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Kick Up Your Cardio to Burn Fat

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It took me some time to figure out, and I know this may seem stupid, but all 3 elements of fitness programs must align for there to be maximum success–weight training, nutrition and cardio training. I am now kicking up my cardio training to a new level to maximize fat loss.

I have never been very good about cardio training consistency. I mean well, but I never quite accomplish my goals. I have examined my thinking and have decided to push it to another level effective immediately. I gave a lot of thought to my past efforts. I looked over logs of when I was the most consistent with my cardio and figured out the keys tom what I believe will be my success.

Not enough cardio

The first thing I noticed is that I don't do enough cardio. I am bad at completing it when I give myself a smaller cardio schedule. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but when I lighten up my cardio schedule I tend to skip it. That's why I'm going back to 6 days a week of cardio.

Increasing the cardio schedule to decrease the skipped workouts

It may not make sense at first glance, but once I explain it should be an “aha” moment for you. If I only schedule 3 or 4 sessions weekly,i can convince myself to skip one of them because my thought process is that I can always make it up on one of the other days. However, the make ups never happen.

If I load up the schedule with 6 sessions a week, I have no room for make ups, so my attitude is that I MUST complete each training session. I leave myself zero wiggle room.

My plan

I am now going to do 6 days of cardio every week, taking Sunday as a full rest day. On some days I may double up on my cardio if I feel it is required. My main objective is to get it done.

Today I completed a 2 mile morning run. It is the start of going down the right path. What are your cardio challenges?

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Mission Accountability Update: Week #2

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This was a very difficult week for me. As you may know, I enjoy working out in the morning because it avoids problems with trying to schedule later workouts. The idea has always been to workout at a time when life can't get in the way.

This past week I had way too much difficulty getting up. Honestly, the reason is because I went to bed too late. That leads me to wake up not in the mood to hit the gym, so I go back to sleep. When I do wake up to go to my client, I feel guilty. However, this week has had a double whammy because my afternoons and evenings have been packed, so I can't even make up a workout in the evening. This caused me to get a little depressed about my training this week. It got so bad that I consulted with Marlene Keys, a friend of mine from Twitter who specializes in the Law of Attraction. Marlene's advice was priceless.

She asked me about my training. She then said that I should not beat myself up about missing a training session. The more you think negatively about something the more you will avoid that thing. Thus, by beating myself up about this I was making the problem worse. So, on Wednesday I stopped beating myself up about it and I was able to fit in a workout. Not just a workout, but a beast of a workout!

Thus, if you find yourself in this situation, either with your workouts or your nutrition, don't beat yourself up. Let it go and things will clear up quickly. You attract things to yourself by thinking positively about those things. Give it a try and you will likely find that things improve for you.

So what is on your mind?

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Book Review: Better Than Steroids

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Better Than Steroids by Dr. Warren Wiley was a very interesting read on many levels. The book is all about how to eat if you want a bodybuilder's physique. That's the meat of the book–how to use food in the way some people use steroids.

Ketogenic Dieting

Dr. Willey recommends a Ketogenic Diet for fat loss and lean mass building. This involves high fat, moderate protein and very low carb eating. The idea is to keep carbs under 30 grams a day in order for the body to enter a state of ketosis. The idea is that the body starts to utilize fat more for energy when in this state. This means that you will soon lose more fat when using this approach to eating.

At the same time, the higher fat content will increase testosterone production, which will help you with building lean muscle mass.

Training Principles

The training principles presented in the book are nothing new. Dr. Willey advocates the standard high volume weight training approach that is advocated by most body building types. It really offered nothing new to me, but if you are not well-versed in the various ways to train I am sure you will get something out of this section.

Cardio Training Approach

Dr. Willey advocates the HIIT method of training for cardio. This is one of the most successful methods of cardio training out there right now. It can result in some amazingly quick fat loss in a short period of time. Dr. Willey makes the point that combining HIIT with the keto approach to nutrition you are going to really blast your body into fat loss mania. I personally don't think much of the keto approach because I find that it takes away strength I need for intense training sessions. However, I cannot argue with the success many have achieved using the keto approach. However, the HIIT recommendation is something I  agree with 100%.

Water is Important

Dr. Willey spends an entire chapter on the importance of water. He explains why water is so important. He then gives some recommendations for the amount of water you should take in (0.75 x your weight in pounds). Again, the premise is that it is better to give your body the right food and the right amount of water than it is to take steroids.

Conclusion

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a fresh look at how to get into shape. The information presented on nutrition is excellent. Yes, he spends alot of time on keto, but also talks about zig zagging and other methods of eating. You will learn alot from this book. I give it a thumbs up. If you have read this book, give us a comment.

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Do You Really Try?

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Do you really try to avoid eating the wrong things? Do you really know how your nutritional plan is affecting your physique transformation progress? My answer may surprise you. I doubt that you really try. I believe you think you try, but the reality is that you don't try as much as you think you do.

Most people think they stick to whatever program they've chosen. They believe that over the long haul an occasional cheat here or there isn't so bad. The reality is that cheat meals are, in my opinion, essential for continuing to lose fat. They help keep cravings at a minimum. However, most people cheat way more than they think. They don't realize it because they don't do the one thing they really should be doing–tracking their food intake.

When I first started tracking my food intake I found that what I ate was really surprising to me. I took in more calories than I thought and of the wrong kind as well. Once I began seriously tracking my food (and not lying to myself) I was able to start seeing some real progress on the nutrition front. I could make the adjustments necessary to get where I want to go.

Getting into shape is alot of work. Not only that, it is hard work. That's why most people don't do it. They just convince themselves that they have done things right and they complain about not getting good results. Some will even go so far as tracking their food intake, but leaving off important things like a Starbucks Frappacino or the candy they snuck behind someone's back. This will definitely sabatoge good results. I know because I used to be one of those people. Now I feel alot better about my eating. I feel better because I am not lying to myself any more. That makes all the difference in the world. Now cheat meals are planned ahead of time.

What do you think? Do most people try hard or not? Let me know in the comments area of this post.

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Treadmill Hill Climbs for Fat Loss Success

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Treadmill Hill Climbs are something I invented to aid with fat loss success. I got the idea from people who run up and down a local hill. I tried it a few times and found it to be an intense exercise, but too hard on my old knees.

Treadmill Hill Climbs – The History

My 16 year old son did a goalie camp last year where they did dry land exercise that included running hills. He told me about a local hill that many people meet at to run. I decided to give it a go. My son, my friend and I all headed over to the hill to run it. My first thought was that going up such a steep hill was intense. The effort to not only get up the hill, but to get back down it was so intense that it felt like my heart was trying to fly out of my chest. The three of us agreed to try this again the following week.

As the week wore on, both my friend and I (who are both over the age of 40) complained to each other about the aches in our knee joints as a result of the hill climbs. Since we had recovered by the following Friday, we ran the hill again. Once again, we both had pain in our knees. It was then that I got the idea for the treadmill hill climbs.

Cardio Intensity: High or Low?

There has been a debate raging on about which type of cardio is better–high intensity interval cardio (HIIT) or low intensity steady state cardio (LISS). I say they both have a place in your cardio plan. As I have conducted the Experiment of One throughout the years I have discovered the importance of changing things up. While this has been applied mostly to weight training, it also applies to cardio training.

HIIT will burn calories long after you stop the training, but LISS will burn more calories per session. The bigger problem is that HIIT is hard on your legs and makes it difficult to recover from leg training days. At the same time, I figured that I needed a way to make LISS sessions just a little more intense. Enter the treadmill hill climbs for fat loss success.

Executing Treadmill Hill Climbs

The theory behind treadmill hill climbs is simple–make LISS cardio more intense by constantly changing the load your body is going through. This is accomplished by manipulating speed and incline on the treadmill. I begin with a 2 minute warm up at a brisk pace and a 1.0 incline. Upon completion of the warm up, I increase the incline 0.5 every 30 seconds that pass by. I progressively increase the maximum incline each week. So, if this week calls for an 8.0 incline, I will keep increasing the incline until it reaches 8.0. Once I reach 8.0 I will begin increasing the speed by 0.1 every 30 seconds until I have done that for 10 intervals. At that point I will decrease the speed by 0.1 every 30 seconds, again for 10 intervals. Once I am back to my original speed, I begin decreasing the incline by 0.5 every 30 seconds until I am back to the 1.0 incline level again. I end the session with a nice 5 minute cool down at a slow pace.

If you do this workout in place of your LISS cardio you will see your fat loss increase. Give it a try and leave me a comment telling me what you thought of it.

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