all cardio is not created equal

family fitness

This is a favourite time of year to hit the gym and take off a few pounds. While the average Canadian gains just one pound over the holidays – not 5 or 8 as you may have heard – studies do show that the great majority of us keep that one pound of fat all year and add to it the following holiday season… over a few years, that’s an extra notch in your belt! So you’re ready to burn off that pound (and maybe a few others that have been lingering along with it…) and you know you have to do some cardiovascular exercise. But what is cardio? And is all cardio the same?

To put it simply, cardiovascular exercise is any continuous, usually upright or full-body movement that raises the heart rate to a significantly higher-than-usual level for at least 20 to 30 minutes. The most common examples of cardiovascular exercise are walking, cycling, jogging, aerobics, dancing, rowing and stair climbing. In a gym, you’ll find the usual suspects: treadmill; elliptical trainer; rowing ergometer; stationary bicycle; and stairmill. All of these are designed to stimulate the cardiovascular system and improve fitness.

The truth is, some forms of cardiovascular exercise are vastly superior to others. And there are a couple of rules you can follow to ensure you blast off the most calories possible during and after each cardiovascular workout… (Please be sure to check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program and download the Par-Q Exercise Questionnaire if you are new or returning to exercise.)

1. Choose the right exercise. All forms of exercise are beneficial, but when a fat loss goal is present, some activities are superior for their ability to burn calories.  Here are the average caloric expenditures of several popular cardiovascular activities (based on a 150-pound person):

• walking 3.5 MPH: 252 calories/hour
• jogging 5 MPH: 594 calories/hour (note: elliptical training machines burn roughly the same number of calories as jogging/running)
• running 7 MPH: 798 calories/hour
• cycling 10 MPH: 501 calories/hour
• stair climbing: 430 calories/hour
• hiking: 358 calories/hour
• aerobics: 537 calories/hour
• circuit-style strength training & conditioning exercises: 394 calories/hour

2. Don’t get caught in the mythical “fat-burning zone.” Ahhh.. the “fat burning zone…” Also known as the “watching TV” zone or the “chatting with the lady on the treadmill next to you zone…”  Exercising at a lower intensity burns a higher proportion of fat calories and a lower proportion of carbohydrate calories from your body overall; however, and this is a BIG however, the lower the intensity, the fewer calories your burn in total.  When you want to lose weight, you must push yourself.  Try the Talk Test during your next workout to make sure you are working hard enough.

3. Change your body with interval training. Traditional fat-loss recommendations included long, steady workouts at a moderate intensity with little variation in intensity level.  Time-consuming and suspiciously comfortable… yes?  We now know that workouts with short, hard efforts improve cardiovascular fitness and burn fat much more quickly.  One study found that interval training increases your cells’ ability to burn fat by up to 50 percent! Aim for 30-minute workouts with 5 to 10 bursts of 30 seconds to 2 minutes at an intensity level you can barely maintain (e.g., full-out sprinting), followed by recovery intervals of the same length at a comfortable intensity (e.g, brisk walking). Don’t forget to warm up and cool down for at least 5 minutes each.

4. Never get comfortable. Have you lost the anticipation you used to feel as you mounted the treadmill?  Does step class feel more like a social appointment than a physical challenge?  Time for a big change.  Your body adapts quickly to routines by becoming stronger and fitter in exactly the ways you are using it.  If you only ever ask it to do one or two things – say spinning twice per week and yoga three times – it will quickly adapt and learn to do these exercises efficiently (read: by burning fewer calories).  The solution is simple: do something new.  Change your program at least once every couple of months or keep it fresh constantly by enlisting the services of a personal trainer.  Those butterflies you feel in your stomach as you enter a new fitness class, meet your new personal trainer, or head out for your first real jog outdoors?  Those are the butterflies of fat loss…