The Cardio Conundrum To Rid Belly Fat

Like I covered before, the benefits to cardio are endless. Performing cardio can ensure a healthy heart, help you maintain or lose weight, help prevent fat gain, and can even help manage Type II diabetes. The main use of cardio that many doctors talk about is that it lowers blood pressure . There are many types of cardio; however to most the only type of cardio is slow, steady paced cardio that they see someone do on a treadmill.

A perfect example is jogging. Now what Im going to say will be a huge shock to most people but I am not a fan of traditional slow, steady state, cardio like jogging. Dont get me wrong, it is great for your health, it has its place in an exercise program. But there are other forms of cardiovascular training that are even better. Before I get into speaking about the pros and cons of each type of cardio, I want you to understand some physiology. This way you can better grasp why I say I am not a fan of traditional cardio.
When you perform physical activity such as jogging, your heart rate and breathing rate increase. This is because you need more oxygen and your heart needs to pump out that oxygenated blood at a faster rate to your working muscles. Now there comes a point when youre jogging that your heart rate plateaus, it stays at the same amount of beats per minute. This is whats called steady state.

Now before you reach steady state, there is whats called an oxygen deficit, meaning that the amount of oxygen which is needed by the body has not matched what is being taken in. You are basically catching up. When you finally catch up, thats when you reach steady state. After you complete your jog, your heart rate steadily declines along with your breathing rate. But whats interesting is the term called oxygen debt. Oxygen debt is when the body needs more oxygen at rest in order to restore all of the bodies systems. A high need for oxygen is directly correlated with an increase in metabolism.

This is where it gets interesting. When youre performing steady state cardio, once you stop, you have a very small window of oxygen debt, meaning your metabolism does not stay elevated for very long. So by now youre probably wondering what type of cardio would I have to perform to have an oxygen debt and an increase in metabolism for hours on end; its pretty simple, interval training.

Interval training is when you perform an activity as hard as you can for a period of time before returning back down to your baseline. Then you repeat this activity over and over again for a period of time.A perfect example is biking up and down hills.You are pedaling as hard as you can go up the hill for a period of time then taking a rest on the way down. Interval training leads to a higher EPOC (oxygen debt) after you have completed the workout. Here is a list of various interval activities you can perform:

– biking up and down hills
– 100 meter sprints
– 200 meter sprints
– 400 meter sprints
– Performing intervals on an exercise bike varying the intensity
– Running up hills
– Varying the incline on a treadmill while keeping the same speed
– Increasing and decreasing the speed on an elliptical
– Spin Class
– Kickboxing
– Cardio kickboxing
– Aerobics Class
– Boot-camp class
– Swimming
– Performing sled work **
– Strongman training **

** Sled work is basically dragging weight behind you. You can go forwards or backwards. I found that although unconventional in the personal training world, many of my clients love the workout they get.
Theyre gassed at the end. But I would leave that up to you. Strongman training is again unconventional in the personal training world but its a great tool to get in shape and help you drop the fat. It combines the aspects of lifting heavy objects in an unconventional manner over long periods of time.
For example, the farmers walk is where you hold two dumbbells and walk with them for a specific distance. You can almost make an obstacle course for a workout using strongman and sled training.

I just wanted to make it clear that both options, steady state cardio and interval training have their place in every exercise program and will work when perfectly placed in a program. Remember, there is no best method of fat loss, however there is a place for everything.

Each piece of the puzzle must fit and when they do, you have a beautiful big picture.