I’ve heard from a couple sources (articles, etc…) that when doing cardio to cut fat, it is better to do intervals of sprinting rather than just jogging.
The way its been suggested is this:
warmup–5min
jog–60sec, sprint-15sec (x6)
cooldown–5min
So the whole session takes a little more than 15 min, compared to 30min running session. I have heard arguments for both sides as to which one (jog/sprint) cuts fat better WITHOUT losing LBM… Any comments/suggestions/anything??
Give your program a try. Personnally, I warmup for 4 1/2 miniutes, sprint for 30 seconds, jog for 90 seconds, repeat for seven more times, then cool down for 3 minutes.
I have an acquaintance who used to play for the Carolina Panthers and he sprints up a hill, then jogs down around a path, and repeats so many times.
Good luck.
you really have to find what works best for you. While I am a fan of intervals, I find that heavy weights, lower calories, and interval sprints leads to overtraining for me. I prefer to use intervals as a way to help prevent excess fat build up during a mass cycle.
I would recommend that you work them in slowly. If you are doing cardio 3x a week, try intervals in one of the sessions and see what you think. There has been a lot of discussion on this board on this topic. The message has been while efective, dont over do it! You only have so much recovery ability when you are trying to cut up, and you dont want to overextend it.
I use the low intensity MUCH more and rarely jog for several reasons. 1 I find the lower intensity is great at stripping the fat and preserving LBM, and 2 I have a bum leg/knee from an auto accident that shattered one.
But jogging can be a nice change and helps with your “wind”. But for cutting purposes I stick to the lower longer.
Jogging for Vo2 max more, sprints from time to time also.
I use the low intensity MUCH more and rarely jog for several reasons. 1 I find the lower intensity is great at stripping the fat and preserving LBM, and 2 I have a bum leg/knee from an auto accident that shattered one.
Phill[/quote]
Wait a minute, I thought jogging was considered low intensiity? What do you mean by low intensity Phil?
I’m thinking that several writers on T-Nation (CT comes to mind) have quoted research that shows intervals to preserve muscle mass better than jogging alone.
I think the quandry generally isn’t with cutting. Cardio effectively cuts fat.
The confusion usually comnes with how much cardio you should do when bulking, because you don’t want to consume too many calories doing something that isn’t conducive to building muscle. In those cases, short high-intensity cardio sessions are usually recommended.
If you’re cutting, as long as you’re taking care not to lose muscle (i.e. hitting the weights, eating right), then you probably can use whatever cardio program works best for you.
Sprinting or jogging? If you have a great set of wheels and want to keep them as you shed fat then it has to be interval training.You don’t need big muscular legs to run long distances, but they are certainly necessary for speed. I personally don’t jog; I sprint/walk/sprint. My sprints are full speed (heartrate 170 -185 bpm)after warmup and I walk until my heartrate returns to 120 -130 bpm at which point I sprint again. Use of a heartrate monitor is necessary for this method but it is a great way to burn pudge and still keep your leg size.
Using a heartrate monitor isn’t necessary. There is no need to be overly technical w/ anything. Go out to a track or a field and run sprints. Go to a local stadium and do stair runs. Work hard but smart, and you will see good results. If you are lifting heavy and smart while focusing on “money” exercises and eating a clean diet, you will be successful.
[quote]HouseOfAtlas wrote:
Look at sprinters and look at marathon runners. Which one do you want to look like???[/quote]
Not a correct analogy. Yes, some sprinting is anabolic, and sprinters train with weights too. Marathon runners do nothing anabolic, and overtrain. The guy is a weight trainer (an anabolic activity) looking for something supplementary to add to his weight training to lose fat but preserve muscle.
Also, interval training to lose fat is different from the sprints on a track performed by sprinters who have very long rest periods, short periods of work, and low total volume of running. It’s like weight training really. Most sprinters have low bodyfat because they have great genetics, and they eat more like we do, whereas marathon runners don’t digest massive amounts of protein, or take creatine, generally. Plus most of the top sprinters in the world are, how do you put it, ‘enhanced’.
Lonnie Lowery would suggest low-intensity cardio is the best way to preserve muscle and almost all bodybuilders, until the last few years, would agree. High Intensity Cardio is a relatively recent trend. It’s fantastic for increasing your aerobic capacity for sports like rugby and soccer ,for example. But does it preserve muscle? Debatable.
Personally I run intervals for fitness when required and rely on low-intensity walking or cycling to lose fat.
I’ve heard and/or read many of the smartest guys out there (from this site) say that low intensity is better and some say that high intensity is better. So I’d say that neither one is right or wrong. Since Poliquin just had another article, I’ll use him as an example. A year ago or so I attended one of his seminars and if anyone from the audience asked him about cardio, he treated it like a 4-letter word. NONE of his clients perform low intensity. Then, as previously mentioned, LL likes low-intensity for fat-loss. Both very smart guys, so what’s up? I say as long as your diet is on track, either type of energy system work will work. I personally like high-intensity much more b/c it takes so much less time and is much less boring. I really only use low-intensity as a form of recovery OR if I’m strictly cutting when glycogen stores are low.
Sorry guys yes I guess that was a bit confusing and my fault.
Low intensity being keeping HR down in the 60-70%range. This is usually a steady walk on hills and such with an Xvest, Just a nice pace. LONG AND SLOW.
Jogging being more of a medium intensity. Get HR up quite a bit higher and begins to tap more into glycogen as a fuel source instead of almost exclusive fat burning of the low intensity. Also Tears at the joint, knees and such quite a bit more. But will build endurance and wind.
High intensity being sprints, hill sprints, extreme jump rope schtuff, any gpp that you go ALL out for a short period. Then yes interval that with sloewer rest type periods.
They all have there place and are effective I simply use them all at time but 90% of the time turn toward the LOW intensity as it seems to give the most bang with least drawbacks for my cardio, buck.
i use HIIT and low intensity weighted vest walks and hill work for my fatloss goals. I good jog for some distance is worthwhile to help keep you in overall general fitness health. No use in looking good or being strong if you can’t last long. laters pk
The issue with HIIT is the recovery part. If anyone is familiar with charlie francis’ training system, he isn’t a big fan of HIIT because it falls in 75%-90% catagory and you’re more likely to overtrain if you are also doing leg workouts on other days. The solution? Do HIIT on lifting days usually upperbody days and do tempo runs (less than 75% of your best time for total of 2 miles or so) on non lifting days to promote recovery. You can do all out sprints instead of HIIT if you want assuming your body can handle it. If anyone is familiar with Kenn’s system, Kenn also use CF’s system to fit in his strength training program. They work well together. Another program that will work well is Defranco’s westside for skinnny bastards where you do ME leg day on wednesday (your only leg workout) and do HIIT or sprints on monday and friday and tempo runs on tuesday, thursday and saturday. You must keep track of how fast you’re going on tempo runs. it’s easy to overdo it and not recover from it.