So when exactly should you do your cardio? You will find many concepts e.g. do your cardio on an empty stomach, do your cardio early in the morning, right after a workout and the list goes on and on. First of all, you need to establish what your aim is, because a person who wants to become a bodybuilder will have to treat cardio differently as compared to a person who wants to become a marathon runner. So the first step is for you to decide and right down your aim and then keep reading.
Type of cardio
How does cardio burn fat?
Why do cardio?
Cardio is mainly used for helping in a program where you want to lose weight and/or improve your cardio vascular system. In the process, it makes your heart strong, so that it doesn’t have to work too hard to pump blood, it makes you feel good, sleep better and reduce your overall stress levels. So basically, what I am trying to say here is – DO CARDIO!!
Type of cardio
Until a few years ago, cardio meant just going out and running in the park. People would run 2 miles and come back saying – that was a great cardio workout. This was known as the steady state cardio e.g. running, walking, cycling etc. as a steady pace for 30 – 45 minutes. However, in the recent past, another type of cardio caught everyone’s attention. High Intensity Training (HIT) or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), took the fitness industry by storm. This involved alternating between low intensity and small intervals of high intensity (e.g. jogging and sprinting).
How does cardio burn fat?
Cardio exercises are primarily catabolic, which means they breakdown stuff. They breakdown fat, they breakdown muscles and they break your joints as well, especially if you are running on a hard surface (LAME!!!…I know…a joke nonetheless). So basically breaking down all these things helps you lose weight. You will understand everything slightly better if I explain how both of these cardio types work. If we look at the steady state cardio, the concept is that you keep it low intensity and for longer durations so that your primary source of energy is fat. If you increase the intensity, then you start using more carbohydrates. When you do 45 minutes of low intensity walk, you will burn about 250 calories during the workout and some more after the workout. At this point your body will have burnt a reasonable amount of fat and will burn some more after the workout.
As for the High Intensity Trainings, you jump between high and low intensity movements. You run very fast for 1 minute and recover for 2 minutes with either a jog or a walk. Do this 5 – 8 times and you are done. The idea is that you burn calories during the workout from all sources (i.e. protein, fat and carbohydrates, primarily from carbohydrates) and you keep burning them for hours after (EPOC – Excess Post-workout Oxygen Consumption). So, you don’t just burn fat, you burn all three and therefore you burn more calories. The question is, why burn all three? Well, if you have lots of carbs in your system and you concentrate on burning fat and the carbs are left over, most of these carbs will be converted to fat and stored for future use, so it is a good idea to concentrate on fats and carbs instead of just one. The thing with protein is that, you will always be using protein, but you can control this usage and decrease it. For example, keep your steady state cardio under 45 minutes and incase of HIT, make sure you are not on an empty stomach.
As for the High Intensity Trainings, you jump between high and low intensity movements. You run very fast for 1 minute and recover for 2 minutes with either a jog or a walk. Do this 5 – 8 times and you are done. The idea is that you burn calories during the workout from all sources (i.e. protein, fat and carbohydrates, primarily from carbohydrates) and you keep burning them for hours after (EPOC – Excess Post-workout Oxygen Consumption). So, you don’t just burn fat, you burn all three and therefore you burn more calories. The question is, why burn all three? Well, if you have lots of carbs in your system and you concentrate on burning fat and the carbs are left over, most of these carbs will be converted to fat and stored for future use, so it is a good idea to concentrate on fats and carbs instead of just one. The thing with protein is that, you will always be using protein, but you can control this usage and decrease it. For example, keep your steady state cardio under 45 minutes and incase of HIT, make sure you are not on an empty stomach.
Continue reading - Which cardio you should be doing and why?
| Share |
