Day 25: Intensity Matters So Get Over Chronic Cardio Syndrome

After my final exam today, I kickboxed for an hour. This class is also referred to “bag class.” The nice thing about where I train is that there are enough bags for the entire class (1 bag per person) which is great for maintaining an intense workout. I love the heavy bag because you can work on so many things: power, speed, endurance, visualizing targets, combinations; the list goes on and on. Even for non-fighters, the heavy bag can offer a very intense workout if you do it right.

Intensifying The Heavy Bag

10 sets of 15-second punch out drills. Allow 45 seconds of rest between drills. This brief 10-minute sequence is much harder than it sounds. By shortening the time frame of the “sprint” drill, you’re able to maintain a true max effort from start to finish. These drills are excellent when training to improve speed, power, and anaerobic capacity. 

Another option to traditional heavy bag work involves brief full-speed, power boxing rounds. Each round will last 60 to 90 seconds. You can throw combinations with maximum power. This is no time to be practicing your jab! Focus solely on power punching. Each round should involve a max effort. Each punch will be thrown with bad intentions!

Just like in this video…

But High Intensity Is Not “The Fat Burning Zone”

I know there are people out there thinking…but “I want to burn fat” and the best way to do that is with more cardio at a moderate, aerobic pace. I know. It’s all because of that “fat burning zone” chart on the elliptical machine that people are mislead and spend 2 hours of their life on a machine  in the gym. So sad…but it doesn’t have to be this way folks!

Chronic Cardio Syndrome 

We live in a cardio addicted culture. How many times have you seen someone (women especially!) on the treadmill or elliptical machine for hours on end? And why wouldn’t anyone want to hear that real exercise doesn’t mean endless hours on boring, torturous cardio machines? Because it sounds too goo to be true.

Hey, I’m no stranger to Chronic Cardio Syndrome. You see, I love long runs. LOVE IT! For me, it’s a way to get out of the house and enjoy the scenery outside. I love running to the sunrise in the mornings and the overall “high” during a 20+ mile run. Unfortunately, with this 45 day long project, I have put off my long runs. Why would I do that? Won’t long runs contribute to my fat loss goals? The answer is yes but honestly, I’m looking for a more efficient way to achieve my goals. For me, long runs were never about getting lean or even increasing endurance. It was supplemental and purely for fun. My six pack and endurance all came from short, intense, “make you wanna throw up,” interval style training.  The short and sweet method gave me biggest results.

Intensity Beats 2 Hours of Mindless Cardio

For those who are still not sold, consider this study from the McMaster University. In the context of six training sessions during a two week study period, half of the college aged subjects did 90-120 minutes per session of a continuous moderate-intensity cycling routine while the other half did between four and six 30-second intensive cycling bursts. At the end of the two week study period, the endurance cycling subjects had each invested 10.5 hours. The intensive interval subjects had invested just 2.5 hours. Yet, the improvements in fitness performance and muscle parameters were the same.

Still on the fence? 

A study  from the University of New South Wales followed the fitness and body composition changes in 45 overweight women in a 15-week period. The women were divided into two groups and assigned interval or continuous cycling routines. The interval “sprint” cycling group performed twenty minutes of exercise, which repeated eight seconds of “all out” cycling and then twelve seconds of light exercise. The continuous group exercised for 40 minutes at a consistent rate. At the end of the study, the women in the interval group had lost three times the body fat as the women in the continuous exercise group.

The study’s organizers, in their presentations to the Heart Foundation and American College of Sports Medicine, discussed the role of sprinting in metabolic response. Intense interval training, they said, results in higher levels of catecholamines, a compound related to fat oxidation.

How Much is Enough?

It is not necessary to reach aerobic, anaerobic or even a target heart rate with every daily exercise routine. You will see weight loss results if you reach or overtake your target heart rate three times a week. While experienced athletes can sustain this activity for an upwards of an hour each session, the beginner should start with no more than 20 minutes of an advanced heart rate per workout.

Bottom Line

Look, it all comes down to this. Fat loss is so much more about diet rather than how long you train. But for the time you do train, short anaerobic bursts like sprints and intervals are more efficient. This is another reason why I love the CrossFit philosophy. I can get way more done in 20-30 minutes than most of gym rats doing 2 hours of cardio and weights…I’m just sayin!

TODAY’S STATS RECAP

1. Workout: 1 hour kickboxing (high intensity intervals, bag work + some calisthenics)

2. Food: Calories 943/ Carbs: 97g/ Fat: 35g/ Protein: 45g