Fat Loss Cardio

Fat Loss Cardio

Saturday, I did a “Two-A-Day” workout.  Saturday morning, I went to my old high school track and started off with a brisk walk for a lap, followed by a light jog for a lap.  Here was my workout:

Bleachers (2 rounds up and down)

Sprint a straight

I did this 6 times, and my recovery was walking from the bottom of the bleachers to the next straight (a nice leisure walk as my heart was pounding).

I was done in about 20 minutes, and it was 44 degrees.  Yet, I was pouring with sweat.  It was almost like a finisher workout.  I haven’t done anything like that in about a year, and it felt awesome.

That’s what I call “fat loss cardio“.

Here’s the deal – I don’t think cardio is a great weapon for fat loss.  When I say “cardio”, I mean walking aimlessly on the treadmill watching reruns of MTV’s Cribs.  Shocker – the rapper has marble countertops and he has a heated pool in his kitchen while some chick in a bikini serves him pop tarts (apple cinnamon flavored).

You’ve seen this episode.  And your body is not changing – no wonder you’re frustrated.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m a big believer in staying active on your “off” days by taking a walk outside for some fresh air, playing with your dog or kids, playing some tennis, whatever it is you find enjoyable.  But to use cardio as a weapon for fat loss – you could do so much better.

With the gorgeous weather here in GA, I usually take a walk or a light jog on my off days for 30-45 minutes.  This keeps me engaged mentally.  On my walk is when I come up with ideas to share with you, so you can get better results.

As a matter of fact, my walk on Saturday to the gym for my “Part 2” workout is when I came up with this idea for you.

As you know, a metabolic workout finisher is to compliment your main workout program.  So, you have a plan to burn more fat with your main program.  But what about your off days?

Here’s the deal – you may not be ready to do fat loss cardio on your off days, and here’s why – if you’re not recovering properly between workouts, then you’re simply doing too much.  Your priority should be your main workouts and finishers.  That will be your foundation for fat loss (with nutrition being the top dog of course).

What’s my recommendation for nutrition?  That’s not up to me – that’s your call.  That’s a whole new post.  The truth is that there are many nutrition programs out there that work really well.  You have to find one that you can stick to.

So, here are some fat loss cardio ideas you can use to get shredded before beach season hits.

Reminder – there is less than 7 weeks before Memorial Day.  You’re freaking out now, and you’re welcome.

If you find yourself fatigued more than usual during your main workouts, than it’s time to reduce the intensity or just try staying active on your “off” days.  Luckily for me, as long as I keep these little fat loss cardio sessions to 25 minutes or less (including the warm-up), I’m good to go and can handle my main workouts.

Let’s dance (or some other cool sentence).

Fat Loss Cardio Workout 1

1A) Perform any cardiovascular activity that you can only sustain for 2 minutes (about a 7.5/10 intensity)

1B) Perform a plank for 60 seconds, rest 30 seconds

Do the above 4 times

Fat Loss Cardio Workout 2

1A) Intervals – 9/10 intensity for 20 seconds followed by recovery (3/10) for 40 seconds – do this 3 times

1B) Walking Lunges (15/leg)

1C) Pushups (20), rest 30 seconds

Do the above up to 3 times

Fat Loss Cardio Workout 3

This one is tough – brace yourself

1A) Burpees (10)

1B) X-Body Mountain Climbers (10/side)

1C) Any cardiovascular activity that you can sustain for just 1 minute, rest 30 seconds)

Do the above 5 times

Now that’s how you do cardio baby… fat loss cardio.

By the way, here was my second workout on Saturday.  But first, I have to confess why I did 2 workouts.  Do you know those huge Reeses Peanut Butter cups… not the large ones, the really, really, huge ones that just came out?  Yeah, I ate most of an entire egg Friday night.  The old Mikey came out to play – what can I say?  I’m human.

Onto the workout – here is what I did.  I walked to the gym because it was gorgeous outside.  I downed some caffeine and I was going to do 2 moves – DB Swings and Pushups.

Do the following superset, resting only when needed.  In the first superset, you will perform 15 reps.  In the next superset, you will perform 14 reps.  Continue in this fashion until you complete 1 rep of each exercise.

1A) DB Swings (if you have a kettlebell – even better) (15, 14, etc. down to 1)

1B) Pushups (15, 14, etc., down to 1)

I went metabolic baby.  The workout only lasted about 12 minutes, but I was drenched.  Hopefully, I worked off some of that Reeses peanut butter egg.

Now for me, I went the bonus workout approach and just went from 15 down to 1.  But this could have been a full workout had I gone from 15 to 1, and then work my way back up to 15.

Good times, and of course, boom goes the fat-burning dynamite.

So, “fat loss cardio” doesn’t have to be boring.  Spice it up, but be careful not to impeded on your main workouts.  Here are some ways to adjust your off days so that you can give your main workouts your all:

1) Reduce the number of rounds – so if you’ve been doing 4 rounds, try doing just 2-3 and see if you find a difference in your main workouts.

2) Reduce the intensity – so if you’ve been doing knocking out 12.0 on the treadmill for your intervals, try cutting it down to 11.0 (something like that).

3) Use a different method for your cardio – a great method to get your heart rate up really high without impact on the joints is the Total Body Extension.

Hey Mikey, what the heck is a Total Body Extension?  It’s this:

Total Body Extension

1.      Start in the standing position as if you were going to do a bodyweight squat.

2.      Dip down quickly into a quarter squat and swing your arms behind you by your sides.

3.      Explode up and extend your body onto your toes, raising your arms overhead.

4.      Control the descent back and in one movement return to the dip before exploding back up again.

5.      This is a non-impact replacement for jumping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let the 7-week countdown to Memorial Day begin… let’s do this,

Mikey, CTT, and Finisher Obsession Guy (until I come up with something better)