MetCon and HIIT… Say it with me now Meeetttcccooonnn and HIIT .
Now your probably wondering Kristy what crack are you on? What is this Metcon and HIIT you speak of?
Well I’m here to tell you that Metcon and HIIT is going to become your best friend and lonnnggg hoursss of endless treadmill will be a thing of the past!
OK that’s great but what is this Metcon and HIIT ?! Metabolic conditioning and high intensity interval training! I shall explain that in a moment. First lets start from the beginning.
For years now you have probably been taught that you must train for long periods of time and make sure your in the ‘fat burning zone,’. Or you have been told by swinging around a useless machine for 3 minutes a day TA-DAH you will be a lean mean machine! Now I want you to pretend I have pressed your restart button! I want you to totally forget that you were EVER told that.
I hate to break it to you but doing long slow cardio will only make you fatter! Trust me, I’ve been there, done that!
So I have restarted your thinking so now what? Repeat after me... METABOLIC CONDITIONING and HIIT ?! Imagine doing 3-4 sessions a week with the max time being 45min! HIIT sessions only should go for 20min! This is the magic behind MetCon and HIIT!
Now your probably thinking Kristy stop saying all these random words and explain to us what it all is and why it beats an hour of dreaded treadmill!
Ok ill explain. Your body is made up of a hell of a lot of muscle. To increase this muscle you must push it to its limits so it thinks ‘oh crap if this happens again I have to be stronger!’ Hence muscle growth. So the more muscle you have on your body the faster your metabolism. So this means the more you are able to consume without putting on weight AND the faster you will burn fat, helping you turn your body into a that lean mean fighting machine I mentioned earlier.
OK so we have established that long slow cardio is NOT the way to lose fat and becoming lean and muscly.
But why doesn't is work? If your realllyyy want me to go into the science behind it I can. But I know you will get bored so I will summarize why it doesn't work and why MetCon and HIIT does!
Why steady-state or duration training doesn't work:-
· Aerobic training is associated with increase cortisol production which makes the body breakdown muscle which in turns slows your metabolism and put on weight. If you burn away your muscles, the exercise becomes harder too since you’re not as strong. Which means your body burns even more muscle for more energy, which slows your metabolism even more.
· Aerobic training increases oxidative stress which can accelerate aging.
· When you do cardiovascular exercises, you will burn calories. The more calories you burn, the more weight you can lose. But doing it in this fashion means you will slowly begin to burn fewer calories each time you work out. The less you weigh, the more you do the same old hour on the treadmill at the same speed, the less effective that workouts will become. You will be working out for the same amount of time and not be losing weight as quickly or at all!
· Your body simply gets used to workouts you’re doing. Your body is designed to do things as efficiently as possible, and when you’re doing aerobic type exercise, it’s simply going to find ways to burn less energy, and you will burn less fat.
· So in the end you lose muscle as your body using your muscle as energy. This decreases your metabolism and you will find it hard to lose weight and keep it off!
OK STOP
TAKE A BREATHER, CHECK YOUR FACEBOOK AND SOAK ALL THIS INFO IN...
THEN COME BACK AND CONTINUE
GETTING YOUR READ ON :)
Metcon and HIIT. What is it and why does it work:
1. Metabolic Conditioning
Metabolic Conditioning are the superstars of this entire program. When performed properly, they elevate your BMR, drastically increase your EPOC (calories you burn after you finish exercising) and burn a fair amount of calories per workout.
Various studies have shown these types of workouts to:
* Increase metabolism for up to 36 hours post-workout…36 hours
* Drastically outperform diet and aerobic exercise in fat loss studies
* Maintain muscle mass in subjects on a Very Low Calorie Diet
The Details
Metabolic Conditioning works best when you focus on:
* Total Body workouts
* Pushing yourself until your muscles burn with lactic acid
* Perform supersets, tri-sets, giant sets, etc…
* Compound exercises – squats instead of leg extensions
* Big muscle groups – legs, back and chest instead of arms and shoulders
* Performing sets of 5 to 12 repetitions
*Lift heavier weights
* Alternating an upper body exercise with a lower body exercise with 30‐60 seconds rest in between them, by alternating we will maximize our work density, therefore increasing our total calories burned.
High Intensity Interval Training
Interval training consists of periods of high intensity work, followed by periods of low intensity work. The work to rest ratios for interval training are usually 1:2 or 1:3. Rarely are the work to rest ratios set at 1:1. A work to rest ratio of 1:1 would mean that if you do 30 seconds high intensity work you then follow that with 30 seconds low intensity work. Usually a rest period of 2-3 times the work period is needed with intervals. You can do things such as:-
* Sprints
*Shuttle runs
*Stairs
* Cycling
* Swimming
* Rowing
High Intensity Interval Training will also increase your EPOC (calories you burn after you finish exercising) and burn a whole bunch of calories.
Think of sprinting hills or stairs!
And how effective is HIIT training?
9x more effective at burning body-fat than aerobic endurance training.
But there is SO Many ways to do MetCon and HIIT which I will go through in my videos I upload on this blog! I just want you to first understand the reason behind why these two ways of training work so much better than the traditional slow-steady cardio training.
So where is the proof? Well firstly I would like you to all imagine the track and field area of the Olympics. Now compare the duration athletes to the sprinters. What differences have we found? Well firstly the duration athletes kinda look like they need a feed or two. But the sprinters look lean, muscly, healthy, strong etc etc. Why? Because sprinters train their anaerobic systems by doing MetCon and HIIT. While the duration athletes run hours and hours, wasting their muscles away. They kinda look ‘skinny fat’ to me. They are skinny but they are all skin and bone! Who wants that! We want lean muscly physiques! Don’t we? Well I hope you do or you should be reading this!
I also have gone through this before. I used to be that girl at the gym doing hours of cardio everyday but still struggling to keep my weight down. I was thin, or ‘skinny fat’ as I used to say but the minute I went off my calories stricken diet... BAM I would put on weight. Then I knew I couldn't do this for life! So I went and got my Diploma in Fitness. I discovered the beauty of weights and interval training. Since then I have NEVER struggled with my weight.
Okay it might sound good, instead of doing cardio 10000 hours a week you can get lean by doing a mere 3-4 sessions of 30-40 min of weights and 20 min on interval. BUT nutrition is the most important part of getting the body of your dreams!
This I will cover in a later blog, first lets just get your head around your new way of thinking when it comes to exercise!
Think about it if u spend about 3% of your week and the gym you got 97% of your weight loss efforts being controlled by what you put it your gob!
Okay summary time!
· STOP SPENDING HOURS DOING DURATION STEADY-STATE EXERCISE
· Start lifting weights!
· Heavy weights
· Start implementing 20 min of interval training at least 1-2 times a week
· Do MetCon 3-4 times a week
· Don’t do it for more than 45 min
· This will increase your LEAN muscle mass and metabolism. Which means it will be easier to lose fat, get defined muscles and keep weight off in the long run!
· Keep reading this blog to learn about Nutrition as it makes up 70% of your results!
· YOU CAN’T OUT TRAIN A BAD DIET!!
Ok so until next time everyone!
Get squatting!
Kristy :)
