I have a bad knee so I am trying to do reps with wts to build up heart rate enuff to lose wt. will this work? plus eating right
Over the next week or so we’re going to be talking quite a bit about metabolic resistance training (i.e. “cardio with weights”), but before we do I want to address something that slightly concerned me when reading through some of the comments that came in on yesterday’s “empty stomach” cardio post.
Apparently, many people are still stuck doing long duration, low-intensity cardiovascular exercise — yikes!
Here’s the deal: if you’re looking to achieve maximal benefit from the time you put into your workouts, long duration “slow-go” cardio is NOT the way to go, and for many reasons.
Here are my top 5:
1. Minimal calories burned — 45 minutes on the treadmill may burn a whopping 300 calories if you’re lucky, the equivalent of ONE TENTH of a pound of fat. Exercise ten hours a week and you might just lose a pound!
Which brings me to my next point:
2. Way too much time involved — I don’t know about you, but I don’t have hours and hours of my time to pour into working out each week. In fact, very rarely do I ever exceed three hours of exercise weekly, and you know what? That’s ALL you need.
Beyond that, slow-go cardio is:
3. BORING as heck — Sitting on an exercise bike staring at the wall in front of me for 45-60 minutes? No thanks.
But perhaps even worse is the fact that slow-go cardio provides:
4. No prolonged metabolic benefit — Did you know that with higher intensity exercise it is possible to continue to burn calories for up to 48 hours post workout? It’s true (and we’ll be discussing this “afterburn” effect in another post very soon). But you know what else is true? Long duration, low intensity cardio provides virtually NO prolonged elevation in metabolism. In fact, with slow-go cardio, metabolism returns to baseline almost IMMEDIATELY following the exercise session.
And finally, the reason that trumps all the others:
5. Minimal fat loss — Minimal calories burned during the session and virtually no additional calories burned afterward = minimal, if any fat loss results. And let’s be honest, the only reason anyone is doing cardio is for the “result”.
So if slow-go cardio isn’t a great solution, what is?
Short duration, high-intensity exercise. Less time, faster results — THAT’S what it’s all about.
And keep in mind, “high intensity” is relative to you. I don’t care if you’re already in great shape or if you’re 40 lbs overweight, you can exercise with intensity.
So what about you? Are you stuck doing slow-go cardio or have you embraced the benefit of much shorter, higher intensity sessions?
Give me at least 750 comments and I’ll be back to talk about short duration, high intensity exercise in more detail tomorrow.
Talk to you in the comments section,
Joel
P.S. Want to learn 3 other specific fat-burning tips that you can start using today? Check out the below link:
==> What “special” foods can boost fat-burning by 207%?
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721 comments - add yours
Ok, so I’m a 53 year old female. I need to lose 35 pounds, and I’m sure you can guess where most of it is. I don’t have time to go to a gym and no place to put bulky workout equipment. What’s a good way to start?
I am SOO excited to have found the ‘key’ to weightloss and increasing cardio fitness using 30 minute of HIT weightlifting 3x a week. I just started this week and I’ll have to say that it is THE BOMB when it comes to doing one set of reps to failure, Esp for the cardio aspect. I would have never imagined the immediate impact. I have a spine/hip problem so that the typical cardio exercise (bike, walk,run, etc ) are not able to be done.
I cannot wait to expand my workout to include all muscle groups in a bigger way. After 3 sessions, my dumbells are already too light! Who’d a thunk how quickly I could gain back all I lost after 5 kids and low activity levels from disability! I am anxious to see if you, Joel, are going to discuss the same technique (fat burning furnace HIT) I have been learning about recently….
Rick- 5MPH is SLOW
Incorporate the DL and Squats in your circuit Heavy 3-6 reps and do the other exercises around them. I am 61 and it keeps me strong and gets the HR up 30/40 min.
I totally agree, but my problem is I have a hard time finding a routine that is high intensity without being high impact. Low impact does not seem to get my heart pumping or maybe I just don’t know the correct moves.
sounds great, tell me more!
Your ideas are good but I still like some nice 2-3 mile runs with my dog. They are a favorite way to relax and have some “me” time
@Look After Each Other – After a long retirement from running with 10 days be for the event a group of friends asked me to run hood to coast relay as they had a teem mate that had an injury… so I just did it and it got me back into running again did it again 2 years later at age 47 and in better shape. The thing was I couldn’t shead weight like I did in my 20’s. I was lifting and running 4-6 times a week strong and fast by most standards but this wasn’t good enough for me. So I came across a program called Turbulance Training and down loaded a free sample program and gave it a try. I modified the program a bit because of the quipment I have but most of it was body weight, and finish with 6, 70-75 sec sprints at 12 mph. ( I couldn’t hold this pace the first two weeks) on the 3:00 min interval wth walking at 3.5 for rest and 10-12 pounds lighter for my efforts and in great shape 5’11 168 Lbs 31″ waiste and ready to start the real program not just the free sample. I am very sceptical of most claims that is why I realy liked the free trial offer. After ~ 3 years of hard steady running the interval program made the difference.
I LOVE short burst cardio!! I love that in 15 minutes I can get an INTENSE workout in that has leaves me sweaty and breathless!! I really like running in 5K races and find that by ‘training’ for those races with short burst cardio sprints, I do much better on them.
Sounds great, where can I find some of these types of workouts?
I traited my 45 minute eliptical workout with 15-20 minutes of HIIT and saw a big difference and faster results after about a week!
Joel,
I am 64 and need to lose 100 lbs. I just bought you system last week. It really seems to make sense to me. I can’t do much in the way of excerise I need to have knee replacement surgery after I lose some more weigh, and I have a bad disc in my back. I do water aerobics 2 times a week for and hour each time but it’s about all the excerise I get. The pain in my knees is just to bad. Is there any kind of excerise that you can recommend while sitting in a chair?
Thanks,
Jenny
Just started CYWT on Thanksgiving. I sure hope it works. I need to lose 100 pounds. I am doing HIIT and resistance training. Is it okay to do both on the same day? Lots of great info on site. Thanks a lot.
thanx jason :) u r right i try to convince myself with that but i sometimes get disappointed about my weight and confusing about if i’m doing the right thing
and by the way i compete with myself and it’s really harder than any weight class ;)
Hey man i agree 110%. Intense runs are the way to go. However, i feel i should share what i consider to be my own personal secret. Sometimes i’ll go for nice mellow runs on one of those sundays where you feel really fatigued or lazy. Everyone has them. They help a ton. If i ever feel fatigued because i was lazy for a day i go for a nice slow mellow run for about 15 minutes and after i feel great with tons of energy. I also go for those long runs at night if i ate late. The cardio speeds up the digestion of a full stomach so i won’t go to bed feeling like a defeated fat lazy slob.
Joel,
What do you mean by slow-go cardio? Are you talking about heart-rate or treadmill speed or what? I’ve seen some people go very, very slow and it looks like a waste of time. I usually do 30 to 45 minutes of cardio with a heart-rate between 120-150. I am a 55 yr-old male, 6’1″ and 245, with 30% body-fat and want to lose 25-30 pounds. I appreciate your postings and any help you can offer. Thanks.
peace, David
I have just purchased your program. I am 63 years old and need to lose 20 lbs.
I do a “Brisk Walk” Aerobic walking video every 2nd day. It is the equivalent of a 2 mile walk outside and is 30 minutes long. Which of your workout exercises should I also be doing and for how long? I eat very healthy and do have those cheat days. I think my problem is that I don’t eat enough and so my metabolism has slowed right down. I hope with your program I can get it revved up again and lose the 20 lbs. Any good suggestions?
Is pilates considered low intensity? It is a form of strengthening exercise isn’t it?
I have noticed my shape change, however I wonder if eventually your body gets used to it? I just recently added some interval exercises I do afterwards, along with some squats. Please tell me what you think.
Hi Joel,
this is pretty much along the same lines as Jason’s email about about maintaining muscle mass. I too have recently come off a 3 month mass program of Vince’s, and gained 5 kgs…some of which is fat of course. I want to get my fat % down a bit, and of course not lose any muscle mass.
I was surprised to see that your CYWT program hardly mentions resistance training at all, the way Vince was promoting it, I thought there was going to be info about weight training around your program?
One thing that has bothered me a little, is the constant barrage of Prograde promotions. I mean, I understand you are getting a commission for recommending all your clients to Prograde. But here is my main beef….on your low carb days, you are saying to eat zero carbs with each of our 5 meals a day, and then as the 6th meal of the day you tell everyone to consume a Prograde shake – which has 30 GRAMS OF CARBS!
I really think you are misleading some uneducated folks on this….personally if I was allowed to eat only 30 grams of carbs a day, I would much rather it get it from whole food sources (small serving of oats, or even small serve of berries or whole grain crackers), which have far superior nutritional benefits that some processed protein powder. Don’t get me wrong I consume protein powder as well – pure natural WPC with no additives. But I would much rather consume my protein powder with water and my 30g of carbs per day from wholefoods….and I really think you should be making your clients aware, and giving them the option.
Otherwise, I am really keen to get into your program – just started yesterday, and today is my 2nd low carb day. I haven’t started with the primer stage, I am going straight to the core stage, the main reason as I mentioned above, I am concerned about losing muscle mass….any thoughts on this?
all the best,
michael
prograde protein powder has 2grams carbs not 30
are you confusing the protein mix with another of the prograde products Michael
Does the exercise need to be cardio, or can I do higher intensity weight training instead?
Katy,
These are my questions too!
@Mykal – oops! I am confusing the protein powder with the ‘post workout’ product….my apologies!
so now that’s even more confusing….when I work out my macro nutrient breakdown, on low- carb days I can consume 37g carbs + free veggies. So can I consume 37g of carbs spread out across the day? or it is zero like your guidelines stipulate?
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Hey, it’s Joel! So you want to know a little more about me, huh? Well, I’d be happy to oblige :-)
I guess it all started back in 2001 (my freshman year of college) when I was just a “skinny fat” 19-year old kid. At the time, I was spending close to 2 hours a day in the gym (now my workouts last about 30 minutes), and despite my efforts, you’d probably never guess I worked out a day in my life by looking at me...