Q: I need to lose fat quickly, and I’ve been reading a lot about interval cardio training. I want to try it, so how would you suggest I work it into my program? I just started using the Heavy/Light 10×10 Workout based on one of your recent newsletters that made it sound great.
A: As we’ve said, high-intensity interval cardio is like doing another leg workout, so you must be cautious. For those who don’t know what HIIT is, a good example is sprinting the straight-aways and walking the curves on a running track.
You’re alternating anaerobic work, all-out sprints, with active rest, walking. Studies show that it’s an exceptional way to burn bodyfat for a number of reasons…
The anaerobic sprints burn glycogen from your bloodstream and lower-body muscles while triggering muscle damage for postworkout fat burning. The active rest—walking the curves—helps your muscles recover between sprints and can burn some bodyfat as well. Here are a few tips to follow when incorporating HIIT…
1) Do interval cardio as far away from your leg workout as possible. For example, if you do legs on Wednesday, do your interval cardio on the weekends—or if you want to do two HIIT sessions, do one on Friday and one on Sunday.
2) Don’t get carried away; sprint-based HIIT is very traumatic to joints and tendons as well as your lower-body muscles. Four to six all-out sprints should be your limit, and you should only do one or two interval sessions a week. For your other cardio workouts, use low-intensity steady-state walking, usually after your weight workout (no glycogen in your bloodstream means you tap into bodyfat almost immediately).
3) After you’ve done all of your sprints alternated with walks, continue to walk for another 10 to 15 minutes. That’s a cooldown that burns even more fat. Because the sprints have burned glycogen from your bloodstream, just like a weight workout, you will tap into fat stores more quickly with the low-intensity postworkout walking.
4) If you can’t handle sprinting, you can perform a less traumatic form of HIIT on an exercise bike. Pedal as fast as you can with high resistance for 30 seconds, then pedal slowly at lower resistance for one minute. Alternate six to 10 times (remember, it’s less traumatic, so you should be able to handle a few more bouts compared to running, which pounds your joints).
Keep in mind that any type of all-out intense training raises cortisol and adds to catabolism, or muscle cannibalism. Doing fasted cardio, cardio on a completely empty stomach, can compound that negative effect, so have a small protein drink or at least swallow some branched-chain amino acids before your HIIT sessions.
It’s all worth the effort because the leaner you get, the bigger you look. When Jonathan leans out, he ends up looking 20 pounds heavier than he actually is with all that crazy muscle detail and vascularity. Eye-popping muscle detail grabs attention like nothing else.
Note: For more on interval cardio as well as fast fat-loss training, diets, and eating strategies to get you ripped, see the X-treme Lean e-book. And if you really want to rev your lean machine, get X-treme Lean along with Fat-to-Muscle and X-traordinary Abs in our heavily discounted Triple-Shredded Combo Offer.
Till next time, train hard—and smart—for BIG results.
—Steve Holman and Jonathan Lawson
www.X-Rep.com
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