Never before has there been more information out there when it comes to different training modes. It seems that for each training approach, there is a group of people who will wholeheartedly back that mode as the ultimate, only way to burn fat.
You will hear trainers say “anything other than interval training is a waste of time” or “low intensity stead state cardio is best”. The truth is though that both forms, along with strength training and pilates, have their benefits. It is how you use the different forms of training in concert with each other that will ultimately define whether or not you lose weight and keep it off.
Yes, some training types are more effective at burning fat, but it’s not sustainable to train that way exclusively. And after all, if we want to keep fat off in the long run, we need to find a way that we can stay at the gym for life.
After years of being in the fitness industry, and investigating different modes of training and using these modes on myself, my philosophy is that everything helps.
1) High intensity interval training (HIIT)
When you’re pumped up, primed and ready to rumble, the ultimate in cardio is high intensity interval training. This is where you perform intense bursts of cardio where you give an all out effort, followed by a brief recovery period of either complete rest or lower intensity cardio.
High intensity interval training or metabolic conditioning creates an afterburn effect known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption). Sounds fancy, but it just means that your metabolism is supercharged so that your body continues to burn fat long after you’ve left the gym. HIIT is extremely effective when circuits are designed comprising cardio and resistance exercises using external resistance and bodyweight.
HIIT is intense and pushes you to your limits. I make no bones about it – this is hard. The good news is that it’s over quickly: 30 minutes is the absolute max for high intensity interval training.
I recommend 2-5 HIIT sessions > 20 minutes per week to reduce body fat and increase cardio fitness performance.
Yes, you WILL burn fat.
2) Longer duration aerobic training
Don’t write it off. I’m a big believer in there being a time and a place for everything!
Lower intensity, longer duration cardio has got a bad wrap. If you are doing 5 hour-long sessions of low intensity cardio a week, as used to be the old prescription when people believed in the low intensity “fat burning zone”, you are missing out on so many adaptive benefits. However, if you incorporate long slow cardio as just one element of your training routine, it can be a great way to unload your body while still staying active.
We really have to listen to our bodies. Training at 100% when you have been up all night with your kids, you have had shocker of a stressful day at work, and you punched out a HIIT session the day before, can see you de train yourself and fry your sympathetic nervous system thanks to stress hormone elevation. We still want to enjoy the journey, so spoil yourself from time to time, chuck the headphones in and enjoy an awesome podcast on the cross trainer for 30 minutes.
Yes, you WILL burn fat.
3) Resistance training
Increasing muscle size and strength is not the only result of resistance training. As you achieve these two adaptions, you will also boost your metabolic rate due to the function of the muscle’s mitochondria (fuel burning) machine. Lifting weights is one of the most underrated fat loss modalities.
Keep in mind, when you strengthen muscles close to moving joints, you will strengthen that joint and enhance overall FUNCTION. Is your overall goal with your training just to burn fat, or do you also want to be more functional and experience less day-to-day pain?
Yes, you WILL burn fat.
It all works, and if you want your training to be sustainable, you should do it all.
If you are serious about burning fat, changing your shape and creating lasting change, you are short changing yourself by not incorporating each of these three training techniques into your schedule. Your routine also needs to be periodised with times for rest and active recovery too.
Ensuring a balanced, periodised training schedule that is designed for YOU is what we do best!
