CARDIO FOR FAT LOSS
Cardiovascular exercise is in some ways the simplest form of fitness there is – just jump on a bike, lace up your shoes or dive in and away you go. But if you want to use cardio as an effective fat loss tool, there’s a little more you need to know. Let us show you how to make the most of your sessions to maximise the burn
Cardiovascular exercise is excellent for your physical and mental health. But to turn running, cycling or swimming workouts into legitimate fat burners, it pays to have a slightly smarter approach than simply plodding it out session after session. And that means you need to make at least some of your cardio – whether in or out the gym – short, sharp and intense.
If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight before, the chances are you started doing more running or cycling, especially longer-distance jogs or rides. But while steady-state cardio – which is when you run, cycle or swim at a consistent and comfortable intensity for a significant amount of time – has many health benefits, maximising fat loss isn’t one of them. That’s because this type of endurance-based exercise doesn’t push your heart, lungs and muscles hard enough to significantly initiate the process by which your body is forced to start tapping into fat cells to release fuel for energy.
Fat loss efforts are then often further hampered by eating huge amounts afterwards, which can mean more calories are consumed than have just been burned. And that’s just not an effective way to lose fat, because ultimately the fat loss equation relies exclusively on calories in vs calories out.
So if you enjoy cardio sessions, but want to turn them into fat-blasting workouts, you need to stick to the following advice.
THE CARDIO QUESTION
Warm up well
Before you begin any session, you need to thoroughly warm up your cardiovascular system and your major muscles, preparing for the intense work ahead to reduce your risk of injury. Do 10 minutes of gentle activity, gradually increasing the intensity, until you feel warmer and a little out of breath.
Stretch dynamically
For decades, we were told that static holds and stretches where the best way to prepare the muscles for exercise. Yet forcing them into held stretches when they are cold and tight increases muscle weakness and primes them for injury. Instead do some dynamic stretching – think high knee raises and similar moves – as part of your warm-up.
Up the intensity
Once you’re warmed up you can start the session. Remember, the key is to exercise for short but intense bursts of effort to raise your heart rate and fire up your muscles for a double fat-burning effect. Studies have proven that well-executed interval sessions mimic the effects of weights workouts by both decreasing body fat levels and increasing lean muscle mass. Whatever acti
