Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 5 - March/April 2016 | Page 37

While that approach is cardio training, you’re not burning as much body fat while
performing that level of intensity for a prolonged duration at a high heart rate. This run
hard, run long approach is known as endurance aerobic conditioning which is very
important for athletes such as distance runners, cyclists, etc. Training your circulatory
system in this way increases your Vo2-Max. However, most of the people who are doing
cardio simply want to burn fat and look great, yet many aren't doing cardio in the most
effective ways to achieve that result.
It's important to know how the body works and breaks down nutrients for energy. When
you’re doing cardio at a high heart rate, you’re body is initially drawing energy from
carbohydrates in your system burning them all up within the first 10-20 minutes
depending on the amount you have consumed prior to cardio training. When your heart
rate is at a high BPM and the carbohydrates are burnt off it goes straight to your lean
muscle mass for energy as protein is the next easiest source to break down for energy.
Body fat is too hard and takes too long to burn and will not supply the energy needed to
sustain the high intensity activity level for a prolonged period of time because your body
can’t break it down fast enough. Thats why most marathon runners are very slender,
they don’t have much lean mass and are usually not very aesthetic because they train
that way for their end goal result of running long distances, not for aesthetics. So ask
yourself, “Is my goal to really increase my Vo2-max and my marathon time?” If that is
your goal or the type of training that you simply enjoy then great, more power to you!
However if your goal is to burn body fat and retain your lean muscle mass then you
need a different approach!
Fat Burning cardio also called steady state cardio is a lower intensity type of
aerobic training that burns body fat and it also increases your Vo2-max, just not as
much as the high intensity prolonged aerobic conditioning style of training. For steady
state cardio you need to sustain 60-75% of your calculated max heart rate for a
prolonged period of time. 45-60 minutes. (To calculate your max hear