| It is common to hear fitness professionals | | | | increase and rapidly decrease will make your |
| and medical doctors prescribe low to moderate | | | | heart more capable of handling everyday |
| intensity aerobic training (cardio) to people | | | | stress. Stress can cause your blood pressure |
| who are trying to prevent heart disease or | | | | and heart rate to increase rapidly. Steady |
| lose weight. Most often, the recommendations | | | | state jogging and other endurance training |
| constitute something along the lines of | | | | does not train your heart to be able to |
| "perform 30-60 minutes of steady pace cardio | | | | handle rapid changes in heart rate or blood |
| 3-5 times per week maintaining your heart | | | | pressure.The important aspect of variable |
| rate at a moderate level". Before you just | | | | cyclic training that makes it superior over |
| give in to this popular belief and become the | | | | steady state cardio is the recovery period in |
| "hamster on the wheel" doing endless hours of | | | | between bursts of exertion. That recovery |
| boring cardio, I'd like you to consider some | | | | period is crucially important for the body to |
| recent scientific research that indicates | | | | elicit a healthy response to an exercise |
| that steady pace endurance cardio work may | | | | stimulus. Another benefit of variable cyclic |
| not be all it's cracked up to be.First, | | | | training is that it is much more interesting |
| realize that our bodies are designed to | | | | and has lower drop-out rates than long boring |
| perform physical activity in bursts of | | | | steady state cardio programs.To summarize, |
| exertion followed by recovery, or stop-and-go | | | | some of the potential benefits of variable |
| movement instead of steady state movement. | | | | cyclic training compared to steady state |
| Recent research is suggesting that physical | | | | endurance training are as follows: improved |
| variability is one of the most important | | | | cardiovascular health, increased anti-oxidant |
| aspects to consider in your training. This | | | | protection, improved immune function, reduced |
| tendency can be seen throughout nature as all | | | | risk for joint wear and tear, reduced muscle |
| animals demonstrate stop-and-go motion | | | | wasting, increased residual metabolic rate |
| instead of steady state motion. In fact, | | | | following exercise, and an increased capacity |
| humans are the only creatures in nature that | | | | for the heart to handle life's every day |
| attempt to do "endurance" type physical | | | | stressors. There are many ways you can reap |
| activities. Most competitive sports (with the | | | | the benefits of stop-and-go or variable |
| exception of endurance running or cycling) | | | | intensity physical training. One of the |
| are also based on stop-and-go movement or | | | | absolute most effective forms of variable |
| short bursts of exertion followed by | | | | intensity training to really reduce body fat |
| recovery. To examine an example of the | | | | and bring out serious muscular definition is |
| different effects of endurance or steady | | | | performing wind sprints.Most competitive |
| state training versus stop-and-go training, | | | | sports such as football, basketball, |
| consider the physiques of marathoners versus | | | | racquetball, tennis, hockey, etc. are |
| sprinters. Most sprinters carry a physique | | | | naturally comprised of highly variable |
| that is very lean, muscular, and powerful | | | | stop-and-go motion. In addition, weight |
| looking, while the typical dedicated | | | | training naturally incorporates short bursts |
| marathoner is more often emaciated and sickly | | | | of exertion followed by recovery periods. |
| looking. Now which would you rather | | | | High intensity interval training (varying |
| resemble?Another factor to keep in mind | | | | between high and low intensity intervals on |
| regarding the benefits of physical | | | | any piece of cardio equipment) is yet another |
| variability is the internal effect of various | | | | training method that utilizes exertion and |
| forms of exercise on our body. Scientists | | | | recovery periods. For example, an interval |
| have known that excessive steady state | | | | training session on the treadmill could look |
| endurance exercise (different for everyone, | | | | something like this:Warm-up for 3-4 minutes |
| but sometimes defined as greater than 60 | | | | at a fast walk or light jog; |
| minutes per session most days of the week) | | | | |
| increases free radical production in the | | | | Interval 1 - run at 8.0 mi/hr for 1 minute; |
| body, can degenerate joints, reduces immune | | | | |
| function, causes muscle wasting, and can | | | | Interval 2 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 |
| cause a pro-inflammatory response in the body | | | | minutes; |
| that can potentially lead to chronic | | | | |
| diseases. On the other hand, highly variable | | | | Interval 3 - run at 10.0 mi/hr for 1 minute; |
| cyclic training has been linked to increased | | | | |
| anti-oxidant production in the body and an | | | | Interval 4 - walk at 4.0 mi/hr for 1.5 |
| anti-inflammatory response, a more efficient | | | | minutes; |
| nitric oxide response (which can encourage a | | | | |
| healthy cardiovascular system), and an | | | | Repeat those 4 intervals 4 times for a very |
| increased metabolic rate response (which can | | | | intense 20-minute workout.The take-away |
| assist with weight loss).Furthermore, steady | | | | message from this article is to try to train |
| state endurance training only trains the | | | | your body at highly variable intensity rates |
| heart at one specific heart rate range and | | | | for the majority of your workouts to get the |
| doesn't train it to respond to various every | | | | most beneficial response in terms of heart |
| day stressors. On the other hand, highly | | | | health, fat loss, and muscle |
| variable cyclic training teaches the heart to | | | | maintenance.Visit to receive your own |
| respond to and recover from a variety of | | | | personalized metabolic rate calculator as |
| demands making it less likely to fail when | | | | well as a free training/nutrition ebook that |
| you need it. Think about it this way -- | | | | will revolutionize your fitness program. |
| Exercise that trains your heart to rapidly | | | | |