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