There are no major secrets when it comes to including cardio in to your fitness regimen. Cardio accelerates the rate of your fat loss and increases your overall endurance and stamina.
Perhaps the most useful effect of cardio is the utilization of oxygen to burn down fat.
The major factor about including cardio into your workout regimen is the amount of time spent on the activity. The other factor to consider is the amount of exertion and hard work involved in cardio. There are many forms of cardio and some consider casual dance lessons as cardio. But casual cardio is not going to bring any real results.
Instead of going into voluminous theory I am going to answer the most common FAQ’s and cove everything you need to know.
What is cardio? Can dance classes be considered as cardio?
Casual Dance classes and Aerobics are intermittent form of cardio and this form of start and stop exercise hardly burns any fat.
Let me explain.
Your body needs to use oxygen for prolonged periods of time to burn fat. You need to exercise for a minimum of 25 minutes and upto 1 hour to expect any real fat burning effect from cardio and the activity needs to be at a moderate to high intensity.
How do I know if I am exercising at the recommended intensity?
This optimal fat burning zone is usually between 60% and 80% of the functional capacity of your lungs or 70-85% of your age predicted maximum heart rate.
In the aerobics world, a moderate intensity is described as exercise during which you are breathing hard but at the same time you are able to speak. You must be able to speak full sentences comfortably without having to stop and catch your breath. If you’re out of breath and are not able to hold a conversation, then you’re probably stressing more than required.
That’s the simplest explanation and it works absolutely perfectly.
However if you are one of those with a scientific bent of mind and want to know the details of target heart rate zone, then you may use the Karvonnen method or the Age-predicted method.
Method 1: The Karvonnen method for calculating your fat burning zone
Step 1: Determine your resting heart rate
Measure your pulse rate while you are at rest and seated.
The normal pulse rate is between 72-80 beats per minute. However, in trained athletes and marathon runners the heart is much lower (40-60 beats per minute) due to cardiovascular conditioning.
For our example let’s assume your resting heart rate (pulse) is 80 beats per minute.
Step 2: Calculate your estimated maximum heart rate (EMHR)
Your EMHR is an estimate of how fast your heart can beat while exercising. The ideal method to find out your heart rate is to undergo a graded treadmill test. However EMHR can also be calculate with the following formula:
Estimated maximum heart rate = 220 – your age
For our example let’s assume you are 25 years old.
Therefore your EMHR = 220 – 25 = 195.
Step 3: Determine your heart rate reserve (HRR)
Your Heart rate reserve (HRR) = Estimated maximum heart rate (EMHR) – Resting heart rate (step1)
Example:
Step 1: Your RHR was 80
Step 2: Your EMHR was 195.
Therefore your Heart rate reserve = 195 – 80 = 115.
Step 4: Multiply your HRR by your desired intensity range
Your desired intensity range is as follows:
% of MHR Difficulty
60-65% moderate
65-70% somewhat hard
70-75% moderately hard
75-80% hard
The above 4 zones are desirable and are considered best for burning fat.
Lets say you want to work out at a “somewhat hard”(65-70%) intensity, then multiply your HRR by 65-70%.
115 x .65% = 75
115x .70% = 81
Step 6: Add your RHR to the above results to determine your target heart rate
75 + 80 (RHR) = 155 (Target heart rate at 65%)
81+ 80 (RHR) = 161(Target Heart Rate at 70%)
Therefore your target zone is 155-161 beats per minute
Method 2: The Age-Predicted Method
Unlike the previous formula… the age predicted method is a simple formula. This formula takes your estimated maximum heart rate and multiplies it directly by the intensity you want to work at.
Step 1: Calculate your estimated maximum heart rate (EMHR)
Your EMHR is an estimate of how fast your heart can beat while exercising. The ideal method to find out your heart rate is to undergo a graded treadmill test. However… EMHR can also be calculate with the following formula:
Estimated maximum heart rate = 220 – your age
For our example let’s assume you are 25 years old.
Therefore your EMHR = 220 – 25 = 195.
Step 2: Select an intensity you want to work at
You should target to maintain a heart rate of 70-85% of your estimated maximum heart rate for best fat burning results.
Multiply your EMHR by your desired intensity range
Example:
Multiply your MHR by 70-85%
195 X .70% = 137
195 X .85% = 166
Your training heart rate should be between 137-166 beats per minute. If you are just beginning then you can target a heart rate at the lower end of the scale (137 beats) and as you increase your stamina you can target the higher end of the scale( 166 beats/minute). This will be your optimal fat burning zone.
You need to measure your pulse intermittently to check your heart rate. You can count your heart rate for 15 seconds and multiply it by 4 to get your heart rate per minute.
How long should I exercise?
You should exercise at your optimal fat burning heart rate for between:
Minimum: 30 minutes
Maximum: 60 minutes
If you find your body fat in the desirable range, then 3-4 sessions of 20 to 30 minute workouts per week are enough to maintain your body fat level and stay ripped.
However if you want to lose more fat then you can train 5-7 days per week and upto 60 minutes per day;
Once you reach the desired body fat range… you can maintain it with 20-30 minutes of cardio 3-4 times a week.
You need to watch how your body responds to aerobic activity. You may notice that you lose a lot of fat in the beginning stages and then the fat loss begins to plateau as the body gets accustomed to the exercise. At this point you may need to increase the duration of training.
However remember that more is not always better: Do as little cardio as necessary to produce the results you want.
There is no point exerting yourself for nothing. It puts extra stress on your body and makes it prone to injury and over training does not offer any great benefits.
What programs can be considered as good and bad forms of cardio training?
Good forms of cardio
- Brisk Walking,
- Jogging (out doors & treadmill)
- Bicycling( outdoors & stationary),
- Stair climbing machine exercise,
- Elliptical exercise
- Rowing,
- Cross-country skiing
- Dance form : Shaun T: Hip hop abs (video training dance series specially created for cardio and abs)
Not so efficient forms of cardio
Any start and stop activity: Football, Tennis, golf, basketball, racquetball;
Bad cardio
- Walking at work
- Casual walking
- Hurrying to some location(increases cortisol)
Are there any techniques to accelerate fat burning?
Method 1: Early morning fasted cardio
Early morning fasted cardio is known to increase the fat burning effects of your cardio by up to 300%
This theory works on the premise that after an overnight 8-12 hour fast, your body’s stores of glycogen are low and you tend to burn more fat when glycogen is low.
The moment you eat, your body releases insulin and insulin slows down fat burning. Preventing that can be achieved when cardio is done in the morning before consuming any food when insulin is at an all time low.
If you eat work out immediately after you eat then you are likely to burn off what you just ate before burning into stored body fat.
Some people endorse early morning cardio as a way of life and they claim that elevated heart rate early in the morning wakes you up and sets you up for the day.
However a common risk of doing cardio early in the morning is the possibility of losing muscle. The early morning state is not only a good stage for burning fat, it can also provide a stage for breakdown of muscle.
This risk can be averted by limiting your cardio to less than 30 minutes. If you maintain an optimum diet and do weight training, you needn’t worry about muscle loss. If you need to practice cardio for more than 30 minutes then you can have a second session later during the day.
Method 2: High intensity interval training (HIIT)
High intensity interval training has gained wide popularity for the results it has produced. It is a technique of alternating 30 to 120 second periods of very high intensity cardio with 30 to 120 second periods of low to moderate intensity cardio.
During the high intensity cardio you are going to push yourself to the max i.e. well above your target heart zone (above 85%) to a point where you begin to lose your breath.
Then you reduce the intensity just enough to catch your breath during the recovery interval so you get back your oxygen just in time for another burst.
This form of exercise is known to increase your overall metabolic rate throughout the day higher than steady state cardio. This increase in the metabolic rate is known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).
For maximum fat loss, the duration of each interval should be somewhere between 30 and 120 seconds. The total length of the workout is usually up to 20 minutes of intervals + 5 minutes warm up + 5 minutes cool down.
Research studies found that HIIT which involved cycling for two minutes at high intensity followed by two minutes at a low intensity burned 160 more calories in 24 hours than people working out at a steady low intensity.
This done over a few days or weeks can add up to massive fat loss.
Weight training is also known to have a higher EPOC than aerobic training with increase in metabolism by nearly 4-7% over a 24 hour period. This amounts 100 – 175 extra calories burned on a normal 2500 calorie intake.
Therefore weight training is of the highest priority as far as fat burning is concerned.
If you have enough time you may combine it with cardio to achieve maximum fat loss.
When the above two are combined with the proper diet, it results in maximum fat loss and a phenomenal body.