Work as Hard as You Can. Really.

During my school years, the question was asked:  “What’s more effective:  running for a long period of time or running a shorter period of time but faster?”  Back when I was still learning, I really gave this question some thought but didn’t know what the right answer was.

What I learned was this:  work as hard as you can for as long as you can; even if this means running as fast as you can for 5 seconds and walking for 30 seconds until you can run again, you’re results will be more effective than going for a mundane, moderately-intense jog for 45 minutes.

Hopefully that strikes a chord with you, as it did with me back then, if you’re a chronic cardio-goer but find you’re not getting results or have plateaued.  Traditional cardio theories are based on fat calories burned.  That’s why all those elyptical machines and treadmills you see in the gyms have those fancy charts that tell you if you’re working in the ‘fat burning zone’. Usually, if you’re in that ‘zone’, you’re not working very hard; in fact, it’s almost leisurely, just like if you were to take a nice jog in the park.  At the end of the 45 minutes, you’ve maybe burned 200 calories, which of course is fantastic, but why not make better use of that time?

Higher intensity workouts will burn 3-10x more calories in a single session and lead to far more fat burned than a long, static run.  Why?  Doing cardio for an extended period of time at a mild pace will only burn x amount of calories while higher intensity workouts require more energy, therefore, more calories to be burned, and as a bonus consequence, more fat will be burned!

Now, to increase those results even more, remember that strength training adds muscle and muscle burns fat; and of course, diet plays a part in helping you maintain those results, but that’s another topic entirely!

So to review:

Getting onto a cardio machine at the gym and working in your “fat burning” zone is not the most effective use of your time and effort

Giving it all you’ve got for as long as you can, as done with high intensity workouts, gives you a better calorie burn for your time

Adding in strength training only serves to boost your fat burning potential as it muscle burns fat!

Image Credit via Flickr.