The Best Types Of Cardio For Fat Loss

August 16, 2009 by Keith Colby
Filed under Fat Loss, Movement, Quotes, Training Philosophy

I happened to be reading an article the other day

http://www.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance_interviews/sucker_punch_alwyn_cosgrove

and came across this quote which really simply sums things up if you want to change your body. I think you can get away with less protein intake but overall you can’t go wrong with Chad’s suggestions of keeping it simple.

“If I told you to consume one gram of protein per pound of body weight , fibrous vegetables, water, green tea, 12 grams of fish oil, and spread those out over the course of six meals each day, you’d be anything but impressed. But if I held you in captivity and forced you to do that every day for a month, you’d be blown away by the results.” -Chad Waterbury

Do that for 8 weeks and people will accuse you of being on something.

I hope by now you understand that interval training is the way to go if you are trying to get lean and burn more fat because it burns more calories and elevates your metabolism up to 24 times longer than traditional steady state cardio.

Below are some of my favorite types of Interval workouts that will help you burn lots of fat and improve your overall conditioning level.

It is also important to note that I am not a big fan of most traditional cardiovascular equipment because most machines like the elliptical do not properly work your hip flexors and extensors. Most cardio machines don’t require or allow hip extenson past neutral. Combine that with the fact that most people already have tight enough hips and you have a recipe for dysfunction.

1. Airdyne Bike Sprints – are the safest option because there is no deceleration component (eccentric stress – the stuff that makes you sore and delays recovery) required when pedaling on a bike. The other nice thing about the airdyne bike is that the combined arm and leg action helps produce a higher heart rate than just pedaling alone. Essentially, you get maximum disturbance with minimal muscular disruption. Another piece of equipment I like similar to the airdyne is the Versa Climber - which is done standing and allows for more hip extension.

2. Sprints – are probably the best option, but not everyone can do them without risking injury. Just take a look at sprinters and you can easily see the benefits that sprints will have on your body. Have you ever seen a fat sprinter? With sprints, make sure you prepare your body properly beforehand, start slow and gradually work your way up. I would suggest no more than 40 yards to start at around 85% with at least a 90 sec. rest period in between.

3. Slide Board – is a great bang for your buck tool that we use with most of our clients. The slide board allows you to condition the body in the frontal (side to side) plane vs. always going forward in the sagittal plane. The other great benefit about the slide board is it helps strengthen the hip and groin musculature in a different way compared to other commonly favored activites.

4. Hill Sprints – the nice thing about hill sprints is that they are safer than sprints because the hill will slow you down making it less likely to injure a hamstring or hip flexor. Find a hill that you can sprint in about 5-30 sec. and follow the same guidelines for sprinting. If your hill is short just do more sprints with less recovery over time.

5. Sled Sprints – these are done by attaching a weighted sled to your waist or to a harness that goes over your shoulders. These have the same benefit as hill sprints in that the weight slows you down making the risk of injury less of a concern.

6. Prowler Pushes - I only wish I currently had enough space for one of these. The prowler is a sled with upright handles that you push that is very demanding and burns a ton of calories.

7. Shuttle Runs - are another excellent fat burning option that I would consider very advanced because of the high muscular demand of acceleration, deceleration, and change of direction. 300 and 150 yard shuttle runs can be performed on a 50 or 25 yard course with the 25 yard course being harder. Shuttle runs should also be preceded by a few weeks of tempo runs done preferably on a football field.

8. Jumping Rope - a simple yet effective option that helps increase foot speed and calve development. You can also incorporate jump rope into a circuit, use it on it’s own, or use weighted ropes.

9. Kettlebell Training - is a great training method that allows you to train in a short amount of time by moving from 1 exercise to another without having to move to another tool. Kettlebells are also very effective for building power endurance, are excellent for circuits, and can be used after your workout in place of traditional cardio as finishers. A simple but very effective kettle bell wokout is to do 20-50 1 arm swings per side with minimal rest for 5 – 10 minutes. This will get your heart rate jacked up big time!

10. Bodyweight Exercises and Circuits -performing different body weight exercises with moderate to high reps in a circuit like squats, push-ups, lunges, moutain climbers, walks, jumps, jumping jacks, squat thrusts and step ups in all 3 planes of motion

11. Battling Ropes - Are heavy one and a half to two inch thirty to fifty foot long ropes that you loop around a heavy immovable object and grab both ends being sure to pull the rope taut so that there is no slack and start creating a wave with the ropes so that it does a snake like motion. You can use both hands at the same time or alternate. Try maintaing power for 30 seconds before taking a rest interval.

12. Stadium Stair Sprints - This is an old school method of conditioning but still very effective. Just go to the local high school or college field and sprint up the stairs. If the stairs are longer you may want to sprint straight up, walk down and repeat for 12 – 15 sets. If the stairs are short you could sprint up, jog down and repeat four or five times before taking a short rest period.

13. Barbell/Dumbbell/Kettlebell Complexes - involves doing a set of exercises all in a row without ever putting the bar down. Reps of 5-8 of each exercise are usually performed all in a row before moving to the next exercise without ever letting go of the bar. After completing all the exercises a rest period is taken before repeating the complex. These are really hard and light weights should be used to start.

14. 400-Meter Sprints - Are one lap around a standard track. These would also be listed in the advanced category. I would suggest using 400 meter sprints after you have worked on building up some speed from sprinting for a few months and then start with one 400 meter sprint workout per week at first as they’re very hard.

15. Interval Running - Basically with interval running you’ll alternate between jogging and sprinting. I would suggest starting with two a week and building up to 3 if you are trying to lose fat. Stay with two if your trying to build muscle. My favorite Interval run is the 15 minute interval build-up run.

One final but very important note is to always remember to try to do a little better each week by increasing the intensity but make sure to never increase the total time or distance by more than 20 percent from week to week. A 20 percent increase will continue to improve your results without an increased risk of injury. In order to watch this it is very important to keep track of both distance and total time.

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