The most productive 40 minutes of your day

What is the best form of exercise.

It worries me how much time people waste in the gym doing the 1 hour cardio slog, then 40 minutes weight sessions , 10 minute warm up 10 minute cool down , stretch. This means an unsociable amount of hours in the gym and for what?

There is simply no need .

If you want to lose weight and look good there is no quick fix I’m afraid but you don’t need to move your bedroom into the gym just yet.

Exercise Intensity

What exercise do you do?

If you go for a long run, say 5km plus, you are working moderately hard – open mouthed breathing heart rate fairly high, you keep going for a good half hour. This is considered aerobic – you are able intake enough oxygen to deliver to your muscles and sustain longer periods of exercise.

Anaerobic exercises is high intensity. Consider sprinting. You can only go a short distance full pelt before you stop – breathless, burning and sweating. This is anaerobic. Your body can only take in enough oxygen to sustain activity for very short periods of 30 secs to just over a minute. The oxygen deficit results in lactic acid production which is that burn you feel in your muscles and you have to stop.

Circuit Training

Increases fitness

Now let’s look at Circuit training… which I think is the dogs bollocks.

This combines both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.

Your heart rate goes up and down a lot like interval training. This improves your body’s ability to recovery from more intensive exercise, which means your fitness increases and you are able to do more and go for longer.

At your first session you may struggle to do one or two burpees. After a few classes you will see vast improvements in the number and how your body reacts – breathing will become easier and you will be able to handle the lactic acid burn. As you get fitter the volume of oxygen your body can take in and utilise (VO2 Max) is increased allowing you to go for longer without having to stop.

 

Builds lean muscle -  increased basal metabolic rate

You also build lean muscle through the incorporation of strength resistance training– a combination of stations with functional exercises to hit every muscle group of the body. Even the ‘connecting muscles’ – so fuck off Tracey Anderson. The muscle fibres built through circuits are mostly fast twitch muscle fibres (the ones that allow you to go for a short time but fast and full on). These are more dense than your slow twitch muscle fibres – the ones that marathon runners have so they go for hour and hours. This means they raise your resting metabolic rate so you burn more calories at rest. In translation, you burn more while you are not doing exercise.

Improves muscle balance

Because the exercises are functional – rather than isolated movements like when you are sat like a twat on the adductor machine – these incorporate each tiny muscle in your body otherwise overlooked, and are excellent for improving core strength – something that no number of pathetic crunches will do.

So not only is fitness increased but you also strengthen and tone your body.

This is why circuits are popular for different athletes because they make you use other muscles and energy systems you might not normally use. A marathon runner will not normally sprint or work against resistance and their form may be shit. A lot of runners develop a hyperkyphotic posture which is when your back hunches over. This can lead to all sorts of injuries in the long run. By conditioning their muscles through circuit training they improve their muscle balance and strength which can in turn improve their performance.

Burns a shit load of calories

So  why is this more effective for stripping body fat?

People looking to sustain or build muscle often stay clear of circuits or any cardio for that matter but this should not be the case. They worry CV will eat into their lean muscle. Not so, the release of HGH (Human Growth Hormone) from intensive circuit training allows fat loss with minimul muscle atrophy.

This is a potent fat burner.

When you work out to the point your muscles burn (due to lactic acid build up), your body secretes HGH. This promotes the use of fat as a fuel and spares you eating into your lean muscle.In short this keeps your body fat down and muscle mass high. This is why a lot of body builders work to the point they get DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness). This means the muscle has been sufficiently worked to the point it needs to be repaired – bigger and stronger than before.

Eat the right food

So what about the diet?

You just need to ensure you take in an adequate amount of protein to sustain the muscle.

This does not mean eating mountains of steak. You need roughly 1g of protein per day for every 1kg of lean muscle.

Most fitness professionals will recommend a low carb diet with lean protein to sustain muscle and fruit and veg for essential vitamins and minerals to keep your body healthy.

You do need carbohydrates as these give you energy. But remember fruit and vegetables contain carbs too. A lot of people ask if it’s better to train on an empty stomach ie. first thing in a morning as they will be eating straight in to fat reserves. Carbohydrates (glycogen) are stored in the muscle and liver as energy for 12-16 hours this means you will still be burning these stores if you exercise within that time frame, but there will be less available if you haven’t eaten another meal on top.

It’s when these are not used up that your body ends up storing them as fat. For weight loss you need to expend more calories than you take in so think about what you are eating and increase your training. Exercise alone is not enough , you need the correct diet to ensure maximum repair and recovery for your body and an adequate calorie deficit to ensure fat loss.

But aren’t I better off training in the lower intensity ‘fat burning zone’?

The fat burning zone can suck it quite frankly.

If you go for your lower intensity brisk walk on the treadmill you may burn 200 calories in 40 minutes.

You then check your heartrate monitor and it will say 50% calories from fat – meaning you have burned 100 calories directly by using fat as a fuel. However 1lb of fat roughly equates to 3500 calories. Ah.

That’s about 12 hours of brisk walking.

Compare this to higher intensity circuits. In one session let’s say 40 minutes you can manage to burn 500 calories. But the watch says 40% calories using fat as a fuel. Don’t be confused. You are using the fuel from stored carbs which would end up being stored as fat anyway. And in total have burned a shit load more calories overall.

Plus your metabolism burns at a higher rate for hours after training which means even more calories expended.

Plus you have built lean muscle which as discussed earlier allows you to burn more calories at rest.

How long will this take?

A circuit session usually lasts around 40 minutes to one hour, until your body has used up it’s energy stores.

This is great because you get your cardio workout and resistance training combined in one training session.

But going through the moves will not ensure results. You need to push yourself to the absolute limits – the harder the better – to get great results.

A circuit should never feel easy or comfortable. If it is you are not working hard enough. Always look to push it a step further – go faster, go harder, pick up a weight, jump a bit higher.

Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it - plato

There is nothing quite like the high you feel when you are done. Sweaty, knackered and like you have accomplished something great. This is what exercise is all about.

 For elite level circuit training visit the professionals www.circuitfactory.ae