The Traditional Steady State Cardio Way of Burning Body Fat
There is more than 1 way to skin a cat, and this is also true of burning body fat. The most popular response you would get if you asked someone how to lose fat would be jump on a treadmill and do a light jog for 30-45 minutes. This is steady state cardio, and simply means doing exercise at the same pace for an extended period of time. The idea is to get in your fat burning zone which is typically 60-80% of your maximum heart rate.
HIIT Training- (High Intensity Interval Training)
HIIT training isn't as well known and received as steady state cardio. It is quite a hard exercise to sell since it is just so difficult and their target audience simply wouldn't be able to or even want to do it. It is a real shame really, as it is a great way to really burn body fat, especially those last few stubborn lbs of fat on the chest and the abdomen.
What is a HIIT workout?
A HIIT workout is alternating high intensity exercise such as sprints and low intensity exercise such as light jogging/walking. A typical HIIT training session could be 15 second sprinting, followed by 45 seconds light jogging for 8 reps. HIIT training as said earlier is very tough, it will make you sweat and have you panting. Interval training works by raising HGH which is a fat burning hormone and also through epoc effects. EPOC simply means the workout will raise your metabolism for a few hours once the workout has finished.
HIIT Training Vs Steady State Cardio
Both work well, but HIIT training is far superior. Steady state cardio burns more fat whilst working out, while HIIT training will burn some fat while performing the workout but also for a time period after the workout. You should know to lose fat you need to create a calorie deficit, interval training will create a much bigger deficit than steady state cardio if performed correctly. You should now see that HIIT training is far more effective at burning body fat, but why choose between the two. Why not perform both strategically to burn those last few lbs of stubborn fat.
Hybrid Cardio- Interval Training and Steady state cardio
This workout works extremely well at burning body fat. You get all the effects of HIIT training and steady state cardio, and you also get the fitness benefits of doing the 2 of them.
Here is a sample workout
1)Warm up by performing some really light sprints.
2)Sprint at 90% of your full effort for 15 seconds. Walk for 15 seconds for active recovery getting ready for rep 2. Perform this 6-8 times.
3)Perform steady state cardio for 30 minutes. This could be simply going for a walk for 30 minutes are using an exercise bike.
Note: This is for advanced trainees only, it is not necessary to perform this to lose body fat as you can do this simply by performing resistance training and a reduced calorie diet. This is to lose the last few lbs of fat which are extremely hard to shift, but this will burn them don't worry.
HIIT training is an advanced type of cardio, for even more details on interval training, check out http://hiitworkout.co.uk/, which is a great resource packed with great information and workout videos to complement.
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