How many times have you walked into the gym wanting to get on the treadmill, but couldn't because they were all taken up by keen runners? Not only that, but all the other cardio equipment was taken up as well. How long did you actually have to wait to get on something? There's a reason why the cardio equipment in the gym is always busy, and that's because nearly every single member of the gym are all under the same assumption:
"The more cardio I do, the more weight I'll lose"
But is that strictly true? Unfortunately, no it's not. Apart from the fact that you invest hours and hours of your time into the cardio equipment (and for most of us it's like watching several coats of paint dry), prolonged amounts of 'aerobic' activity can have negative affects on your metabolism and will massively increase the body's release of Cortisol (a.k.a the stress hormone) and can actually stop you burning fat. Cortisol is usually secreted by the adrenal glands during "fight of flight" response as a reaction to stress and plays an important role. But prolonged secretion of the hormone can increase blood pressure, impair performance, suppress thyroid function, affect your blood sugar levels and actually increase abdominal fat.
Many gym users are under the belief that if they run for hours on end, they are going to lose weight, after all, that's what most of us are led to believe. The government are trying to encourage people to increase their daily increased activity levels, which I think is great, but they don't seem to be giving enough people the know how.
Most gym instructors are taught that when they write programmes for members, they should have anything from 20 minutes up to an hour of activity around 60%-70% (roughly your aerobic 'fat burning' zone, as we're led to believe) of your maximum heart rate. The truth is this is because the larger gyms are so riddled with legislation and worried about insurance, they don't want to encourage people to exert themselves too much in case they collapse and hurt themselves.
The flip side to this is that there are millions of gym users out there being given 'generic' cardio programmes, being told that it will make them lose weight and when they don't, they get frustrated, bored and give up.
However, that all being said, Aerobic training is an important component of training if used efficiently. Improving your aerobic capacity will lower your resting heart rate, increase capillerisation (which means blood gets to the muscles more efficiently), as well as increasing your cardiovascular capacity, increase your slow-twitch muscle fibre capacity (important for endurance athletes).
Aerobic activity can mean a wide range of exercises, focusing on a comfortable (low to moderate) intensity over a longer duration (usually over about 90-120 seconds). Aerobic training will use approximately 50% fat as fuel (as opposed to anaerobic that uses 40%), however because of the higher intensity, anaerobic training will burn fat much faster over shorter time periods.
Anaerobic activity starts to dip in to the muscle's supplies of Creatine Phosphate to produce movement, but this can only be sustained for shorter periods of time as the Creatine Phosphate depletes and lactic acid is produced as a waste product, which is toxic to the muscles. As I mentioned earlier, although aerobic activity uses less fat as fuel, because of the higher intensity and greater need for fuel production, your body will burn more fat over shorter time periods (in most people 1-2 mins, or up to 30 seconds if you are purely running on CP). The anaerobic zone usually takes over at around 80% of your maximum heart rate.
So, the trick then is to find a balance of both aerobic and anaerobic training that will have all of the benefits from both energy systems and cut down your workout time and lower the total secretion of Cortisol.
Introducing Interval Training! For those of you who are unfamiliar with intervals, the aim is to mix aerobic and anaerobic exercise together by alternating between the two for the period of your workout. This way you will burn far higher levels of fat over a shorter period of time. The result, a higher calorie burn and much less boredom!
Intervals are easy to structure and there are many methods, but here's a basic one that is easy to follow. You work on a 3:1 ratio, so 2x aerobic: 1x anaerobic. For example, say you are running on the treadmill. You start with 3 minutes at a comfortable pace that you can maintain, then you go all out for your 1 minute maximum. You simply repeat the process until you have finished your workout (10-20 minutes is plenty, 20 being the maximum.) As you get more competent, you simply change the duration of your intervals and adjust the speed. For example, you may decide to do 90 seconds: 30 seconds increasing your speed so you are hitting your 30 second maximum.
Remember, prolonged periods of aerobic activity will not burn fat, they simply put stress on the body and release the stress hormone cortisol. By lowering your workout time and increasing your intensity, you can significantly boost your fat loss results. The easiest way to do this with cardio is to use intervals as a part of your workout routine.
Try it this week. If you spend hours upon hours of your time doing cardio, try intervals instead, and see how you get on. If you do, drop me an email or leave a comment, I'd love to know how you get on!
Kyle Hargreaves
Personal Trainer and Martial Arts Coach
http://www.billericaypersonaltrainer.com
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