It is common to listen to fitness professionals and medical doctors when asked how to build abs,
prescribe low to moderate intensity aerobic training (cardio) to individuals who’re attempting to prevent cardiovascular disease or lose weight. Most often, the recommendations constitute something along the lines of “perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio 3-5 times each week preserving your heartbeat in a moderate level”. Before you just surrender for this popular belief and be the “hamster on the wheel” doing endless hours of boring cardio, I’d like you to consider some recent scientific research that suggests that steady pace endurance cardio work may not be all it’s cracked as much as be.
In fact, you might be surprised to know that a few of the leanest and meanest people I understand (women and men), NEVER inflict type of normal or traditional cardio. And I’ve spent over 15 years working out in a variety of gyms, and spending time with athletes of all kinds, so I have seen it all. I will say that there can be a place for low-moderate level cardio for really overweight or deconditioned people, but even in those cases, there can be more effective methods.
But what exactly is “cardio”? Most people would consider cardio to become pumping away mindlessly on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike, or coasting with an elliptical machine, as you’re watching it screen at hawaii of the art gym. Itrrrs this that I call “traditional cardio”. Hmmm, no surprise the majority of people get bored with their workouts and give up after a couple months without seeing results.
First, realize that bodies are made to perform physical activity in bursts of exertion then recovery, or stop-and-go movement rather than steady state movement. Recent scientific studies are suggesting that physical variability is one of the most important aspects to consider in your training. This tendency can be seen throughout nature as all animals demonstrate stop-and-go motion rather than steady state motion. Actually, humans would be the only creatures in nature that attempt to do “endurance” type activities. Most competitive sports (except for endurance running or cycling) will also be based on stop-and-go movement or short bursts of exertion then recovery. To examine a good example of the different effects of endurance or steady state training versus stop-and-go training, think about the physiques of marathoners versus sprinters. Most sprinters carry a physique that’s very lean, muscular, and powerful looking, as the typical dedicated marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly looking. Now which would you rather resemble?
Another step to keep in mind regarding the advantages of physical variability may be the internal effect of various types of exercise on the body. Scientists have known that excessive steady state endurance exercise (different for everyone, but sometimes understood to be greater than 60 minutes per session most days of the week) increases toxin production in the body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune function, causes muscle wasting, and can cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body that may potentially lead to chronic diseases. On the other hand, highly variable cyclic training continues to be associated with increased anti-oxidant production in your body and an anti-inflammatory response, a far more efficient nitric oxide supplement response (which can encourage a proper heart), as well as an increased metabolism response (which can assist with weight loss).
Furthermore, steady state endurance training only trains one’s heart at one specific heartbeat range and doesn’t train it to reply to various every day stressors. However, highly variable cyclic training teaches the heart to reply to and recover from a number of demands which makes it less likely to fail when you need it. Consider it this way — Exercise that trains your heart to rapidly increase and rapidly decrease will make your heart more capable of handling everyday stress. Stress may cause your blood pressure and heart rate to increase rapidly. Steady state jogging and other endurance training does not train your heart in order to handle rapid alterations in heart rate or blood pressure.
The key aspect of variable cyclic training that means it is superior over steady state cardio may be the recovery period in between bursts of exertion. That recovery period is crucially important for the body to elicit a healthy response to a workout stimulus. Another benefit of variable cyclic training is the fact that it is much more intriquing , notable and has lower drop-out rates than long boring steady state cardio programs.
To summarize, some of the potential benefits of variable cyclic training when compared with steady state endurance training are as follows: improved cardiovascular health, increased anti-oxidant protection, improved immune function, reduced risk for joint deterioration, reduced muscle wasting, increased residual metabolic rate following exercise, and an increased capacity for the heart to handle life’s every day stressors. There are many methods for you to reap the advantages of stop-and-go or variable intensity physical training. Among the absolute best forms of variable intensity training to actually reduce excess fat and bring out serious muscular definition is performing wind sprints.
Best sports such as football, basketball, racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are naturally made up of highly variable stop-and-go motion. Additionally, weight lifting naturally incorporates short bursts of exertion then recovery periods. High intensity interval training (varying between everywhere intensity intervals on a piece of content of cardio equipment) is an additional training method that employs exertion and recovery periods. This can help to build abs effectively.
