your muscle mass. And it’s that muscle mass that essentially helps you burn calories all day long. So really do try and keep it to modest amounts. No one hour sessions, seven days a week. If you’re doing that much to lose weight, something is not right. You either need to make some serious changes with your diet or you need to look at what you’re doing in addition to that cardio (which in these scenarios is usually nothing).
Second, remember that all that cardio training is going to eat into your recovery ability. If you are planning on doing at least three weight lifting workouts a week, which I would highly recommend that you do so, you’re going to find that all that cardio makes it more difficult to get through those sessions. Again, this leads to numerous problems.
Now, not only are you not seeing the results you should from your intense weight lifting workouts but you’re also losing muscle mass from all that cardio.
End result? You become a smaller, yet softer (or flabbier if you will) version of your current self. Now, how appealing does that sound?
Hopefully this does convince you to start changing your ways. Old, moderate paced cardio methods are out of style. All the current research points to this way of training that will lead to far superior fat loss and fitness level increases.
Get after it!
Sean "Mayhem" Murphy
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