Interval vs. Endurance Training For Cardiovascular Health

You are doing your sixty minutes of endurance cardio training a couple times a week by jogging or running on your treadmill, but you notice that despite all the hard work that you are putting in that you are not burning any body fat.

What is going on? And what can you do about it?

Your body will not burn fat at the same rate after a few weeks of beginning an aerobic intensive training program because evolution has programmed your body to adjust to the increase in activity. You are in better shape. That’s true. But your body is now burning fewer calories at the same level of activity. It has become more efficient at using its reserve energy. Fat loss will take place more slowly unless you adjust your training regimen.

People who run marathons are usually gaunt. Their muscles are not well defined. A marathoner’s body fat percentage is much higher than you would expect too. They need the reserve energy for long distance running.

World class sprinters are often very muscular with sharp muscle definition. They have a lean body mass with a body fat percentage at the lowest end of the scale.

This is exactly the opposite of what most people would expect. You would think that speed would demand the gaunt look.

The answer is in evolution. The human body is designed for short bursts of intense energy exertion followed by a recovery period that gets it ready for another energy burst. Constant pace movement uses energy reserves but at a much slower rate.

If you want to pick up the fat burning pace again then you have to adapt your aerobic training to the stop and go bursts that burn the most energy in the shortest amount of time.

Physiologic research tells us that long-period exercise at a constant pace, such as that experienced by marathoners, increases the production of free radicals that trigger an inflammatory response in the muscles and joints. It is not just the pounding that can damage knees, hips and ankles over the long term.

Aerobic interval training, i.e. short bursts followed by a short recovery period, can increase the production of anti-oxidants and trigger an anti-inflammatory response making sore knees and joints less likely.

The energy burst boosts your metabolic rate which is really the fat-burning mechanism of any exercise. The evidence is that your metabolic rate will stay elevated for several hours after an aerobics interval training session. That is a fat-burning bonus effect.

Interval training beats out endurance training for heart health too. The reasoning is that constant pace cardio trains the heart within a narrow pulse rate range. Interval training makes demands on your hear muscles over the full spectrum of their range.

Daily life can be stressful. Your body responds to stress by suddenly elevating your heart rate and your blood pressure. Interval training prepares your heart and nervous system for those sudden shocks, which endurance training does not do.

The formula for aerobic interval training is a 15-30 minute workout consisting of bursts of intense activity followed by a short recovery period, repeated throughout the entire workout session.

You can use aerobic steppers, as many women do, for interval training. You can do it on a stationary bike or even on the road if conditions permit. Wind sprints are probably the purest form of aerobics interval training. You do not have to reach world class speeds  to jump your metabolism into fat-burning mode.

The jump rope is a long forgotten aerobic conditioner. It’s cheap and nearly as effective as wind sprints. The key is to cycle intense energy bursts followed by a short recovery.