Many of you have probably heard me rant and rave about how "steady rate" cardio is not your friend! If you're involved in one of my fat loss programs you also know that long periods of time on a treadmill or elliptical trainer aren't part of your program...strength training and High Intensity Interval Training are. My job is to understand the science behind the recommendations I make to my clients. However, if you'd like to know a little more about the "why", here are some highlights:
"Aerobic sessions elevate cortisol levels. Long sessions can lead to excessively high levels, and too frequent sessions can lead to chronically elevated levels, neither of which is good for body composition enhancement."
(Cortisol is a naturally occuring hormone in the body that is produced in response to stress. High levels can contribute to a loss of muscle mass.)
"Muscle loss due to excessive aerobics drastically lowers the resting metabolic rate and inhibits natural hormone production. When this type of person goes back to even just normal, healthy calorie and exercise levels, they gain all of the weight back plus a few extra."
"Strength training has more powerful, positive nutrient partitioning effects than cardio, meaning nutrients are diverted more towards muscle cells (where they can be used to build/maintain lean muscle tissue) and away from fat cells (where they can be stored as body fat)."
If you'd like to read the entire article that these quotes came from click on the link below. Please keep an open mind re: the website this article appears on! I know, I know...there are pictures of HUGE, burly guys on this site. The truth is the articles are well researched and written by some of the most knowledgeable people in the training business.!
Oh yeah, the language may also be perceived as a tad "colorful"!
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_best_damn_cardio_article_period
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