5 Reasons “Slow-go” Cardio Sucks

One more thing about traditional cardio: the more you do it, the more you train your body to efficiently burn fat. That’s the opposite of what you want. You don’t want to be a “fuel efficient” vehicle, you want to be a gas hog. That’s why it’s so important to continue to mix up your workouts and continually challenge your body with different training styles. Even HIIT needs to be made more challenging by changing it up with different methods/durations, etc. Always doing one style of HIIT wouldn’t be optimal.

Hi Joel,

I am about 90pounds overweight and are some what confused about what is the best exercise or for how long I should be doing it. I always thought that when it comes to weight loss you have to work out for at least 40-60mins at a time most days of the week and fast walking is really the only thing I can do for that long. For someone that is so overweight is 20mins of high intensity exercise really enough to help lose that sort of weight?

Thanks

What would Jon Benson say?

My opinion – ONLY an opinion mind you – is that some of us aren’t able to do high intensity without hurting ourselves. That said, I was doing an hour on the treadmill at 60% (aka aerobic range) 5 days a week for a long time until my husband’s job changed to a different schedule and I couldn’t get over to the treadmill anymore. The point wasn’t fat loss as much as keeping my joints mobile in spite of the arthritis AND training my breathing. So for fat loss, yeah, HI is better. But there are other issues involved.

Hi Joel

I go to the gym three times a week. I do about 40 minutes of weight/ strength training circuits, no sitting around in between exercises, just straight from one to the other working different body parts and challenging myself with pretty heavy weights. After that I go on to an elliptical trainer(I hate jogging) and 15 minutes of high intensity intervals; one minute slower, 30 seconds faster and then a good all over stretch. I find this keeps me interested and because I only do three sessions a week, I don’t get bored.

Cheers
Carolyn

I agree completely,
But my only problem is the only cardio I do is running and sometimes I can`t quite tell at which intesnity I am running plus I can`t run for more than 40 seconds with 9 intensity.

Hi Joel,

I know what you mean, when I workout its always short and intensive. Because my sports is kickboxing, Ill gain nothing if i do slow-go cardio.
Plus I think longtime cardio is so boring… exept if you go outdoors.

Won’t doing intense cardio result in more injuries… especially to older exercisers … 50-60 year olds?
thanks.
Patricia

Won’t intense cardio increase injuries, especially in the older exercisers.. 50 – 60 year old range?
thanks,
Trish

There are several significant adaptations associated with the regular performance of aerobic overload training.

I lost about 70 lbs going trail running, 1 hour at a time, 6 days a week, and making smart diet choices. And then gained about 30 of it back once I decided I didn’t like running anymore and didn’t have enough lean muscle, feh.

I would much rather have an intense weight-training workout: more fun, better results, and if you work hard, you breathe like a sprinter anyway.

I am so glad you posted this. Ironically, today I was working out with a friend of mine and she was doing the same thing I used to do. Walking or slow jogging on the treadmill. I asked her when she would be finished. She told me that she needed to at least get in 45 minutes. I shrugged and told her that I would be done in under 20 minutes. She looked at me like I was crazy or even like I was a big slacker. It was then that I had explained to her what I had recently learned from you. In short, I let her know that hours from now I would still be benefiting from my shorter workout and she would not be. Let’s just say that after that conversation, tomorrow she will be doing HIIT with me. Thanks Joel for helping us see the light! I don’t have hours to spend in the gym, nor do I want to.

Hi Joel,
I ‘ve been walking and jogging in the previous days, then I started to suffer from bilateral knee pain geeting wors with walking day after day. I checked with the orthopedic who x-rayed both knees and found that I have acute artheritis with fluid accumulation in both knees, which cause the pain. Since I returned from vacation I stopped walking or doing any workout. And I feel that I have put on few Kgs. again. What should I do ?

I’m confused now Joel. I’m following your xtreme fatloss diet, and you recommend 3 times of 30 minutes of moderate cardio (80% of max. heart rate) per 5 day cycle. Do you not consider this to be slow cardio then? Because I find it slow, it’s very hard to keep jogging en keep my heart rate at 80%.

I still do varieties of “slow-go” but I mostly mix in sprinting and walking as well depending on my current breathing pattern, and if I’m starting to get bored. If I don’t have the energy, my sprints look more like jogging even though I’m at the fastest speed my lungs will allow me to go.

When my jogging gets me somewhat winded, I pick a target in the distance and sprint to it, then walk until I get my breath. Then the jogging begins again. Good or bad?

Ok there are several things wrong here:
1. HIIT cardio does have an afterburn effect but it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be, it burns only an additional 47 calories, which is a glass of orange juice plus you get a way better afterburn effect from resistance training if it’s done right.
2. 65% heart rate cardio burns the MAXIMUM amount of fat NOT minimum. Let’s take a session of 30 min cardio, very low intensity burns the most fat but the least overall calories, the HIIT burns the most calories but not the most fat and when you take 65% cardio which could be labeled as moderate the amount of calories burned is in the middle but the sugar to fat ratio burned is 50:50 which actually equals the most fat burned in half an hour.

P.S. If you don’t like this, go talk to Jeff Anderson, this info is based on the US military research and heck I’ve done it, it worked and I figured if it’s done by the military it must be good cos the military is pretty serious about staying in shape :)

Finally! Thank you for sharing that.

I agree that HIIT is an excellent way of improving your anaerobic fitness and losing weight (and there is some emerging evidence that it will improve your aerobic fitness too given their relationship) but just wanted to say that there is also a place for ‘slow-cardio’ and other forms of training.

I personally do many hours of ‘slow-cardio’ (both in the gym and on my bike) in addition to HIIT because a) I enjoy it; and b) I’m a cyclist so I need to be able to spend hours on my saddle without severe discomfort. (Anyone that only does 3 short workouts a week and can spend 8 hours in the saddle without lots of pain is very lucky and possibly a big liar). In addition there is also some evidence towards the use of ‘slow-cardio’ for active recovery and I can say I have personally benefitted from including it in my training program. There is also one day a week where I need to kill an hour and I would rather sit or run on a machine in the gym where I can listen to music and chat with friends then sit on the couch in the foyer reading a book or something!

I also don’t think it’s right to judge other people based on what they do in the gym (as several people have here in their comments) as you don’t know what their goals are, their medical history etc. Not everyone is there to loose weight or look ripped. So while you perceive that they are wasting time, they might be getting exactly what they want. Focus on your own training and less on other people unless you’re their personal trainer!

Hi joel,
I was reading some of the ” Muscle Nerds” material and he said that it was infact low intensity workouts that burn fat and that the so called “after burn” of high intensity work outs are minimal I just wanna get your thoughts on that

tell me more – particularly how we can use a gym environment to do the interval training and get to the equipment between workouts.

Hi Joel,

I’ve heard a lot about high intensity intervals for a few months now and this type of exercise has certainly improved my fitness.

I’m all for mixing up training though. Sometimes it’s really nice to just jog with a bunch of friends for an hour or even on your own on the treadmill with some great music on your MP3. I find those sessions relaxing and good for my train of thought as opposed to fitness sessions.

But my real improvement began when I started adding in hill sprints when running and found some great fitness DVD’s (involving weights) : Hannah Waterman’s Body Blitz, and Davina McCall Super Body Workout. I’m in the UK, not sure if these are available in the USA.

I work out 5 – 6 times a week for 45 mins to and hour (occasionally longer and not always high intensity intervals).

I like working out. I’m a 43 year old Mum to 4 teens so it’s my ‘me’ time. I’ve lost 14lbs since Christmas and am now in the ‘Healthy’ range for my height. Not a hugely fast weight loss but I am fond of my own home cooking :-) (and wine!)

I love your blogs and info emails, keep them coming, they keep me inspired!

Hi Joel, my instructor has put me on long running sessions but at a low heart-rate, between 130-140bpm. He says that at this low heart-rate the body is able to burn fat in order to fuel me, instead of immediately grabbing for the sugars, as it would do if I was running at a heart rate of 150bpm or above. During a one-hour run, I end up walking about 50% of it to keep my heart rate down. Will this low heart-rate training help me lose weight?

hey john. I stopped doing long duration cardio a year ago. now i do HIIT. but id like to hear more about metabolic resistance training

Each and every word is true. Years of cardio go waste if the right approach isnt adopted. Further the body tends to get used to the slow pace of cardio and sets the metabolism at the same level. Anything more challenging shocks the body into a higher level of fat burning aiding FAT loss. The common complaint from people is that # I am walking since ages and theres no real benefit. Hope Humanity realises that once upon a time we were apes and all we physically do today is entirely against what we DID then. Lets start SWINGING,CLIMBING,JUMPING,HANGING like them to become fit. BB.

Hi Joel

On HIIT I lose as much muscle as fat. When I do 40-50 minutes of outdoor running (Heart rate in range 155-180) I lose fat but keep my muscle. I agree slow long duration is wasting time but moderate intensity works for me.