Do you need to burn a LOT of fat?
Mixing brief intense cardio in between strength training sets burns more fat than a session of strength training followed by cardio exercise.
In an effort to lose weight and get a trim and toned body, many women and men will first complete a session of weight training — and then follow it up with 45 minutes or even an hour of aerobics such as with a stationary bike, jogging on a treadmill or using the revolving staircase.
Fat Burning Guidelines
Insert brief bursts of intense cardio in a strength training workout by doing the cardio immediately after most weightlifting sets.
The cardio segments last 30-60 seconds, and simply performing aerobics for this time period isn’t enough to incite the major fat burning. These 30-60 seconds must be intense.
The reason this burns so much fat is because a taxing of the cardiorespiratory system immediately follows a taxing of the musculoskeletal system; a lot of heavy metabolic work slamming the body all at once.
The cardio segment is conducted while the body is still trying to recover from the weightlifting set.
This modality, called integrated concurrent exercise, was studied by W. Jackson Davis and colleagues (University of California at Santa Cruz and the University of California at Berkley).
Two groups were compared. One group did a strength training workout followed by a treadmill workout.
The other group performed the exact same strength training workout, including same volume, and did the same quantity of exercise on the treadmill – except that the cardio on the treadmill was done right after the strength training sets.
How much of a difference in fat burning did this create after 11 weeks?
It produced 991.8 percent more fat burned, when compared to the first group.
The weightlifting sets need to be intense; we’re not talking simply moving around resistance just to get through the set.
The rep range should be 8-12, and the weights should be medium to heavy, so that getting through 8-12 reps is difficult.
The cardio component should get you very winded; this means 10 mph on the treadmill, not 5 mph.
This principle can be applied to the stationary bike and elliptical machine; use the equivalent intensity. Fast box jumping can be substituted for running and pedaling.
Inserting short intense cardio intermittently in a strength training session will burn up a ton of fat.
