Personal Development Community

Hi all,

I’ve been getting into interval training for the last couple of months. Why? Partly to reduce the amount of time spent on cardio, partly because I heard it is more effective at burning fat, and partly because it’s more interesting than steady state cardio (LSBB!).  I haven’t noticed too much difference in fat burning, but I’ve certainly noticed improved cardio performance since I started.

So my question came from listening to a podcast about bodybuilding. The guy was saying that it’s best to combine the two forms of cardio, because interval training is better at ‘forcing out fat from the fat cells’, but steady state was better at actually burning it off. I found the statement about interval training rather hard to believe, so can anyone confirm or deny it?

So I guess my questions are:

- Should I combine the two, or keep them on seperate days?
- If I should combine, what mix should I do? Does 20 mins interval training and 25 mins steady state sound acceptable?
- Which of the two should I do first?

Thanks for your help! 

James

I’m still figuring this one out too. I can’t say I have an answer for you. I’d like to know what that body builder guy thinks is happening on a physiological level to “force the fat out of the cells”. My understanding is that spiking the HR when doing intervals results in elevated metabolism for a longer period of time than steady state cardio. Thus you burn more calories after an interval workout.

When I do steady state I might get my HR into the 140 or low 150 on a good day, but when I do intervals it will get into the 160’s or 170’s for short periods, and it doesn’t drop too low during the recovery periods. I think the spike is what makes the difference.

I don’t really have an answer as for when to do what. I often just don’t have the energy to do many interval sessions. I read somewhere that 2 or 3 times a week was a good if mixed in with other types of training (weights and SSC throughout the week). I feel like I only have the energy to do it on the weekends.

I actually just did an new interval workout today - I downloaded an audio elliptical interval workout for my iPod this afternoon before heading to the gym and really enjoyed it. I’ll write more about it in my 100 days thread.

Good luck!!

Hi Catherine, thanks for the reply!

I thought the same as you: whilst you may not burn as many calories DURING a 20 min interval session as a 45min-60min LSB, it raises your metabolism more afterwards. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been too much research done on specifics.

One study I heard about was interesting: they got two groups to do interval training. One group did 30 seconds of high intensity and 45 seconds low (repeated for a certain number of times). The second group did the same ratio, but much shorter intervals: 6 seconds high and 9 seconds low. Both groups repeated intervals until a certain length of time had passed (lets say 15 minutes). The second group increased their fat burning much more than the first group did!

For those of us that go to gyms, this isn’t too useful - I would be far too self-conscious about doing 6 second intervals! I tend to do 60 seconds high intensity and 90 seconds low.

The interval audio program sounds interesting! I’ll check out your 100 days thread to find out more.

The point of doing intervals is to “spike” your metabolism, it works 2 ways- 1)You actually burn more calories in a shorter time. Elevating and resting burns more calories in the short run, it also produces an after effect where your body burns more fuel over the next 36 to 48 hours,you can even do Tabata’s(A killer 4min. interval) and get the same effect.
The point of doing of doing prolonged cardio is to improve your endurance so that you can perform at a higher level longer.

Shawn - thanks for your post. Tabatas sound rather interesting, maybe something for me to aim for in the future!

Also Scott covered the original post in MTM show #172. He gives some great info about interval training and hasn’t heard any evidence for what the bodybuilding podcast says - looks like I better just stick to MTM for my exercise knowledge in the future!

I look forward to listening to the show! I was curious about that too.

Bree

I’ll interject that the Tabata Protocol will segue to GXP (Graded Exercise Protocol) and HIT (Hight Intensity Training).  Jon Benson has written an e-book titled: 7 Minute Muscle covering these studies and his take on “Density Training”

Trying not to be a shill but when I saw the “Tabata” reference I recalled this e-book title and figured there may be interest in checking out Jon’s e-book

-JS-