da_Freak
03-05-2009, 12:33 AM
It's that time of the year when building muscle tends to be the number one workout priority. All too often, however, with that muscle comes an annoyingly high level of fat.
When accumulated layers of fat have to come off in order to exhibit that spanking new muscle tissue one faces a dilemma that even professional bodybuilders must deal with.
Do you "bulk up" to add muscle size at the expense of your waistline?
Or, do you sacrifice muscle size (and strength) to avoid your six-pack becoming a brewery?
Know that it is absolutely essential that you:
1. increase your caloric intake
2. meet your protein needs, and
3. submit your body to progressive-workload exercise in order to promote muscle growth.
After you have the aforementioned nutritional and strength-training pieces of the puzzle in place, your primary concern is recuperation. In fact, if you are not adequately recovering from your workouts you can rest assured that you are tapping into your muscle stores to provide valuable energy and use as repair materials.
Since there is a need for increased caloric intake and limited extracurricular activities for an anabolic environment to be promoted, you will want to do some "damage control" to avoid running the risk of being mistakenly harpooned in the hot tub. How appealing is all that spanking new muscle if it's hidden under layers of lard?
So the "Catch-22" of hypertrophy-phase training comes to center stage. Now that we have identified and clarified the problem, let's look at a solution.
Metabolizing With VICI
When all the dust has settled in the weight room and in the kitchen, precision aerobic exercise is the secret weapon in keeping your body fat in check while increasing muscle size. When the goal is to build muscle (hypertrophy), your objective with cardio training is to do just enough to keep unwanted body fat at bay while not interfering with replenishment and recuperation that is so vital in the muscle-building process.
Also, conventional slow, long-duration cardio workouts tend to "overtrain" the fast-twitch muscle fibers and to convert the intermediate muscle fibers to slow-twitch suitors. This is the opposite of what you want to happen as fast-twitch (white) muscle fibers have a greater propensity for hypertrophic response.
Enter Varying Intensity Cardio Intervals (VICI) which are quite different from the typical aerobic workouts commonly subscribed to. Variety is the key component in metabolic-enhancing cardio workouts. Never allowing your body to adapt, or settle in, to a particular workload is vital in renewing your metabolism. The best way of regulating that variance is through implementing higher-intensity bursts, or work intervals, in combination with active rest intervals.
Empirical evidence shows that high intensity cardio exercise in non-obese subjects has been shown to be more effective than training at a lower intensity level (Tremblay, 1994).
Higher-intensity aerobic intervals have also been shown to increase exercise and resting energy expenditure separate from any change in muscle mass (Hunter et al 1998). Higher-intensity exercise has resulted in greater fat loss despite less total energy expenditure (during a session) when compared to a higher level of energy expenditure achieved in a lower intensity exercise session (Tremblay, 1994).
The total energy cost of the (Moderate Intensity Cardio) MIC program was substantially greater than the (High Intensity Interval Training) HIIT program. The scientists found that the MIC group burned more than twice as many calories while exercising than the HIIT program. HOWEVER, skinfold measurements showed that the HIIT group lost more subcutaneous fat. According to the scientists, " . . .when the difference in the total energy cost of the program was taken into account, the subcutaneous fat loss was nine fold greater in the HIIT program than in the MIC program." Bottom line: the HIIT group experienced 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned during exercise. Tremblay, et al; (Metabolism (1994) Volume 43, pp.814-818)
Another key feature of Varying Intensity Cardio Intervals is that it is more motivating than conventional cardio workouts. Varying the intensity is what keeps this form of aerobic exercise exciting and challenging and is the key characteristic in metabolic-enhancing cardio workouts. The best way of regulating that variance is through implementing timed higher-intensity bursts, or work intervals, in combination with timed active rest intervals.
The classic example of metabolic cardio intervals is Fartlek training. Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play". You begin your running session with a gradual warm-up for 6-8 minutes before heading into the interval phase. This interval phase consists of repetitions of a running phase (sprint) followed by a jogging (or walking) phase. An example would be to go to a track and run the straight-aways and walk the turns or by running to a specific object that is 100-120 yards away and then jogging the same distance. Repeat this sequence for 8-12+ minutes before a cool-down phase of 4-6 minutes.
If you only remember 1 thing from this article i want it to be:
The HIIT group experienced 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned during exercise.
When accumulated layers of fat have to come off in order to exhibit that spanking new muscle tissue one faces a dilemma that even professional bodybuilders must deal with.
Do you "bulk up" to add muscle size at the expense of your waistline?
Or, do you sacrifice muscle size (and strength) to avoid your six-pack becoming a brewery?
Know that it is absolutely essential that you:
1. increase your caloric intake
2. meet your protein needs, and
3. submit your body to progressive-workload exercise in order to promote muscle growth.
After you have the aforementioned nutritional and strength-training pieces of the puzzle in place, your primary concern is recuperation. In fact, if you are not adequately recovering from your workouts you can rest assured that you are tapping into your muscle stores to provide valuable energy and use as repair materials.
Since there is a need for increased caloric intake and limited extracurricular activities for an anabolic environment to be promoted, you will want to do some "damage control" to avoid running the risk of being mistakenly harpooned in the hot tub. How appealing is all that spanking new muscle if it's hidden under layers of lard?
So the "Catch-22" of hypertrophy-phase training comes to center stage. Now that we have identified and clarified the problem, let's look at a solution.
Metabolizing With VICI
When all the dust has settled in the weight room and in the kitchen, precision aerobic exercise is the secret weapon in keeping your body fat in check while increasing muscle size. When the goal is to build muscle (hypertrophy), your objective with cardio training is to do just enough to keep unwanted body fat at bay while not interfering with replenishment and recuperation that is so vital in the muscle-building process.
Also, conventional slow, long-duration cardio workouts tend to "overtrain" the fast-twitch muscle fibers and to convert the intermediate muscle fibers to slow-twitch suitors. This is the opposite of what you want to happen as fast-twitch (white) muscle fibers have a greater propensity for hypertrophic response.
Enter Varying Intensity Cardio Intervals (VICI) which are quite different from the typical aerobic workouts commonly subscribed to. Variety is the key component in metabolic-enhancing cardio workouts. Never allowing your body to adapt, or settle in, to a particular workload is vital in renewing your metabolism. The best way of regulating that variance is through implementing higher-intensity bursts, or work intervals, in combination with active rest intervals.
Empirical evidence shows that high intensity cardio exercise in non-obese subjects has been shown to be more effective than training at a lower intensity level (Tremblay, 1994).
Higher-intensity aerobic intervals have also been shown to increase exercise and resting energy expenditure separate from any change in muscle mass (Hunter et al 1998). Higher-intensity exercise has resulted in greater fat loss despite less total energy expenditure (during a session) when compared to a higher level of energy expenditure achieved in a lower intensity exercise session (Tremblay, 1994).
The total energy cost of the (Moderate Intensity Cardio) MIC program was substantially greater than the (High Intensity Interval Training) HIIT program. The scientists found that the MIC group burned more than twice as many calories while exercising than the HIIT program. HOWEVER, skinfold measurements showed that the HIIT group lost more subcutaneous fat. According to the scientists, " . . .when the difference in the total energy cost of the program was taken into account, the subcutaneous fat loss was nine fold greater in the HIIT program than in the MIC program." Bottom line: the HIIT group experienced 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned during exercise. Tremblay, et al; (Metabolism (1994) Volume 43, pp.814-818)
Another key feature of Varying Intensity Cardio Intervals is that it is more motivating than conventional cardio workouts. Varying the intensity is what keeps this form of aerobic exercise exciting and challenging and is the key characteristic in metabolic-enhancing cardio workouts. The best way of regulating that variance is through implementing timed higher-intensity bursts, or work intervals, in combination with timed active rest intervals.
The classic example of metabolic cardio intervals is Fartlek training. Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play". You begin your running session with a gradual warm-up for 6-8 minutes before heading into the interval phase. This interval phase consists of repetitions of a running phase (sprint) followed by a jogging (or walking) phase. An example would be to go to a track and run the straight-aways and walk the turns or by running to a specific object that is 100-120 yards away and then jogging the same distance. Repeat this sequence for 8-12+ minutes before a cool-down phase of 4-6 minutes.
If you only remember 1 thing from this article i want it to be:
The HIIT group experienced 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned during exercise.