The Two Common Cardio Workout Approaches
There are definitely a couple schools of thought when it comes to burning body fat. Personal trainers recommend varying cardio workouts, depending upon their training. A common way of doing cardio is by exercising at a low intensity level. It is suggested that the majority of calories burned will come from body fat at a lower intensity level. A common belief is that if one exercises too hard, then the calories burned will come from carbohydrates in the muscles and not from body fat.
Many people make the point that more total calories are burned if people exercise at a higher intensity level. They reason that if you simply burn more calories than you consume in a day, you will lose body fat. So now we will look in more detail at each school of thought.
Low Intensity Cardio Workout Approach
Low intensity cardio is the most popular form of cardio and is pushed by many personal trainers. Low intensity cardio works at targeting body fat and that is why it is recommended by many personal trainers. University studies have proven low intensity cardio uses fat calories instead of burning muscle carbohydrate calories for energy. If the body burns fat for energy, you will lose body fat. It just makes sense.
It is important to choose cardio machines that can track your heart rate. It will let you monitor your heart rate during your cardio workout to allow you to hit the ideal intensity level. After about 10 minutes or so, you should be close to reaching your ideal heart rate. Staying within that target heart rate for at least 30 minutes is what is recommended by most experts.
The Effective, But Less Popular High Intensity Cardio Workout
Want to burn the most amount of total calories in the shortest time? Try a high intensity cardio workout. This is definitely the tougher of the two types of aerobic exercises and is probably one of the many reasons it isn't as popular as the low intensity version. There is a great benefit to burning more total calories.
A great way to lose weight quickly is to create a calorie deficit...burning more calories than what you consume each day. It makes sense that you would want to chose high intensity cardio workouts, if this is your goal.
The Limitations of the 2 Types of Cardio Workouts
It takes about 10 minutes to get your heart rate into the fat burning zone, with the low intensity cardio workout. It is great once you reach this point, but those first 10 minutes or so are kind of a waste of time.
The problem with high intensity aerobic exercise is that it is really hard to maintain for a long time. Things really get tough after 10-15 minutes if you push hard.
How to Combine The Two Approaches Into One Awesome Cardio Workout
Why not start out at a high intensity level for the first 10-15 minutes and end with low intensity for 20-30 minutes? If you think of the two approaches...this completely makes sense! You are making the first 10-15 minutes of a low intensity cardio workout productive. Instead of wasting those first 10 minutes, you are burning a ton of calories...after 10 minutes you are burning a ton of body fat!
What you want to do is find a cardio machine like a treadmill or exercise bike. After 2 minute warm up, push yourself really hard for 10-15 minutes. Set it at a level where it is tough to push past 10-15 minutes. You should be breathing hard and sweating at after 10 minutes if done properly. At this point, back down to a slower comfortable pace and keep it at that level for 20-30 more minutes. You will burn a bunch of calories as well as a bunch of fat. I use different variations of this cardio workout year-round to keep at a low body fat level.
Fitness Products on our marketplace
Additional Articles From -
Home |
Fitness