Interval Cardio Is Your Key For Time Efficient Fat loss Cardio

Below are three mistakes I see many of my clients making with Interval Cardio.

1) They work too hard during the recovery period. It’s called a “recovery” period  for  a reason! So don’t worry about “keeping your heart rate up”. Interval training is NOT cardio. It is a totally different method of training. So give up the cardio mind set and get to appreciate the recovery.

Interval Cardio A Key Component To A Fat loss Routine

2) As a result of working too hard in the recovery portion, most people don’t work hard enough during the work period. However, it is that hard, intense work that causes the body to change. So make sure you are doing QUALITY training.

3) Most people never changing their interval training workouts. You should be using a variety of work-to-rest interval durations and a variety of training methods. Also, be sure to keep track of your results so you discover what works best for you.

The five reasons why Interval Cardio Out Performs jogging or any other type of cardio exercise are:

1.) Time

Interval Cardio for fat loss only takes approximately 90 minutes per week; usually broken down into two or three 30 – 40 minutes sessions.  Where as traditional jogging or  “Fat Burn” cardio takes 5-8 hours per week.

2.) Burn More Body Fat With Interval Cardio

Even though jogging burns a higher percentage of calories from your fat cells (thus it is called “Fat Burn” cardio) when you are done with the low intensity cardio you are done burning total calories.

Versus when you are done with Interval Cardio, your body burns more calories (it’s called the after burn) for 6-8 hours.  And sometimes if the intensity is high enough, you can even burn more calories through the night and into the next day.

This is important, because losing body fat is about a lot of things.  But one thing for sure is it is about calories in your mouth, versus calories burned.  If you take more in than you are burning, then you will gain fat.  If you burn more than you are eating, then you will lose fat.

So when you utilize Interval Cardio, you win the “CALORIE” game; in the most time efficient manner.

3.) Build Bigger and Stronger Heart and Lunges

For the last century, it was thought that jogging long distance was the best exercise for building a bigger and more powerful heart and lungs.  On the surface, it seems logical; but we are now finding out that this assumption is “dead” wrong.

You see, your heart and lungs are muscles.  Although they are slightly different than your skeletal muscles, they are still muscles that respond to exercise similarly.  To make your skeletal muscles bigger and stronger do you lift light weights for long sets, or do you lift heavier weights for short sets?  Of course you do the latter.

In fact, if you lift light weights for 100’s of repetitions your muscles will atrophy to conserve energy.  The body says “I do not need this big muscle to do this light task for a long time so I am going to save energy and use a smaller muscle”.  It simply your bodies survival mechanism.

One of the most important factors at living a long time is the size and power of your heart and lungs.  So  doing interval cardio builds them up, and jogging makes them smaller and weaker.

4.) Changes The Way Your Body Stores Carbs You Eat In The Future

When you do jogging or “Fat Burn” cardio your body gets 70-80% of the energy required for that type of cardio from your fat cells, thus it is called “Fat Burn” cardio.  On the surface that seems like it would be a good thing.  But what happens is the body is very smart and it plans against future jogging sessions.

When you eat carbohydrates your body breaks them down into glucose (blood sugar) and glycogen (glucose stored in the liver and your muscles).  Glucose and glycogen is anabolic.  It is like muscle, it demands energy to sit there.  It is like rocket fuel for your muscles.  It can be used for short burst of intense energy production.  Fat on the other hand is a slow burn fuel that takes about 20 minutes of activity before it can be used.

So when you eat carbs in the future, it gets better at storing the glucose into the fat cells in preparation for future jogging sessions.  Therefore when you jog you create a fat storage machine.  This is not good.

When you do interval cardio training your body gets 70-80% of the energy required for that type of cardio from glycogen and glucose stored in your muscles and in your liver.  So when you do interval cardio the body stores more of your future carbs as glucose and glycogen in the liver and in the muscles.  This is very good.  Because for one the glucose and glycogen is anabolic, which means it burns calories all day long and even when you are sleeping.  And for two you have more energy for short bursts of intense activity in the future.  This means you can sprint faster and longer in the future.

5.) Builds More Functional, Usable Muscle, Is Easier On Your Joints, and Boosts Your Anabolic Hormones

Look at the physiques of a sprinter compared to that of a marathon runner.  Which physique do you want?  So train like a sprinter.  Short bursts of intense cardio followed by rest and recovery.   One reason why interval training builds more muscle is because of the above info about converting carbs into usable fuel.  But this is compounded by the fact that your anabolic hormones (growth hormone and testosterone) are raised by interval cardio; whereas jogging lowers your anabolic hormones.  When perform interval cardio with functional movements like running, the muscle is extremely functional because running simulates real world activities.  And because of this one’s balance, stability, and proprioception is worked at the same time as the muscles.

Interval training is easier on the joints than “fat burn” cardio.  The reason is because you are only performing the exercise for 60-90 seconds at a time and because of the intensity one’s muscles are tight and are absorbing the shock of the running.  Conversely, when one jogs for 60-90 minutes the muscles cannot stay tight to absorb the pounding of the running.  Thus the tension goes into bad places;  bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons.

Because of the above a good prescription would be to perform interval cardio 80% of the time and “fat burn”, jogging type cardio 20% of the time.

For the Interval Cardio routine that I developed and I have all my clients use,  Fatloss LifeStyle Interval Cardio Routine

Anyone and everyone does have the power to change their body, their lifestyle, and their life.  Our mission here is to give you the tools and the info to go out and make it happen.

To Your Success,

Darin L Steen