Yes Joel,
Who has time for that tread mill every morning, I have tried that route and as you said I did lose about a pouind a week, but come on all that work for 1 pound. About all it did it seems was give me more energy through the morning than when I did walk, but it didn’t last long. I am looking forward to your tips on high intensity workouts
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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I totally agree Joel.
Resistance and interval training is definitely the best way to go. It boosts your power AND stamina. All the people in my gym who do steady state are the same as they were 6 months ago
Hi Joel,
is it a good idea: before training banan+mango+1 cup milk in blender; after training the same?
Best,
Personally, I was working out for months at a time without doing cardio. Three weeks ago, I added 40min of cardio after each workout and I’ve been losing at least 1.5lbs of fat per week while retaining my mass. Plus as far is boring goes, we have iPod jacks on our cardio machines so I just watch tv shows I downloaded at home! <:D
I have got into high intensity cardio, but I find it hard to judge how hard I must work. I think sometimes I do to much and it takes me days to recover, the same with weights. Then I don’t do it for a couple of days and I feel as though I am starting over each time. I struggle with a lack of energy afterwards.
The HIIT Cardio does work, for sure.
However, it is very difficult to stay within the “Fat Burning Area” of 65% to 75% of the Max BPM.
From experience, the most Fat I’ve lost doing High-Intensity Interval Training was immediately after Weight Lifting, and the high-intensity part reaching 85% to 95% of Max BPM. The pumping blood in short bursts ensures oxygen gets to my muscles…. I’m not an expert like Joel, but more result-driven. Can’t explain the theory behind this, but my Resting Heart Rate has decreased some 15% so far.
I usually do intense cardio twice a week for 35 minutes on treadmill & i’m usually drenched afterwards…is that enough? i usually lift weights 3 times a week too
Hey joel
I totally agree. Ever since beginning the turbulence training program a year ago when i see people in the gym wasting time doing ‘cardio’ I just want to shout it from the rooftops that there is a better way to exercise. i’m all for high intensity exercise and when i see people chatting or reading magazines on machines you just know they arent working hard enough to get results.
i go to a large gym and one thing I notice is very few girls go to the weights section and often head straight for the cross trainer. Again this is counterproductive. Sometimes i do get strange looks from guys (most likely when I’m doing a pull up which they cant do) but I dont care. Its all about getting the most effective workout and becoming a lean mean fat burning machine!!!
luv gillo xoxoxo
I am training for a triathlon and doing an hour of swimming every other day and biking on alternate days. I have had back surgery 3 years ago and your dead lift high weight exercises scare me because I do not want to reinjure my back. What do you recommend?
I hate doing boring cardio!
What is your advice for interval training?
I find low intesnsity cardio just fine for fat loss. It strips the body great. Plus it burns more calories from fat. I dont know what you are talking about. High intesnsity cardio is too hard to juggle with weight training as weight training is very intense. ill stick to low intensity cardio thanks.
joel, i am 50, 6’5 310 lbs and i am looking at a knee replacemnt as it is that bad, its hard to do any cardio including the bike but have continuied weighlifting in the hopes i am burning some calories, any other suggegstions?
Hi Joel
I’m really taking to this high intensity thing…but… let me tell you it was slow-go that got me to the gym in the first place! As a ‘ I hate exersice’ person I’ve come a long way.If I had to jump in doing the one min slow one min fast I would have flaked out right from the word go!
For four years the only thing I did was aquaerobics once a week.Then due to viritigo had to stop for a while(more than 6months)so decided to join the gym in the meantime.Only now after 7months its become part of my daily routine and I am ‘enjoying’ it.Would never have seen myself as a ‘gym-bunny’…miracles do happen!
Cheers,Anita
Questions: How fast should I be going for it to be considered “high intensity”? I use an elliptical and go at a steady speed of about 10 MPH.
What about resistance? Can I still use a high resistance level on my elliptical when doing HIIT?
Plus, is it better to do cardio first or weight lifting first? Does it matter which one I do first?
What about crunches? When is the best time to do those and can they be done every day?
What is the best time to drink a Whey protein shake and do they really help?
Well said, Joel.
My “cardio” workout (as opposed to weight training days which are cardio in themselves because of minimal rest between sets) is taken from military training:
c. 400 meter jog/run (depends whether there’s a track available) followed immediately by one “suicide” run:
100 meters/20 situps/100 meters/20 leg raises/100 meters/20 doublecrunch or jackknife/100 meters/100 meters of lunges.
This lasts maybe 10-15 minutes, but shoots my heart rate way up for a short duration and is far more beneficial than the long-low rate achieved by a 1/2 hour jog, bike ride, etc.
Hi Joel,
I usually do 45-60 min. sessions of high intensity weight training combined with cardio intervals in between sets.
Do you think that could be considered a high intensity cardio / MIT like you recommend, or do I have to add that to my routine on top of what I already do?
Thanks!
Best cardio for me is rope jumping.
Js. Gilberto
Great post Joel, I would add 2 other things to the list.
Slow long distance cardio strips muscle tissue off your body and decreases your resting metabolism. Bother are key elements for fat burning.
I have had numerous injuries to my right leg which were accompanied by reconstructive surgeries, one of which included implanting a steel rod in my femur. I find that running is pretty tough on my body, so for me, the treadmills are torture. I have found that I get better fat loss and less pain if I do three minute rounds on the heavy bag mixed with jump roping, box jumps and squat thrusts. I can mix it up a bit, so I never get bored and each workout is different so that my body doesn’t become stagnant through repitition.
im up for the high intensity work out im tired of running for 300 cals in an hour
The only time I do slow cardio is when i run with a 20lb weighted vest. Thats what i like to call a “SEAL” run because i listen to cadences when i run. The SEALs tend to be slower compared to an “Army” run which is three times as fast. With my “Army” run i’ve achieved a 19 minute 3 mile run.
The slow weighted run i think gives me almost the same effect as a fast run. I get about the same effect. However, the faster run will build much more cardiovascular endurance.
I do have to give props to both. They both have their uses.
Hey Joel,
Couldn’t agree with you more on the higher intensity exercise and shorter duration. I am a personal trainer from Adelaide, Australia and I have been doing this with pretty much all of my personal training clients and the results are excellent.
I still think long duration cardio has it’s place, but as a general rule there are much better options such as shorter term circuit style training, similar to what you mentioned in your previous post.
Have a great day.
Regards, Clayton.
Hi Joel,
As a lto of us work long hours, we dont get the time to spend long periods with work outs etc, so it will be good to hear your thought on the high intensity cardio work out & the lenght of time it takes.
The logic behind HIIT can’t be faulted, and though I haven’t done it for many years now I did apply it when I was training to join the Police Force (I wasn’t accepted as I touched a friend’s bike 20 years ago… that’s “illegal use”). Still, HIIT got me fit and leaner in record time. For the record I used 30/30 simply running then sprinting on the spot.
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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...