another reason to do intervals not steady state cardio

[Tank]

Dr. Eric Serrano MD is a highly sought after expert who has worked with countless athletes, bodybuilders and every day people seeking results. He believes that the body will learn to store fat in certain areas if repetitive cardio work is done for long durations. He has explained in several seminars that the body will improve its ability to store fat as a part of a natural survival mechanism. Remember that the body is focused on survival and losing body fat is not a priority. Your body produces certain catabolic hormones such as cortisol to maintain and add body fat in desperate situations such as starvation. Typically long durations of repetitive exercise goes hand in hand with starvations states such as being stuck in thick jungles or endless deserts. You are forced to walk or run long distances in these situations and the body must slow fat loss to a grinding halt by raising stress hormones to preserve life.

Traditional cardio has been proven to produce higher levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which are linked to increased levels of body fat. Why do an activity that will create a situation where your body will want to gain or preserve body fat? Furthermore elevated levels of catabolic stress hormones will result in losses of lean body mass, which is essential for maintaining a high metabolic rate.

[fit226]

Thats it!! i am done with Cardio..Thanks tank..you made my life so much better..:)

In all honesty i can see what he is saying. Your body is a machine and will basically tune itself to adapt to situations. The key is to provide unfamiliar situations to shock the body into fat metabolizing. This is part of the so called 'cheat meal' as your body won't be used to it and revamp itself to burn those calories and more within a window of time after eating them.

[fathead]

what does a standard interval cardio session look like?

do proponents of it suggest it always or just in combination with traditional cardio?

Ive always been worried that any high intensity cardio will result in too much lost size. when i was boxing 2-3 days a week i would waste away...

[L3]

fathead, when you train boxing, you are most likeley doing cardio 90% of the time, right? all that jump rope, feet shuffling aroudn and shit. for probably over 60 mins per training session, right?
i think that would be classified as a prolonged cardio session.

i think what the good doctor is talking about is sprinting. i would guess for no more than 15 mins total workout time. so, you'd probably sprint for 1 mins, then rest 2-3 mins, then sprint again, till 15 mins are up. maybe get 4 or 5 good sprints in max.
and like.. not running full speed... you need to actually sprint as if theres some 120lbs doberman/pitty mix chasing you around (or the cops if that motivates you more lol)

also, id stick to the old "run in the morning on an empty stomach" mantra to accelerate fatloss


EDIT: to address the lost size issue, you just need to increase your food intake right before and after the cardio sesion. that should take care of it without ruining your regular food schedule.

i do not think you need to do "traidional" cardio on top of that, unless you really wanna burn some calories.

ps. i do 0 cardio so this is just educated guesses from research ive done, you guys can feel free to prove me wrong

[Tank]

Legaliz3 is on the rate path.

Cardio alike weights needs to be changed every 3-8 work outs. I would never exceed 20 minutes. Beginner is 1 to 3 ratio meaning 1 minute all out 3 minute recovery. As you become advanced your routine could look like 20 seconds all out and 10 seconds recovery back and forth 7 times sounds and looks simple but it will make you puke. I always suggest glutamine and branched chain amino acids before, during and after to maintain anabolism and deminish the catabolic response.

[Freebsd1977]

Hi Tank, thanks for the post. You are correct, high intensity cardio for a long period of time is the culprit here, it really stresses your body. Ever hear the saying: "how can he/she get a stroke/heart attack, they ran like 5 days a week". Light to moderate cardio is great for your 'ol ticker and won't put as much stress on your body and organs. Actually come to think of it, don't all long-distance runners look sickly to you folks? They do to me.

[Kronis]

interesting post. I prefer interval training anyways, steady state cardio is boring as hell.

[Musclehead]

Ya steady state is boring, but IMO if it's harder to do it will be well worth it in the end. I've managed to get down to 214lbs from 230 and have not lost 1 once of muscle tissue from doing low intensity, longer sessions. Never take the easy way out, but a lot of people might not have time for the longer sessions, so HIIT is also a good option.....I'm just paranoid of losing muscle.

[tex]

hmmm....i would only do interval training when i was focssing on cardiovasclar health.....loooooooow intense cardio burns the fat.....when you blast out like intervals you burn carbs.......and then if you are carb depleted, you start burning lbm.......thats just my understanding of it tho...i could be wrong......

[spankmonkey]

I would suspect there are two purposes to cardio.* Heart health as in cardiovascular, for indurance and increasing the metabolism for the purpose of fat burning.As I see it when you do the later you effect an increase in your metabolic rate which could last up to 3 hours after one 20 min session.* So should you do low impact with a steady pace?* Should you walk for hours?* To me the most sense is to maximize your time and not get in the way of your physiology.* If I can stimulate my metabolic ratte to increase for 3 fat burning hours in one 20 min session then thats what I am gonna do.* I may increase this to 3 sessions per day so I get a total of 9 hours of fat burning for a commitment of 60 minutes.* In fact I have been using this method during my precontest diet this year and since starting my diet 18 weeks ago I have gained 9lbs lbm and lost 12 lbs of body fat.* I started at 12%bf and am now hovering around 4% with 4 weeks to go.Some key priciples I have stuck by;Never go over 20 minutesKeep the pace challanging (including intervals with incline and speed - never running though)On weight training days I only do two sessions and after my evening weights I recover-no cardio.

[SteveMan]

I think switching between HIIT and steady state cardio is the key really. HIIT is pretty taxing on your legs and as already mentioned can cause muscle loss. I am dieting right now. Down to 230 from near 250 in 10 weeks and I just switch it up. Sometimes I do long ass sessions of 50min or so or low intensity, sometimes 15 min of HIIT and I switch up the method of my cardio every time. I have shin splints so running is a bitch, only do it once a week. I like the rowing machine and stair master.

Oh and another thing, you know how the eliptical machine says you have burned 400 cals in like 25min without even breaking a sweat, its such bullshit..there is no way. And then you bust your ass running for 30min and it says you have only burned 300 cals... no wonder all these yuppies are on the elipticals talking about there latest golf game. I guess thats what seperates the people who look good from the people who dont lol.... I do love golf though but you get my drift.

[Freebsd1977]

I think switching between HIIT and steady state cardio is the key really. HIIT is pretty taxing on your legs and as already mentioned can cause muscle loss. I am dieting right now. Down to 230 from near 250 in 10 weeks and I just switch it up. Sometimes I do long ass sessions of 50min or so or low intensity, sometimes 15 min of HIIT and I switch up the method of my cardio every time. I have shin splints so running is a bitch, only do it once a week. I like the rowing machine and stair master.

Oh and another thing, you know how the eliptical machine says you have burned 400 cals in like 25min without even breaking a sweat, its such bullshit..there is no way. And then you bust your ass running for 30min and it says you have only burned 300 cals... no wonder all these yuppies are on the elipticals talking about there latest golf game. I guess thats what seperates the people who look good from the people who dont lol.... I do love golf though but you get my drift.

Congrats on the weight loss, from a former tubby speaking to another former tubby :yeah

[ZeOne]

In fact I have been using this method during my precontest diet this year and since starting my diet 18 weeks ago I have gained 9lbs lbm and lost 12 lbs of body fat.* I started at 12%bf and am now hovering around 4% with 4 weeks to go.Some key priciples I have stuck by;Never go over 20 minutesKeep the pace challanging (including intervals with incline and speed - never running though)On weight training days I only do two sessions and after my evening weights I recover-no cardio.

Impressive. What diet did you do do shed that much BF that fast?

Did you use any other products like clen, etc?

I am always impressed how fast contestant bbers can drop their body fat.

[bigdaddydrew123]

Ya steady state is boring, but IMO if it's harder to do it will be well worth it in the end. I've managed to get down to 214lbs from 230 and have not lost 1 once of muscle tissue from doing low intensity, longer sessions. Never take the easy way out, but a lot of people might not have time for the longer sessions, so HIIT is also a good option.....I'm just paranoid of losing muscle.
hiit is not the easy way out,trust me i just started it.it feels like hard leg day.if you look at the muscle on sprinters or boxers who both do alot of hiit there is no lack of muscle,ido however feel there is more than 1 way to skin a cat.im using hiit this time for cardio, will let you know what the end results are.i still basically feel its all diet,cardio just helps keep metabolism high so you can burn fat better