Cardio Question

[Joker13]

Hope this has not been asked, if so I missed it.

So for a good cardio program, one that promotes the most fat loss which is better.

A 40 min session

or doing an A.m and a P.m. session at 20 min a piece.

Now my thinking is for going w/ the A.M./P.M. sessions for 2 reasons

1-from all I've read empty stomach cardio and not eating for up to an hour after is best for fat burning

2- It will help to keep your metabolism at a higher rate, doing cardio like every 12 hours.

well thats my take, am I wrong?

[Scorcher2005]

I read somewhere that cardio effects don't kick in until at least the 20 minute mark, therefore making the 40 min more useful. Secondly, I believe the PM session wont do much anyways. Your body shuts down a bit a night, therefore raising your metabolism before your body shuts down would be pointless. Those are my theories/understanding of the matter.

[hrdgain81]

I think both options are a little excessive Joker. I would do 20min Hiit first thing in the morning, or at night (depending on how your schedual works out) 2-3 times a week.

If not, then doing 40min of solid state cardio would be better then breaking it up. I prefer Hiit personally, but everyone is different.

[Joker13]

Originally Posted by hrdgain81

I think both options are a little excessive Joker. I would do 20min Hiit first thing in the morning, or at night (depending on how your schedual works out) 2-3 times a week.

If not, then doing 40min of solid state cardio would be better then breaking it up. I prefer Hiit personally, but everyone is different.

I'm gonna read up on that hiit. It sounds a litte like what I read in Body for life book

[hrdgain81]

It is similar, I've done BFL before, and it was a great beginer program (used it when i was 17 or so). The only real difference is that with BFL cardio you ramp up your intensity till your at a sprint. Hiit, you will warm up, but you basicly go all out sprint, then jogg, then all out sprint, then jogg ... rinse and repeat, there is no ramping.

[Joker13]

Today was my first atempt at Hiit. Can someone in the know let me know if I did it right or not.

used my recumbant bike. Set the setting up 2 levels but flat surface.

warm-up for 2 min. after that went (jog) 2 min 16-17 mph then (sprint) 2 min at 24-26mph. then back down. repeated till I got to 28 min.

I do notice a differance in that even though I stoped like 20 min ago, my beathing is still a little elevated.

[Dr X]

First of all I don’t do cardio for over 20 minutes.

As for HIIT I warm up for 50 minutes then hit it.
30 sec all out sprint then 30 second coast
do this for 5 minutes and you are done.
Next time repeat, 3rd time up it to six minutes for 2 session and then 7 and so on. It’s all you need. IMO

[Joker13]

Originally Posted by Dr X

First of all I don’t do cardio for over 20 minutes.

As for HIIT I warm up for 50 minutes then hit it.
30 sec all out sprint then 30 second coast
do this for 5 minutes and you are done.
Next time repeat, 3rd time up it to six minutes for 2 session and then 7 and so on. It’s all you need. IMO

well the 20 min thing sounds good to me


but 5min for hiit, man I don't think youve seen my pics. It's gonna take a whole heck of a lot more then that

maybe I'm just not getting it

[FlyUSMC]

This is what I did when I did HIIT. It was more for endurance than fat loss, but works for both. I've since switched programs to bring my 5k time down more, but this is my suggestion:
10 min easy warmup
stretch
15min 30sec jog, 30sec full sprint
5 min cooldown
stretch.

It doesn't seem like much, but if you do it right you'll be hating yourself by the 6th or 7th set, and it will be hell getting to the end. But, like they say, you get out what you put in. I did this two days a week, my other stuff isn't relevant to you as I'm assuming you don't care much for endurance

[hrdgain81]

Originally Posted by Joker13

Today was my first atempt at Hiit. Can someone in the know let me know if I did it right or not.

used my recumbant bike. Set the setting up 2 levels but flat surface.

warm-up for 2 min. after that went (jog) 2 min 16-17 mph then (sprint) 2 min at 24-26mph. then back down. repeated till I got to 28 min.

I do notice a differance in that even though I stoped like 20 min ago, my beathing is still a little elevated.

I can see why you would think it was a little easy on a recumbant bike, normally Hiit is done on a track, and you are full out sprinting for 30 sec. You can see how 7 or 8 full out sprints will kick your ass, by 10 I'm usually fall down tired.

If you cant do it on a track, try it with a jump rope, works the same way. I have done it on an elpitical before also, it works just not as well. Many of the machines (tredmil,bikes,eliptical) are not made for high intensity output, so they will hold you back some.