Why Steady State Cardio Is A Thing Of The Past

Article by Ben Wain

Why Steady State Cardio Is A Thing Of The Past – Health – Fitness

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There are a number of well documented training and exercising methods all maintaining to get the coveted effects. Some have more effect than others; some have little effect at all (although with a healthy diet, you should normally see some gains). One of the well documented methods for blasting away fat that as a matter of fact works is High Intensity Interval Training, known as HIIT, and this activity is excellent in pulling off results. Sports scientists have been getting excited over HIIT for a long time, it is becoming ever so more common within amateur and professional athletes, and should be built in any fat loss or muscle definition workout regime. Standard steady state cardio still has some benefits; however, nothing quite gets rid of body fat and increases overall levels of fitness in the shortest time possible quite like HIIT. Would you rather spend forty-five minutes calmly jogging or cycling along at a slow and steady speed in the morning, after your heavy lifting, or on your days off? On the other hand, would you refer to get it finished under twenty minutes, feel desperately short of breath, be sweating furiously and really feel as if you have worked out at your maximum level?

Intense physical activity burns fat far greater during and following the activity than low intensity exercise, this is fact. The so called fat burning zone, which is the level of intensity when your body burns the most fat during exercise, is not the rate of intensity at when your body burns the majority of calories. After performing HIIT, your body will continue to burn calories and fat even when idol, this because your metabolism has now moved into overdrive.

HIIT generally includes combining periods of slow paced cardio with intervals of faster and more intense cardio. Not only does this increase the total amount of calories burned, it also allows you brief recovery so you can conduct the intense intervals at your maximum effort. Research shows this has a massive effect on fat and calorie burning during and following performing cardio activity.

When performing HIIT, you also see a gain in aerobic and anaerobic performance. What this generally means is your fitness will increase over long and short distances, making HIIT an excellent option for both sprinters and marathon runners training for stamina and endurance. Studies have also shown that improvements may occur in conducting heavy lifting, as participants have been able to carry out greater repetitions on the heavy compound exercises such as squats and deadlifts, whilst recovery time between sets seemed to have decreased at the same time.

To totally appreciate the concept behind this, you have to take into account how your body uses energy. If enough oxygen is available, your body will use aerobatic energy roads. When this supply of oxygen diminishes, it starts to use the anaerobic paths. To reach the anaerobic zone, some seriously intense training needs to be performed. HIIT therefore means you stay in the anaerobic zone helping boost your resting metabolic level by increasing what scientists call excess-post oxygen consumption (EPOC), it is thought EPOC may result in increased V02 max. EPOC is basically your body working harder to repair after intense physical activity, which needs greater energy and hence increased calories burned. A greater V02 max means greater calories and oxygen can be handled by your body hence increasing ability over a given time frame.

When you have a depletion of oxygen (represented by the EPOC), your body will have burned off all your blood sugar, which means your body starts burning fat as an energy source. Using fat as energy is appealing in the time frame post training. The substantial amount of energy is burned throughout actual exercise when performing aerobic activity, whereas short intervals of anaerobic exercise (HIIT) substantial levels of energy are burned during and for numerous hours after.

You can plan a HIIT regime pretty much any way you choose, it could be circuit training, performing burpees, cycling or running, anything that will help get your heart rate pumping. The important thing is to make sure you can achieve the activity for as fast and intense as you can for twenty to sixty seconds. You can then recover for anything from twenty seconds to as much as four minutes. You might be wondering that four minutes is a long time to get your breath, however after numerous circuits of flat out sprinting in between you soon start to grasp how hard HIIT can be. To begin HIIT for the first time, you should warm up for a good five minutes before sprinting at your maximum effort for say thirty seconds, before slowing down over the next thirty seconds so you can achieve the same sprint at the same maximum effort for another thirty seconds straight away after. If you cannot, then you should either decrease your max effort interval or lengthen your steady state interval. Remember it is the max effort you put into the activity, rather than the time it takes. It is not necessary to accomplish 100% on every high intensity interval; you can choose to build up to your highest level if you decide to. Once you hit it, you can pyramid back down. Similar to weight-training, just ensure you mix up the intensity. Completing pyramids might support to avoid over-training and injury, however; maximum fat burning and metabolic rate will be caused by maximum intensity.

About the Author

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Ben Wain

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