Which style of cardio-training is best for you?

So you just completed a marathon. Maybe you ran 42.5km. Or maybe you went for a long walk or jog, did five Zumba classes in a week, cycled up a mountain…whatever you did, your heart was pumping and you were in it for the long haul!

For some, this is their happy place. They feel truly fulfilled when they engage in long and sustained physical activity.

But others just believe that this is what they need to get the results they want. We are often taught the ‘No pain, no gain’ approach and reality fitness shows further reinforce this. I’d argue that most people don’t actually enjoy this training method. They do it because they desire a different outcome for themselves but think that punishing their bodies and pushing themselves to the brink is the way to get fit.

I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with endurance training. Sometimes we have goals for ourselves like running a marathon, and we train our bodies to accomplish our goal. It’s only a problem when we apply the same principle without a goal because we think it is the way to get fitter or the way to lose weight.

But there’s a better way to train that doesn’t involve running a marathon or gruelling cycle-fit classes. Believe me when I say that less is more.

I’m talking about Interval training. Interval training or “intense exercise” can include resistance training, interval running, rowing, cycling, circuit training, rope jumping, climbing hills, plyometrics, etc.

So, how do you know if this style is right for you? Let’s look at the differences between Intervals or HIIT and endurance training in terms of how they affect our bodies.

For starters, different exercise modes have different effects on energy expenditure i.e. the rate at which you ‘burn’ calories. High intensity, short duration activity burns a modest amount of energy during the activity. After the workout, the total expenditure remains elevated for minutes to hours, based on the activity type and intensity. In simpler terms, you burn more after the workout. With low intensity, long duration exercise, the reverse is true: energy is burned more during the activity rather than after. Your energy expenditure returns quickly to resting baseline once the activity is over. Both are of value when it comes to energy expenditure, but guess which one helps build more strength and contributes to weight loss quicker? You guessed it: interval work.

Moreover, the intensity you bring to your workouts can affect which fuels are utilized. For example, during a higher-intensity, shorter duration activity such as HIIT, carbohydrates are broken down more than fats. More carbohydrates are needed to fuel intense, short-term exercise and help develop more of those fast-twitch muscle fibres.

Lower intensity exercise, on the other hand, tends to break down fat more than carbohydrates, and mostly uses the slow-twitch muscle fibres. However, just because lower intensity, longer duration exercises burn more fat, this doesn’t mean you will have less of it!

As you do the same types of exercise over and over, your body gets pretty used to it and starts to plateau. At this point, you start burning less energy. Your progress can stall since your energy expenditure has decreased. So it is time to change it up! This is why HIIT or intervals is so great – there are so many different types of high-intensity exercises and programs you can try to keep your body from getting used to it. (That’s why we developed our best-selling Lean and Mean: The 30-Minute Workout Program. No plateauing in this program, we keep you on your toes!”

And bonus: intense exercise prevents muscle loss and preserves the resting metabolism more effectively. Higher intensity interval training also recruits a maximum amount of muscle activity. Win-win!

Bottom line: if you are going to do 45 minutes of exercise, it’s a better investment of your time and energy to keep it quick and dirty. Higher intensity activities such as intervals and HIIT use more total energy per minute of exercise, burns more after exercise, and leads to the same amount of total fat burned than lower intensity workouts. But, to be clear, there is a place for both, especially if you enjoy it! High Intensity workouts can be taxing on the body so there’s nothing wrong with keeping variety in your workouts and mixing up HIIT & intervals with endurance training.

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All Out Training exists to help young moms and dads frustrated with their fitness levels and those with an unhealthy relationship with food to develop the skills needed to maintain a healthier lifestyle so they can lose weight, move better, feel stronger and have more self- confidence and ultimately feel their best. We do this through our Classes based out of Strathroy, Ontario, Online Coaching Programs and