I go to the gym regularly. Now that I’m married, I limit myself to 1 hour a day. I don’t want to spend too much time there. So I usually do 40 minutes of weights followed by 10 minutes of abs, and then end with 10 minutes of cardio (usually the bike or the elliptical).
So I’m talking to one of the trainers in my gym about my routine. He tells me that my 10 minutes of cardio is useless, and that I should spend the time on more weights. Only doing more than 20 minutes will help.
Now, I’m in pretty good shape interms of my body, but my cholesterol is at 230. Also, I like to remain in decent cardiovascular shape in case I get a call for a basketball or football game.
So, is it not worth it for me to do only 10 minutes? I don’t need to burn fat, but I do want to reduce my cholesterol.
Do a search on HIIT (high-intensity interval training). With some of the studies that are being done and the results they’re finding, any cardio over twenty minutes may be useless (unless, of course, you’re training for endurance).
I’m of the opinion that any exercise is good. Looks like you’ve got a good solid routine.
More imporant than what people are telling you: what is your body telling you? How do you feel?
Oh–and a trainer who tells you to skip cardio completely and emphasise weights needs a swift kick in the shins. I hope you’re not paying this guy much?
No. He’s just a personal trainer at the Bally’s I go to. In fairness to him, he said that doing cardio is good for me, but that less than 20 minutes is useless. HIIT? I’ll look it up.
He’s full of shit. It appears he is speaking to you only in terms of exercise as a means to weight loss, not health. Aerobic exercise can be used to increase your aerobic capacity (VO2 max) as well as lose weight. When he says that less than 20 minutes is useless, he is probably referring using cardio for weight loss (in which case he would still be wrong.) Building muscle IS more efficient than cardio in losing weight but won’t help your cardiovascular health much. As a matter of fact, you can train your VO2 max most efficiently with interval training using windsprints in a very short period of time. For the absolute best book on what fitness actually is and how to achieve it, read Covert Bailey’s “Smart Exercise.” It’s an amazing book that explains why there is often contradictory advice given about various types of exercise and how while that advice is often rooted in fact, it is poorly applied to any one person’s specific situation. Great great book.
JJ, I’d say that unless you have a reason to trust a particular trainer, be skeptical of anything they recommend. AFAIK there’s no licensing of personal trainers anywhere, and the ones who work for a gym tend to so low-paid they’re the least likely to have proper health education.
I found this out when a trainer had me do an exercise that later injured me - my physical therapist said I had a good case for a lawsuit. Since then, I’ve taken trainers’ advice no more seriously than I would another gym member’s.
I’ve only ever trusted two trainers. One was also a licensed massage therapist and had a degree in anatomy from McGill U., and the other was working his way through physical therapy school.
Most gyms require their personal trainer to be certified. The bad thing is many of the tests to get certified can be taken online. Here are three that I know of, I am sure there are others.
Now if your trainer has a degree in Exercise physiology or kinseology(sp?) his word probably has a bit more weight. (doubt he would be a personal trainer if he has anything more than a BS in it though)
A massage therepist as a trainer? What kind of perks did you get?
It generally takes the average person doing “aerobic exercise” about 20 minutes to make the metabolic shift from glycogen and glucose consumption to fat consumption. Hence the “20 minute” rule.
During an aerobic workout, burning fat begins after 20 minutes?
Building muscle is better for reducing fat than the aerobic workout?
I’ve been biking 30 minutes a day for about two months now (more for heart health than anything else), but my gut has only gone down a little. To get rid of my gut, would sit-ups 3 days a week accelerate that?
Not to any significant degree. Situps are almost worthless for building muscle, and they really are worthless for burning calories.
Besides, when we talk about building muscle, we mean large muscles–you’d need to do things like bench presses, rows, leg presses, and stuff like that. Your abs are very small muscles, and can’t get big enough to burn a lot of fat on their own. But if you’re looking for strength, you do need to train them, as they help you keep your balance during other exercises.
Not necessarily. You can manipulate this a bit by working out early in the morning before you eat breakfast when your blood sugar is low. L-Carnithine and Chromium Picolinate are two supplements with reasonable evidence of helping the body favor fat metabolism. Of course you might get bad breath as your body goes in to ketosis (burns fat).
Will situps get rid of your gut?
Depends if your gut is due to poor abdominal muscle tone or fat. It is probably both. As Ultrafilter said, situps are an inefficient way to build muscle mass. Remember, your not “spot reducing” (which is bs anyway) but rather building muscle because more muscle burns more calories. BTW, search the web for ab exercises - situps are pretty archaic.
I couldn’t find any info on l-carnithine on supplementwatch, but they do have info on carnitine (and mention l-carnitine in the review). Is that what you had in mind, ** KidCharlemagne**?
I’ve been meaning to reply to this and kept getting sidetracked, here it goes.
First credentials, none, I’ve been working out for over 25 years (my god! am i really that old?), and as such know what works for me. At the same time I’ve read up on fitness, and was once upon a time a fitness trainer.
which pretty much gives you the low down. To summarize: a good cardio workout consists or +/- 5 mins warm-up, 20-40 mins of cardio training, and +/- 5 mins cool down.
So, should you stop doing your 10 mins cardio? no, it probably increases blood flow to your muscles and helps with flexibility. Is it going to improve your cardio fitness? not much.
And my own $.02, sit-ups, crunches, leg lifts, et al will increase your abdominal muscle tone, if however, your abdominal muscles are behind a thick layer of fat you will still have a gut. The only way I’ve found to show a nice six pack has been to go on a low fat diet. I’m at my optimum weight now, so it usually takes about a week of dieting to show some serious cuts. Someone who’s somewhat above their ideal weight will probably take longer.
what are your goals Jacknife? if you want to stay the same, maintain your physique, then you don’t really have to focus one one thing (building muscle, losing fat) but if you are trying to transform your physique, you need to focus on one of the two goals of building muscle or losing fat.
if you trying to lose fat, then you need to realize how your body responds to cardio. the first thing you should try, although your Bally’s psuedo-trainer will never tell you this, is to walk briskly for up to an hour. fat is the long-term energy provider, so why not make your activity low in intensiy (so as to preserve carb storages and muscle protein storages) and high in time (so that ratio of energy burned, fat:carbs/protein, is as high as possible). trust me on this one.
if you are trying to build muscle, stop almost all cardio (or limit it to short periods as far away from your lifting sessions as possible) and focus on heavy weights. and eat A LOT.
these “phases” should last no more than 1-3 months, depending on your gains throught the phase.
again, you must decide what goal you want. YOU CANNOT HOPE TO ACHEIVE BOTH RESULTS AT THE SAME TIME. you will end up with sub-par gains in both areas.
Whoops, yea its carnitine not carnithine. I read that site (which looks excellent btw) and have to say that I don’t like the study on the premenopausal women - 2 months is just not enough time. IANAE but from what I do know you can’t make any legit statements about the efficacy of a supplement without at least 3 months.
Well, let me rephrase: Massage therapist, personal trainer…and boyfriend, but the latter lasted the shortest…I did see him (and pay him) for massages after we broke up, tho.
It varies per person depending on diet, time after eating, type of workout etc. But in general, your muscles store enough sugar to run on it for 20 minutes.
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Yes, muscle consumes a decent amount of calories just to stay alive each day. More muscle, even if you don’t excercise, means more calories burned. If you do excercise, you get even more burned.
I’ve also read, but I’m not sure about the physiology behind this, that your metabolic rate slows down almost immeadiately after cardio, but stays in a highly active state for hours after resistance training.
Crunches, leg lifts, etc will not increase muscle tone. They will simply strengthen and cause your abs to grow. The only way to burn fat in your stomach is to burn fat in your whole body. Do this by lifting heavy weights. Make sure to include squats and deadlifts, as they are the two single best exercises. Bench press is also very good.
