Efficiency.
It sounds like a good thing, but when it comes to fat loss it’s the worst thing you can experience. When things are efficient they are seamless and routine. If your cardio becomes efficient, then it is not challenging enough to burn as many calories as it once did. Think about a situation in the past when you went for a run for the first time in awhile. It was probably exhausting! You may have had to stop a few times, your lungs were burning, and the next day you felt like you were hit by a truck.
What if you ran that same distance every day for a month? Your cardiovascular endurance would improve and the run would become easier and easier. You basically became more efficient at that run. The problem; you’re now burning far less calories doing the same thing you did just a month prior. In order to burn more calories by jogging you would have to run longer distances (which is a problem we’ll address later).
Remember years ago during his heyday when the story came out on Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps’ 12,000 calorie per day diet? The idea was that he had to eat these obscenely high calorie amounts in order to fuel and recover from his daily training regimen. Phelps would later debunk that story, and when you consider this principle of efficiency, it makes complete sense.
Michael Phelps is probably the greatest swimmer of all time. His efficiency in the pool is insane. Therefore his workouts, while still long and arduous, are akin to any athlete’s workouts when it comes to calorie burning.
The tips in this article will help to make you as inefficient as possible with your cardio so that you’re able to lose body fat without the need to spend hours on the treadmill.
1. Cross Training
Piggybacking off the Phelps story, there was an article about boxer Manny Pacquiao’s diet which totaled about 7,000 calories per day. This one seems more legitimate because Pacquiao implements cross training into his routine. Not only does he box, but he also implements running, plyometrics, and weightlifting into his training as well. By using difference exercise modalities, his body will have a hard time adjusting to EVERY aspect of his routine.
You can do the same thing. Don’t limit yourself to just running or the stairmaster. Try boxing, kickboxing, use the rower, battle ropes, box jumps, ride a bike, take a tabata class. Running all the time will make you a great runner, but in the long term it won’t improve your physique very much. By mixing up your routine, your body will exert maximum calorie burn each time since it is unable to develop efficiency towards it.
2. Use High Intensity Interval Training
Sprinting is a different story however. When you go on a track or football field and sprint as fast as you can, you’re pushing the body to its limit. Even if you get faster in the long term the calorie burning would never decrease, because you’re always going as hard as you can.
High intensity interval training (HIIT) can be done in a multitude of ways, but the basic premise is that you are alternating between a period of high intensity activity and low intensity activity. For example, if you were on a stairmaster, you would set it at the highest speed for a minute and then lower it to a more reasonable speed for two minutes. Don’t get hung up on the exact times, just worry about the structure of the workout itself. It is critical that you go as hard as you can during the high intensity intervals to get the maximum benefit.
HIIT can be performed on almost any piece of cardio equipment. Sprinting is something I prefer to do outside, because I feel the treadmill limits your max speed (plus there’s always the internal apprehension of falling off). But in winter months and bad weather I know this isn’t always feasible.
3. Low Intensity Cardio is OKAY in Short Doses
The next time you’re driving your car, take special note of the people jogging on the side of the road. How many of them have truly impressive physiques? Maybe 5%; if that? The majority of them are scrawny, and somehow still have that belly despite running mile after mile every day. Long distance running over time just isn’t conducive to a great body for most people.
What we’ve learned in recent history is that muscle fiber types can in fact change based on your training. For simplicity, let’s say everyone is born with 50% slow twitch and 50% fast twitch muscle fibers (not realistic but just stick with me here). If you dedicated your life to aerobic training and long distance running, your overall muscle fibers would drastically shift toward slow twitch, perhaps something more like an 80/20 ratio. This isn’t what we want!
Think of the classic example of the marathon runner’s body vs. the sprinter’s body. The sprinter’s body is far more impressive because he/she is more fast twitch than slow twitch. They are able to stay lean and carry more muscle as a result.
Low intensity, long distance cardio is fine to do sparingly. If you go for a jog once a week it isn’t going to hurt you. In fact, one long distance cardio session per week could compliment your cross training routine nicely. But it seems to be the “go to” exercise modality for so many people when they decide they want to lose body fat. In reality, it just isn’t the best way to do so.
Some people may argue “well I run and I still look good.” Perhaps, but it doesn’t mean what you’re doing is optimal.
4. Spot Reduction is a Myth… or is it?
Fitness professionals are taught that you cannot target where you lose body fat. Basically “you lose it where you lose it.” Theoretically this makes sense when you think about how body fat is lost. Basically you release stored fat from any part of the body, it circulates the blood, reaches the muscle that needs it for energy, and then it is burned off. This is why fat loss is called “systemic.” It doesn’t happen at the muscle itself, it is part of a system and where you lose fat in the first place is seemingly random.
Carbohydrates are different. Carbohydrates are stored right in the muscle cell in the form of glycogen and can be used for energy very quickly. It doesn’t have to circulate the blood like fatty acids do. This is why carbs are such a great energy source for exercise, because it fuels activity far more quickly than fats.
But is there a way to game the “system?” Is fat loss as random as we make it seem? Yes, the way we convert fat to energy is what it is, but can we influence where it comes from?
What I can tell you is that while I understood the idea of systemic fat loss, intuitively I’m not sure if I completely accepted it. All we hear is that abs are made in the kitchen, and that you can’t just do a bunch of sit-ups and expect to have a six pack. But surely ab training has some effect, right?
Well this study shows that perhaps we can target fat loss.
The quick summary is as follows: people were broken up into two groups. Group One did upper body resistance training followed by cardio. Group Two did lower body resistance followed by cardio. After eight weeks both groups lost body fat, however Group One lost more body fat in their upper body while Group Two lost more body fat in their lower body. Their training methods clearly affected where the body fat was lost. Blood flow to a specific region of the body must matter to at least some degree.
How can you implement this? It’s quite simple. Most people want to lose weight in their stomach/lower back/oblique region. I tell my clients to perform their abdominal workouts prior to cardio. Just make sure the workout and cardio are intense enough to make a difference.
5. Leave Room for More
Okay time to start my cut:
I’m going to run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Stairmaster Thursday, Friday
Elliptical Saturday, Sunday
That’ll work great for two or three weeks, but then what? You’ve totally exhausted your resources and have nowhere to turn. The idea of any training routine is to maximize results by doing the least amount of work. This leaves plenty of room to make adjustments along the way without breaking your body down.
Leave room for more not only overall, but within each cardio session. For example, do four intervals in your HIIT training for a few weeks, then bump it up to five. As enthusiastic as you may be at the onset, it’s important to be strategic and plan out how things are going to go.
Conclusion
The strategies outlined in this article are designed to work in conjunction with one another to deliver the best results possible. Cross training with different types of cardio, using HIIT techniques, minimizing long distance running, strategic abdominal training, planning ahead; all of these tools will lead to long term success if done properly.
In the process, the mix of anaerobic/aerobic activity will likely improve your muscular performance in the weight room as well. Lifting and cardio should not be these mutually exclusive things. Just because you’re good at one doesn’t mean you should struggle with another. Implementing these techniques is nearly guaranteed to make you a better athlete and improve in every facet of exercise.