Great and very true info, Joel. I’m a big believer in high intensity workouts too. I have always hated traditional “slow-go” cardio because it’s just so boring. But lately I’ve changed up my weight training with about 30 seconds of rest in between sets and about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes rest between exercises. I’m breathing pretty hard after a set and I feel great when I’m done. I’m keeping track of my weight for each exercise and lifting more than I thought I could. I love knowing I can get in and out of the gym in 30 minutes and know that I’m getting stronger and building more fat-burning muscle. I have also just started to add wind sprints to my week. I’m running as fast as possible for a short distance, resting to catch my breath and running again. I don’t workout more than about a total of 2 hours for 2-3 days a week. Short and sweet. Now that I’m using your Cheat Your Way Thin program, I know the results will be even better! I can’t wait! Thank you for everything, Joel!
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%?
Related Posts
I have been active all my life even as a young adult— i used to run like 4miles a day but started noticing my joints and legs started to have spazisms and never got as toned as i wanted—
I know do a lot of circuit training and have noticed DRAMATIC results and no more long hours on Treadmill or outside running!!
Its amazing– What great knowledge can be learned and how easy it is to put into practice– all though the burn is intense, the results are WORTH IT!!!
I forgot to mention, i also do weight training 6 days a week now— that helps me as well!!
@Jacqueline – BJ Gaddour, one of the guys behind Workout Muse (they have some excellent interval workouts you can see on YouTube or their website), explained at one point that steady-state cardio can be beneficial only if done immediately after a high intensity interval workout. I would only do it as an add-on to my other workouts. However, as a wife who has gone through some good and bad with my husband, I say if your husband would enjoy having you along it is time well-invested in your marriage, as long as it doesn’t kill your knees. Also, maybe you can get him to compromise by asking him to do a few high intensity intervals with you before settling into the steady jog. Just FYI, I’m no expert. ;)
I always saw weight-loss benefits (actually, recomposition benefits, back when I worried about such things) with interval training and HIIT – but I have never managed to do it consistently for any length of time without breaking something. I’ve got a chronic knee injury, and something about intervals stresses it to the point where everything around it breaks down.
Distance running, on the other hand, my body tolerates much better – and as many others have pointed out, there are a lot of other advantages, like getting outside for forty minutes or more, and thinking time on my feet. Exercise machines ARE boring (which is why I don’t use them) but after a bout with obsessive exercising and the consequent implosion of pretty much my entire life, I think I have to go with “fun exercise is better than no exercise, and also better than making the pursuit of fitness the centre of my life.”
hey there i agree with you that high intensity is the way to go as i have had results through it however your workouts last around 14 to 16 minutes…i need to lose ten kilos in the next 3 months will 60-80 minutes a week be enough to do this? thanks for your help.
I discovered variations of this concept for myself two times in my life – proving to me that not only is it better for fat loss, it can even be more effective for performance.
First time was way back in the 80s when I used to train for ultrarunning events. I found that I was able to make much better progress by training with high intensity intervals and one very long (30-50 miles) run every 2 to 3 weeks. I had been running hundreds of miles/week and staying in a constant state of overtraining for years.
Second time was in the mid 90s. I stopped exercising at all toward the end of the 80s due to work and quickly gained over a 100 lbs! When I decided to lose the weight, I spent months doing up to 3 hours of long slow distance training on the road, treadmill, stairmaster, and stationary bike. I did lose the 100 lbs over a year but I was still soft and my bodyfat percentage was still way too high. Then I got interested in competing once again so I went back to the weights and intervals. Everything tightened up. My body fat percentage plummeted and I felt much, much better.
And now that I’m almost 47 years old, with much lower recuperative powers, I’m finding that this style of exercise leaves me feeling much better than longer workouts.
I see your point – i run marathons but i also do intervals and weights. I jsut eat too much – but am always hungry! I consider myself v fit and i do lift decent weights for a girl and currenlty run the marathon in 3hrs 2 mins. What more can i do? I do intervals at least 3 times a week!
High Intensity Intervals all the way baby!! There is no way that I could sustain high intensity running for a long period BUT if if I do high intensity interval runs I can do1-2 minute sprints no problem, and I don’t have to do it as long because I don’t need to. I generally do my high intensity at around 7-8mph and my recovery at 4-4.5mph. I can get a fantastic session in doing this and I can feel the effects long after I’ve showered and started my day.
In 1996 and again in 2000, I paid for short-term studio training that was high intensity. These were 20-minute training sessions, 2 or 3 times a week. That’s it. I burned more fat from those sessions than from all the 70-minute traditional trainer-led workouts I ever had. today, though, I’m older and back to high body fat of around 26 %. My biggest challenge these days is coming up with a program that matches those high intensity workouts and pushing myself to the llimit, with focused concentration and consistency. Plus matching those efforts with well-timed meals that are well balanced.
It appears from many of these comments that most people do not have a complete understanding of the role of cardio, for most people it is either to burn fat or to become fitter, ignoring the second reason for now then fat loss is the aim of most who perform it.
As a general rule the lower the intensity the more fat you will burn, although at a slower rate e.g steady walking may only burn around 350-400 calories an hour but you can be pretty sure that it is almost pure fat being burnt.
As intensity increases the calories are less and less pure fat up to the point where fat loss ceases and glycogen is the bodies choice of fuel (at around 80-90% max HR fat loss stops )
Now many believe that HIIT burns more fat through elevated metabolism after training, well this may well be the case BUT you also risk burning muscle both during and after training, especially if calories are below maintainance. remember the only goal is to burn fat not muscle.
Now if you engage in heavy weight training 3-5 days per week this alone will cause a large increase in metabolism , so why would anyone want to do more metabolism raising workouts when calories (muscle and fat ) are already being burned at an accelerated rate.
The goal should be to build muscle and lose fat as the added muscle alone will cause a metabolic inrease without ever doing any extra cardio.
I learnt many years a go that once a certain level of muscle has been built the need for intense cardio stops as the muscle alone does the same job, on the other hand when I used to perform intense cardio and weights I could not build any real muscle due to all my calories being burnt .
What I noticed was slow cardio performed for a maximum of one hour on an empty stomach burnt pure fat with no noticeable muscle loss.
HIIT burnt more fat and a fair amount of muscle along with it.
I also noticed that many people who reccomended HIIT are generly very lean but fairly small (muscle lost? )
I took this info and bulked up to a fairly lean 240lbs from around 170 I stayed fairly lean by doing slow cardio 4-5 mornings per week on an empty stomach Then reduced calories slightly and did boreing slow cardio 6 x a week for 50 minutes for 20 weeks and dropped to very low fat with slight muscle increase at the same time to leave me at 225 with decent abs I never ever ever ever do intense cardio any more as I start to drop muscle.
I believe that HIIT is appealing to many as they can not seem to make the time to do what works best but is slower
As a side note the diet that JOEL reccomends has been known about for many years and works exactly as he says, I have been doing it for over 12 years (calorie cycling) in various formats and it is a major tactic for fat loss and muscle growth.
Joel,
How long would you recommend doing HIIT? How many times per week? What are a few good examples of HIIT?
Exercise is just like driving a car- the hardetr you drive, the faster you drive, the harder you put your foot down, -the more fuell you burn!
I you go slow, go low…you can just as well stroll in the mall, or go grocery shopping-at least you’ll be doing a few bicep-curls, by lifting/carrying the bags full of groceries.
I am a registered Dietician in SA, and I wish I can make this concept stuck into the heads of people.. the harder you train, the more energy you use. Fact!
I am a busy executive with no time what-so-ever for long sessions on the treadmill or bike. My goal this year is to obtain 6 pack abs and I an well on my way (25lbs lost far!) without doing any long cardio sessions. I am able to do a full body resistance program and fit my HIIT cardio in during my lunch hour. Its nice that I never have to spend more than 20 minutes on a treadmill and that includes warm-up and cool-down.
Of course as Joel knows, diet is the real key to 6 pack abs.
I had a question regarding this matter…the week you are on low carbs, would doing this high intensity cardio still be advised?
You (Joel) said 300 Kc/hour on the treadmill? is that walking or just standing there listening to your iPod? I ususally get about 1000-1100 Kc/hour on the treadmill and a little more if I’m actually running (which is far less boring). LSD cardio has its place in athletic training, especially if you’re training for endurance sports. More importantly, LSD is great for long-term cardiac conditioning.
When it comes to burning calories, try bike riding or multi-sport. I often burn 5000 calories or more on a Saturday bike and run workout.
What speed do you consider slow?
Joel, the “long and slow” myth just will not die for some reason.
This post will help kill it though. Nice work.
There is no thing…nothing like running with a high intensity interval training program. I usually do six sprints (real sprints) with a minute rest in between sandwiched between a five minute warm up and anything I can muster for a warm down. Do it once a week and make sure there are a couple days before or after doing leg resistance training.
Not for the faint of heart but I love it.
Joel,
I’m very intersted in high intesity interval training, as my main goal is fat loss. I would really enjoy some information on what constitutes high intensity interval training.
Keep up the great work!
Kirk
Joel,
I’m also a believer in high intensity intervals. Due to plantar fasciitis in my right foot, I just cannot get on a treadmill or exercise bike for 10s of minutes. But I CAN do high intensity intervals and I weight train hard 3x per week.
I have a buddy who I’ve had arguments in the past over this. His only replies are (1) “Oh, so you’re telling me everything I’ve learned about cardio in the past 20 years is wrong?” and (2) ” you have to burn more than you eat — you have to get into the fat reserves” . He just doesn’t want to budge regarding what he has learned (right or wrong) about HOW the fat is stored or burned. Then he acused me of being lazy and “just looking for a plan that I happened to agree with so I don’t have to run” — with total disregard of the facts, including my foot problem.
It doesn’t matter. It works for me. Thanks!
Perfect! Finally someone, besides me, pushes for the intensity cardio! Thank you!
What kind of cardiovascular conditioning changes does high intensity interval training provide vs. “slow-go” cardio? Is it merely about fat loss?
BUT I ENJOY IT!!! I will never give up my long runs on Sat mornings with my running group. It’s great to be outdoors, no matter the weather, and it’s great to spend time with my friends. Our busy lives keep us from seeing each other and our weekly runs are something we are all committed to and we spend the time runing and catching up. Burns a heck of a lot more calories than sitting around a coffee shop or something, talking and eating the calories instead of burning them!
Have hardly ever tried steady state cardio. Interval training is the way forward and a good combination with weight training. Especially when cutting. Specially love the hill sprints!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
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...