Is Cardio really the best type of exercise for fat loss?

Often fitness and health professionals will prescribe cardio (aerobic exercise) to their clients looking to lose weight or to improve their health. The suggestions are usually something like 30-60 minutes of Aerobic training done at a steady pace, 2-5 days a week, at a medium intensity level. This advice is popular, but does it really work or are we just running in place doing long slow cardio destined to fail. I'd like you to consider some recent research that indicates that steady pace endurance cardio training may not be all it's cracked up to be.

The first thing we need to understand is we are designed to work for short periods followed by recovery, or with a natural stop and go movement rather than the constant repetition you get with aerobic exercising. New research are showing that varying the physical patterns when exercising is a very important thing to consider. We can see this in nature as all animals use variable movement, they don’t use the same movement for an hour straight. We are the only ones that attempt these endurance activities. Most sports (with the exception of endurance running or cycling) all use variable movement patterns with short bursts of exercising. To look at an example of the different effects of endurance versus short burst exercising, consider the bodies of marathoners versus sprinters. Most sprinters have a body that is very lean, muscular, and strong looking, while the average marathoner is more often bony and sickly looking. Which would you rather look like?

Another thing to know about the benefits of variability of movement is the internal effect that various types of exercising gives us. Scientists have known that too much steady state endurance exercising (1 hour plus of exercising most days of the week is too much for most people but we are all different) increases free radical production in the body, can breakdown joints, decrease immune function, cause muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body that can potentially lead to chronic diseases. Variable exercising on the other hand has been linked to an increase in anti-oxidant production in the body and an anti-inflammatory effect, a better nitric oxide response (which can encourage a healthy cardiovascular system), and an increased metabolic rate response (which can assist with weight loss).

The big aspect of variable exercising that makes it far better than steady state exercising is the recovery period in between bursts of exertion. Recovery is crucial for the body to promote a healthy stimulus from exercising. Another benefit is that it is much more interesting and is more likely to keep you training until you reach your goal.

Variable exercising can provide benefits like the following: better cardiovascular function, better anti-oxidant protection, increased immune function, decreased risk for joint degeneration, decreased muscle wasting, increased metabolic rate following exercising, and an increased capacity for the heart to handle life's every day stressors. One of the best forms of variable exercising to decrease body weight and increase muscular definition is to do sprinting.

In addition, weight training naturally incorporates short bursts of exertion followed by recovery periods. High intensity interval training (varying between high and low intensity intervals on any piece of aerobic equipment) is a great training method that utilizes short burst and recovery periods. For example, an interval training session on the treadmill could look like this:

Warm-up for 5 minutes at a fast walk or light jog;
Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute;
Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1 minute;
Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute;
Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1 minute;
Repeat this 4 times to get an intense 20 minute workout
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Using Interval exercising with your weight loss program as well as weight training will dramatically improve the benefit of your training program. Try them and feel the difference they can provide.

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