My personal training clients ask me all the time about what type of interval training they should do for the best results in their fat loss training.
As you may know, I’ve had the privilege of working with fat loss superstar Alwyn Cosgrove on several projects including LiftStrong*, Shape Shift: Achieving the Athletic Look, Secrets of Female Strength & Conditioning, and Faster in 30 Days.
(* 100% of the proceeds for LiftStrong.com go straight to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, BTW.)
Though I don’t have “expressed written permission” (as they say in sports TV), I managed to grab – just for you – this free sample of what’s in Alwyn Cosgrove’s Afterburn: Extreme Fat Loss Training book.
[You're welcome.]
By the way, Alwyn’s a martial arts champ, so if he gets mad at me for giving you this for free, I’m in BIG trouble (I can outrun him, though). So, shhhhhh.
For more from Alwyn, go to AlwynCosgroveFitness.com
Caloric expenditure
Fat loss is all about caloric expenditure. We must burn more calories than we take in, and the real key to doing this, as mentioned before, is not aerobic training, which will burn calories while you are doing it, its anaerobic training, which burns calories while you are doing it AND increases the calories burned for hours afterwards.
In the case of weight training, if we build muscle and keep it, that burns calories forever more. Even when you sleep!
The key with anaerobic training is what is known as EPOC. Anaerobic exercise burns a ton of calories while you are performing it. However, the metabolism remains elevated following this type exercise.
This was, at one time, referred to as the oxygen debt, but is now referred to as the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC).
The recovery of the metabolic rate back to pre-exercise levels can require several minutes for light exercise (aerobic training), several hours for very heavy exercise (anaerobic cardio training), and up to 12 to 24 hours or even longer for prolonged, exhaustive exercise (interval training or circuit weight training).
The EPOC can add up to a substantial energy expenditure when totaled over the entire period of recovery. If the oxygen consumption following exercise remains elevated by an average of only 50 ml/min or 0.05 liter/min, this will amount to approximately 0.25 kcal/min or 15 kcal/hr.
If the metabolism remains elevated for five hours, this would amount to an additional expenditure of 75 kcal that would not normally be included in the calculated total energy expenditure for that particular activity.
This major source of energy expenditure, which occurs during recovery, but is directly the result of the exercise bout, is frequently ignored in most calculations of the energy cost of various activities.
If the individual in this example exercised five days per week, he or she would have expended 375 kcal, or lost the equivalent of approximately 0.1 pounds of fat in one week, or 1.0 pounds in 10 weeks, just from the additional caloric expenditure during the recovery period alone.
This is the key to maximizing the return on your exercise investment.
The next obvious idea is – if you trained the next day while your metabolism is still elevated, will we have an even higher return – is the effect accumulative? Is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?
Science has yet to give us an answer, however in the real world, I think so. I have seen amazing results with my clients using this exact protocol.
Interval training
So is there a better way of performing cardio workouts to prevent these adaptations, and rapidly improve fat loss results? Yes. The key is to perform what is known as interval training.
Interval training simply refers to a series of intense activity separated with short rest periods.
Through using interval training you are able to exercise at a higher intensity without getting tired. In other words – because we alternate the periods of high intensity work, with periods of lower intensity work – you are able to do much more work in the same time period than you were before.
The beauty of this is as you improve, the work intervals can get harder and harder, and the recovery intervals can be shortened, or performed at a higher speed.
In fact, there is no end in sight, and no downside to interval training (other than it is really hard).
The AFTERBURN ENERGY SYSTEM Routine
This can be performed using any cardiovascular machine, and I suggest that you use them all.
Multi-mode cardio (where you change the machine or type of activity regularly) has been shown in the research to be another more effective factor. So as a general guideline, don’t use the same cardio machine two workouts in a row.
The Routine:
- Warm up for five minutes
- Round: Perform 1 minute as fast as you can (a level 9 or 10 intensity – on a scale of 1-10).
- Recover at a moderate pace for two minutes (a level 6-7 intensity).
That’s one “round” – and it lasts three minutes- Cool down for five minutes
Now alongside the weight training and nutrition program included in this e-book – I also want you to perform the Afterburn Energy System Routine several times each week.
These interval workouts can be done after your weight training workouts, later the same day or on separate days.
What I DON’T want you to do is to perform these routines BEFORE weight training. This will reduce the effectiveness of your program.
· Weeks One to Four:
Perform three rounds, three times per week. The total cardio time will be 19 mins per workout including warm up and cool down.· Weeks Five to Eight:
Perform four rounds, four times per week. The total cardio time will be 22 mins per workout including warm up and cool down.· Weeks Nine to Twelve:
Perform five rounds, four times per week.The total cardio time will be 25 mins per workout including warm up and cool down.· Weeks Thirteen to Sixteen:
Perform six rounds, five times per week. The total cardio time will be 28 mins per workout including warm up and cool down.This type of cardio training performed as prescribed, typically results in a 1-2lb fat loss per week. So over a sixteen week period, depending on your dedication to nutrition, supplementation and your weight training routine, we are looking at a possible loss of at least 16-30 plus lbs of fat.
Again, this is just a tiny excerpt from AFTERBURN – Extreme Fat Loss Training. Get it now at AlwynCosgroveFitness.com
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