Cardio...Best Idea For Fat Loss?

Some of you may have heard parts of this spiel already, but due to the mass amount of misinformation out there, it still bears repeating.

Aerobic training (a.k.a. CARDIO...an ugly word around me) has long been thought of as the end-all, be-all of weight loss and body recomposition. I'm here to tell you that this is simply not true! Yes, you will lose weight on a calorie-restricted diet. Yes, you will also lose weight doing cardio. No, that doesn't mean cardio is good (here's some insight into my disdain for cardio). No, you won't end up with the body you want...unless you approach it from a slightly different angle.

Here's why: Cardio and calorie restriction do, indeed, create a caloric deficit, but the cost is a little higher than most people believe. Instead of just shedding fat and getting lean, you lose muscle and bone mass also. If you don't use it, you lose it. So, how do we prevent this from happening? Enter resistance training.

Resistance training can be anything from bodyweight to resistance band training to weightlifting. There are so many options out there, your choices are practically infinite. Depending on your goals, you can use resistance training as part of an interval program, or you can train specifically for strength. Or you can do both. The point is, you need to at least maintain your lean mass if you want your body composition to change in a good way...and resistance training can get you there. As an added bonus, increasing (or, at least, maintaining) lean mass will increase your resting metabolic rate (a.k.a. how many calories you burn when you aren't being active).

Now let's take a step back and look at the big picture. I already mentioned my dislike of "chronic cardio"...so what should you do instead? My current favorite set of guidelines are from Mark Sisson's "The Primal Blueprint." There are three rules regarding fitness in the Primal Blueprint:

1: Move Frequently at a Slow Pace. It strengthens the cardiovascular and immune systems and promotes efficient metabolism. It's also less damaging on the joints. Try to get up to 55-75% max heart rate for 2-5 hours a week. Here's Mark's take.

2: Lift Heavy Things. This one has some obvious benefits, such as muscle growth and increased strength. It also strengthens the tendons so your joints stay healthy. I already mentioned that it increases resting metabolic rate. It also increases spacial awareness and proprioception. The bottom line is this: you want to increase (or maintain) your strength so you can live without fear of injury, even into old age. Keep the workouts short and intense, focusing on functional movement. 1-3x per week, shooting for 7-60 minutes per workout. (These recommendations are for general fitness. Change it however you see fit if you're working toward specific goals like I am)

3: Sprint Once in a While. Once every week or so is sufficient. Here's what I have to say about sprinting.

A fourth and often misunderstood rule that I would like to add is to play! It's fun, it's physical (that means video games don't count!), and it burns calories! Many types of play (like sports) also help with coordination and proprioception. You should give it a try sometime.

Let's recap...dieting and cardio alone won't give you the best results. Cardio is bad. Resistance training is good. Do lots of low level aerobic activity. Lift heavy things (but make sure it's intense!). Sprint once in a while.

Train Smart!

5 Weight Loss and Muscle Gain Myths Debunked

We all see them. In fact we are all bombarded by them.

"Lose 20 Pounds In One Month!"

"Eat Whatever You Want And Lose A Ton Of Weight!"

"Melt Away That Stubborn Belly Fat!"

"Trim Those Love Handles!"

"5 Exercises That Guarantee Rapid Weight Loss!"

"Do This One Workout To Add Pounds Of Muscle In A Matter Of Weeks!"

Now let's look at a few of these recurring themes:

Fad Diets - The "Hollywood Miracle Drink" diet, the cookie diet, the "sprinkle this on your food" diet. Don't even get me started on all the countless prepackaged, preservative-filled, premium-priced ready made meals out there, none of which I have ever enjoyed eating. Yet with all these claims, you can still "eat all your favorite foods." If it were that easy, everyone would be doing it!

Rapid Weight Loss - We are all familiar with this claim. Some say you can lose up to 50 pounds in less than two months using their plan or supplement. I've even seen one claim, by a man I used to respect, that using a particular training style could remove up to 5 inches from your waist in the first month! These claims are absolutely outlandish and are not based on a healthy approach. A vast majority of people who have seen success on these diets end up re-gaining the weight, often adding even more pounds than they lost.

Body Fat Spot Reduction - This myth has existed since Jane Fonda popularized Aerobics in the early 80's. It has been proven by quite a few studies. The body uses fat stores from all over to fuel itself, but don't get discouraged! Michael Jensen, MD, a Mayo Clinic endocrinology specialist and obesity researcher says "There is no magic bullet, diet plan, specific food, or type of exercise that specifically targets belly fat. But the good news is belly fat is the first kind of fat you tend to lose when you lose weight." (WebMD - I personally don't agree with the rest of the article, but the quote is definitely a good one!)

Secret Workout/Set Of Specific Exercises - While it's true that if you're going for a purely aesthetic look, specific exercises may have their place. But for weight loss and pure muscle gain, there are no "ultimate techniques." Truth is, it takes hard work and smart planning for either.

Rapid Muscle Gains - Yes, it is possible to gain 10 lbs. of muscle in a month. Here's what you do: Eat 4500+ calories a day, sleep at least 10 hours, lift heavy 4 days a week, and shoot steroids (you know, just to be sure). This may work for some. If it does and that's what you want, don't let me stop you. For the rest of us, though, it takes more dedication and progressive loading. A more realistic time frame for that kind of muscle gain is 3-6 months, depending on diet and training method.

Well, there you have it, 5 weight loss and muscle gain myths debunked.

So, Josh, What Should We Do?

There are books upon book and blogs upon blogs dedicated to answering this question. I will go over the basics here, to be expanded upon at a later date.

For weight loss, it all boils down to four words: Eat Less. Move More.

Simple, no? The most important part of eating right for weight loss is creating a caloric deficit. The best way to do so is to calculate your daily caloric expenditure (don't worry, there's a tool for that!)You burn quite a few calories just staying alive and doing basic daily activities, which is your baseline caloric expenditure. Everything extra is either used as energy or stored as fat.

Moving more is almost as important as creating a caloric deficit. Move around at a moderate pace. Take up a recreational sport like tennis, basketball, cycling, parkour, etc. (I love the outdoors, so I do a lot of hiking, mountain biking, and climbing. Soon I will add kayaking to the list. First I need to get over my dread of ice-cold water). It's also useful to add resistance training (weightlifting or bodyweight training) in order to build muscle. Muscle burns more calories (not a ton, like many say, but still...every little bit helps!), and strength benefits many other areas of life. This is true for both men and women (women, you don't get out of this! There is another myth I will expand on in the future about women and strength training).

What About Building Muscle?

Like above, I will give a brief overview for the moment and expand on it in a future article.

I'll simplify this one for you also: Eat More. Lift Heavy. I'll add a third one to this though: Sprint and Squat.

The first one is most important. Your body needs a lot more calories to build a good amount of muscle. Make sure you keep those calories clean though! More on that in the future.

Next, lift heavy. For pure size and strength, I recommend a 5x5 heavy weightlifting program. The two best programs are Starting Strength and StrongLifts.

It is also possible to gain weight on bodyweight/calisthenics/gymnastics and kettlebell programs, but the results will not come as quickly. Whichever method you choose, if you are new to exercise, have injuries, or are overweight I recommend starting with calisthenics to develop joint stability and strengthen the tendons before starting a weightlifting program. No matter what your level, the most important thing to keep in mind is train progressively! For more information on the importance of progressive loading, check out this article from Eat. Move. Improve.

The third element is equally as important as the first two. Out of all exercises, sprinting and squatting cause the body to release the highest amounts of growth hormone. They are also important positive stressors on the CNS (central nervous system). They also both have powerful aerobic effects.

Final Notes

There is a massive amount of misinformation that advertisers spread in order to sell their products, and it has made the worlds of weight loss and muscle gain near impossible to navigate. I hope more people will stand up with information intended to truly help those who need guidance instead of leaving them at the mercy of money-hungry advertisers and salespeople. The tide is beginning to turn, but I fear it may not be turning fast enough. We must all do our part to help spread the truth!

Train Smart!

Workout of the Week: Explosions and Speed

This is a wonderfully effective (and simple) little number that will make your legs feel like jelly and your lungs burn. It's especially useful for those of you who enjoy parkour or fighting. Best part, you don't need a single piece of equipment! Just find yourself a grassy field (if you can't find enough grass use a dirt trail or road. If nothing else, find a good stretch of blacktop. Avoid concrete because it's the worst on your joints).

The Workout:
10 Rounds:
10 Jump Squats (go for height, no sissy little hops)
Sprint 50 Meters (approximate distance if you can't measure it)
Rest period is the walk back to the start.

To get the maximum benefit from this workout, make sure not to take too long to walk back to the start. This isn't a slow jaunt. Move with a sense of purpose. We're shooting for more than conditioning in very short bursts, so if you take too long to recover you'll lose the aerobic benefits.

Be careful on your last sets...you may have trouble sticking the landing. If that happens, take a few seconds to rest and go right back at it.

Train smart!

Do This! Not That! - First Installment: Sprinting V.S. Distance Running

We've all seen them. They're the ones who have been a member of the gym for who knows how many years, but never seem to make any progress. They come in, smile at the front desk, then go right to work slogging away on the treadmill. 3-5 miles later, they get off, wipe down their machine, and leave.

The dedication is quite clearly there. If only they had the right information to go with that dedication. Here's the real deal about cardio:

Running (I'll be using this as a blanket term here, to differentiate it from sprinting) seems to have become part of our culture. We see them all the time: joggers, runners, marathoners...and it works for many of them, to a point.

Here's the problem though:

1. They're setting themselves up for long-term injury. Hours upon hours of moving the same way, at the same or similar pace, pounding and pounding away at the ground causes long-term overuse injuries. If you do the same thing too often, no matter what it is, you risk injuring yourself from...well...just doing it too often. Tennis elbow is a perfect, and very well-known, example.

2. Running suppresses hormones such as growth hormone and testosterone, which regulate muscle preservation. On top of that, running more than a couple miles every great once in a while depletes glycogen in the muscles and (since there is no way to nosh a ton of carbs on a run), therefore, begins to cannibalize the muscles for energy. Which leads us to...

3. Running makes you hungry. Because of the depletion of glycogen stores, your body tells you it wants more carbs. So you get home and eat a bowl of pasta. Pasta goes into your stomach, digestion begins, and those carbs turn into glucose and go straight into your bloodstream. Insulin comes rushing in and takes care of all that glucose, but with so much glucose at one time more insulin is secreted than glucose for it to act on, leaving an excess of insulin in the bloodstream. All the while your energy levels feel like a roller coaster.

4. Running just isn't that fun. Especially for me. I just recently ran a mile and a half for my VO2 max assessment, and it was the worst experience I've had since my last one some 2 1/2 or so years ago.

Now, let's shift gears a bit here. Let's do a little comparison. Here is a nice little comparison picture of a marathoner versus an Olympic sprinter. Notice the marathoner's emaciated body, compared to the rippedness (yes, it's a word, or at least it is now...it is my blog, after all!) of the sprinter. Which would you rather look like?

Ladies, this one is for you!

So, here they are! The many benefits of sprinting!

1. Sprinting activates the metabolism and turns it into a fat incinerator.

2. Sprinting doesn't deplete glycogen to the point where you feel like you NEED carbs after your workout and, therefore, your body also doesn't cannibalize your muscles for energy.

3. Sprinting is a positive stressor on the Central Nervous System, stimulating muscle maintenance and growth.

4. Sprinting regulates hormone balance in both men and women. It releases growth hormone and regulates testosterone (men) and estrogen (women).

5. We were all evolved to respond to a threat by either fighting back or, more likely, run as fast as humanly possible. Not jog away.

All in all, I wholeheartedly believe sprinting is better for you. Of course, running does work for many people. If it works for you, more power to ya! It doesn't work for me, though. I get just as much cardio from my sprint sessions as I would spending over double the time running. Just something for you to think about =].

For more information on sprinting, check out these sites:

Mark's Daily Apple - by Mark Sisson
Health & Fitness Solutions - by Michael Paladin
That Paleo Guy - by Jamie Scott (also source of male sprinter/marathoner image)
Motor City Crossfit (source of female sprinter/marathoner image)