TEAM BOSS ARTICLE: HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL CARDIO VERSUS LOW INTENSITY STEADY STATE CARDIO. Sorry this article has taken way longer than I had anticipated, but hope its worth your while. Ok, I am going to to cut to the chase and straight get stuck into the topic. People either hate cardio or they love it, they are either Pro Cardio or Against Cardio, simple facts. LISSC: LISSC has been there since time immemorial. People have been doing it intentionally and unintentionally. What is LISSC? LISSC is where you do any activity where your Heart Rate is below 60% of your Max HR. Things like comfortable walking, riding a bike, comfortable use of the cross trainer, all fall under the umbrella of LISSC. WHO USES IT? Well LISSC up until about 50 years ago was primarily the domain of elderly going for a morning walk. Until the 60s when body building started to make an appearance in a bit more structured fashion. When body builders got near their contests, and needed to drop body fat quicker, back then ( and still for the large majority) nobody trained twice a day, but they still needed to burn additional calories, so they turned so LISSC.. going for a walk, or just sitting on a bike...( they didnt really have the concepts of treadmills much back in the 50s and 60s). The reason why they preferred LISSC over running ( they definitely didnt have a clue about HIIC, although sprinters had been practising it since the sprinting first began, but no one really called it HIIC or had classified it) was because, they would associate running equalled to losing muscle mass and looking like a marathon runner, well they were right, and still are. 90% of body builders still use it and are a big on it.. HIIC Move a notch up, there is now HIIC. Up until 15 years ago, nobody really talked about HIIC, cos no one really knew about the damn thing. See the origins of HIIC really come from the 1996 study done by Itzumi Tabata. Him and his team were the first people of any real note to highlight the benefits of HIIC. I wont go into elaborate details of how what he did and what the recommendations are or were. WHAT IS IT, AND HOW ITS EXECUTED? For those of you who still might not be totally across the HIIC recommendations, heres the more popular style thats in the current vogue( of course with million variations, but most will fall within this as far as the principle of it goes). 10 to 20 Minutes of activity, usually split in the intervals of anything from 15 to 45 Seconds really hard, and then 15 to to 45 seconds full active recovery. And the more common split is a simple straight up split of 20 on 20 off, or 30 on 30 off, done anything between 5 to 20 times. The choice of exercise or equipment goes anything from simple good old fashion outdoor sprinting to stair runs, to the ergos ( rowers), the good old tread mill, cross trainer, the spin bikes etc. THE PREMISE AND THE PURPOSE OF HIIC: Once again without going into too much technical details. The whole idea of HIIC is, that you go as hard you as can for a short duration of time, primarily goal being elevating your Heart Rate as high as you can, and then recover for a short period of time. What this kind of activity does is, it elevates your Resting Metabolic Rate ( RMR). Now for those of you who dont know what RMR is or what it does. Heres a very brief overview of it. When you elevate your RMR, you supposedly keep burning additional calories long after you have finished the activity/exercise, then what you would have otherwise. While I am talking about RMR, Ill quickly highlight, the reason why resistance training is so heavily favoured( if done right and at high enough intensity, cos low intensity wont do much) for fat loss, because of its ability to elevate RMR very efffectively. WHY IS IT REGARDED SUPERIOR LISSC? Well the short answer is twofold, its lot less time consuming and is considered to be lot more efficient at burning body fat in comparison to LISSC. WHO IS IT REALY FOR? Well, its touted for everyone. However I differ slightly on this point. I personally believe, its best suited to people who have got a decent athletic ability, are at a reasonable body fat( very hard for morbidly obese to execute this).People who are time poor. Or for someone whos tried LISSC for a significant amount of time with 0 to little success. Its fantastic for people who have got a good to great athletic ability. HIIC VIS LIISC HEAD TO HEAD? Well both have there benefits, and both have there fans. LISSC is the more favoured method amongst body builders or old school coaches, whereas HIIC is sort of more of domain of a modern coach, or trainers and trainees who are into lot of Circuit Training etc, or Crossfit mob. PROS OF LISSC: 1. Proven Fat Loss. In fact LISSC has been proven to have the highest Fat Oxidation over longer durations. 2. Very sparing on the muscles. 3. Easier on the joints. 4. More forgiving on the adrenals, and as a result less output of Cortisol, and as a result less holding of the body fat on your stomach. 5. Easier on the joints and the spine, cos its often low impact. 6. Can be done anywhere any time. 7. Lower risk of injury. 8. Useful for majority of the population. 9. Very effective and “safe” during extreme dieting or low calorie. CONS OF LIISSC 1. Time Consuming. 2. Boring for Adrenalin Rush Junkies. 3. Results can be slow PROS OF HIIC: 1. Proven Fat Loss and superior in terms of fat loss per minute spent. 2. Very effective for fat loss 3. Very Time Efficient. 4. Very good from Conditioning perspective. 5. Very good to improve Cardiovascular Fitness 6. Often regarded as superior to elevate RMR. CONS OF HIIC.: 1. Not suitable for everyone. 2. Requires certain level of base fitness. 3. Can be harsh on your joints and spine. 4. Requires precision nutrition and supplementation for it to be safe and effective during times of extreme dieting. 5. Adrenals get a real work over. Can be absolutely brutal and counter productive for someone whos suffering or suspecting of Adrenal Fatigue. 6. Output of Cortisol is very high. 7. Can be very catabolic, especially during times of extreme dieting. 8. Requires high level of skill and knowledge to use it effectively during Extreme Dieting. 9. Not a very safe option during last weeks of dieting for a body a building show, especially if the user doesnt have good understanding of nutrition, supplementation, and management of work load. 10. Can chew into the muscle very rapidly if not managed properly. 11. Very easy to get it wrong or go overboard. FINAL COMMENTS. All in all both have their TIME AND PLACE! You just need to be able to put together all the pieces of the puzzle and choose which weapon to use at which time of the battle, so you ultimately can win the WAR on fat! There is no right or wrong. However Low Intensity is lot safer if you are super conscious about injuries, muscle loss or are new to exercising. High Intensity stuff is fantastic too, as long as you know your body well and you know what you are doing. I personally dont mind recommending HIIC during the early phases of Contest Prep Dieting, however from the last 8 weeks and under, I usually get my athletes to switch more to LISSC, with an occasional bout of HIIC once, or twice max per week. With LISSC, the duration needs to be minimum of 45 minutes to 1 hour, and can go as high as 120 minutes if need be, but never more than that. With HIIC, I like to keep the intervals at 20 Seconds On/20 Seconds Off, or 30/30, and never more than 12-15 “rounds” in a single session. A good way to structure both in 1 session, is you start off with 30 LISSC, and then finish off with 10-15 Rounds of HIIC, and thats your 40-45 Minutes of Cardio done. SUPPLEMENTS TO USE: Before either: Best is to take 1 to 2 Grams of Carnitine ( YES 1 to 2 GRAMS, those of you who might freak out on the dosage of Carnitine I have just recommended), and if you are not overly concerned about keeping your Insulin rock bottom, you definitely want to add 10 Grams of BCAAs + 5 Grams of Glutamine. If you really want to add bit more bite, 200-300 Mgs of Caffeine is always a good addition. However keep ALL carbs before cardio out. Soon as you add carbs of ANY kind pre cardio, youve just defeated the purpose of the activity, and are wasting your time. If you are going to drink Gatorade and then embark on Cardio, then you might as well not eat any carbs, and just sit in front of the TV and enjoy your favorite TV show, why waste your energy! Post Cardio: Dont worry about scoffing a Protein Shake, a simple mix of 10 Grams of BCAAs + 5 Grams of Glutamine will provide you with all the vital nutrients your body will need. Hope the above sheds some more light for you all and puts to bed some level of confusion of superiority of one over the other! As I said, there is no right or wrong, better or worse! You need to find what works the best for YOU, and to choose each at the RIGHT PHASE of your fat loss or your Contest Prep. Just dont get sucked into one dogma and turn it into some sort of Be All and End All, cos its NOT! On that note, HAPPY SHREDDING TO ALL..:)
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:53:04 +0000
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