Correcting my Cardio
I am a stubborn person. I hate to learn that I have been doing something wrong. One thing that I have not been doing correctly is cardio. I have always thought that running hard for 2 miles straight would be an excellent fat burner or working out for a long time would burn my calories. Apparently there is a better way to burn fat. It involves High Intensity Interval Training. Basically it calls for 30 seconds of intense sprinting followed by 30 seconds of light jogging and repeating itself. A sample workout plan is shown below.
Since my body is already used to a lot of cardio. I went straight to the 15 minute intensity. I went 30 seconds for a speed walk pace and 30 seconds sprint as fast as I can for 15 rotations NON STOP.
Now why do you ask this is better than the conventional long runs? Read the article below. Don't remember the article link but I manage to save the important stuff to a word document and now posted below.
The first time that you attempt aerobic training, you might be able to last for only 5 minutes. As you get better and better, you increase your minutes. 5 minutes eventually turns into 10 minutes. 10 minutes eventually turns to 20 minutes. Eventually you can do 60 minutes, 5-6 times per week. Will you get the lean sculpted body that you want? Will you lose weight? Well? Just keep reading.
As you get better and better, your heart and lungs get stronger and stronger allowing you to do longer distances. HOWEVER, as you do more and more aerobic training, as you get stronger, your body becomes better at utilizing your body fat (meaning you are burning less body fat). What it means is that if it takes you 30 minutes to burn 300 calories, as you get stronger, it will take 45 minutes to burn the same amount of calories. Is there fun adding more minutes to your cardio just to burn the same amount of calories that you use to burn?
Eventually, as you do more and more aerobic to burn the extra calories, your body will start tapping into your muscles for energy. Eventually, your body can literally break down your muscle tissue to meet the energy demand. Your muscle tissue can be converted to glucose (blood sugar) to supply your aerobic training. What does that mean? You are making a smaller, less efficient fat burning machine; therefore, a weaker metabolism.
Remember, steady aerobic training does NOT build muscle, but doing too much can actually make you lose muscle. If steady state aerobic training does not work, what is the solution then? The answer?
Interval Training (Anaerobic training)
Interval training is far more superior to boosting your metabolism than it is to do steady state aerobic training. Steady state aerobic does not increase your metabolism at all. It is true that you are burning calories while you are actually performing the aerobics, but once you are done with your session, your metabolism returns to normal.
However, interval training (consisting of moderate to high intensity cardio) will burn more calories per minute, and will elevate your metabolism for hours and hours. The right amount of resistance training combined with an intense interval training session can keep your metabolism up for at least 24 hours and in some cases, up to 42 hours. Imagine what that can do to your body if you are burning high amounts of fat all day and all night long (even when you are sleeping).
A lot of people focus too much about the workout when in fact, they should focus more on the whole picture. It is not the 1 hour of workout that counts but it is the 23 hours remaining in the day.
This article does a great job in explaining to us in English why interval training is the best. This type of cardio is recommended by body builders and sports enthusiasts. Still don't believe me? Do a google search of marathon runner and Olympic sprinter.
Here is a picture of an Olympic marathon runner:
Here is a picture of an Olympic Sprinter:
Notice the difference? The long distance runner is crazy skinny but she burned through all her muscle after depleting her glycogen stores and her abs are pretty flat. The sprinter on the other hand is insanely cut. Her arms and abs are incredibly ripped. She is in great shape and retains muscle, this is what I am looking for. To get to this point, I must change my exercise.
Lesson learned.
Yanyan