this is going to be very long.. but i hope it helps... keke.. sent to me from a colleague who extracted it from HWZ forum.
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Q. Is it true that I only want to lose 2 pounds a week?
A. Absolutely, anything more than that is unhealthy. The only time this rule does not apply is when you are very over weight (280+lbs), in which case, losing 1% of your total bodyweight per week is completely acceptable.
Q) What's the best way to lose fat and get an ideal physique?
A) The best way to accomplish this is through a proper nutrition and training plan. Nutrition won't be covered in this thread(maybe in another thread), but training would include the following:
- Weight lifting compound free weights with short rest intervals
- High intensity interval training(HIIT)
Both these methods will be elaborated on later.
Q) But what about jogging for cardio? Isn't that the best way of losing weight?
A) No. In fact, it can be counter productive. You see, jogging is a form of steady state cardio exercise. What this means is that you keep a rather low speed that you're able to sustain for long periods of time. The premise of this exercise for weight loss is that you are able to run longer, hence burning more calories. However, there are problems with this.
- The more you run, the more efficient you become at running. As you get more efficient, your body will burn less calories. Imagine a car driving on a highway at 60km/h. It will achieve its highest fuel efficiency, meaning it will burn less fuel. The body acts the same way. This is great if your mission is to run a marathon, but bad if your mission is to burn calories and fat!
- The more you run, the more you waste your muscles. Muscle mass cannot be built or even maintained by running. In fact, running for long durations will actually bring your body into a catabolic state, meaning your muscles will start burning away. If your goal is to reduce your body fat percentage, then it would be in your best interest to keep as much muscle mass as you can, or even increase it. Running, or any other steady state aerobic exercise doesn't achieve this.
Q) OK, so if I don't run, what do I do for cardio?
A) High intensity interval training(HIIT), mentioned above. HIIT is a method of cardio work where you work at full intensity for a short burst, followed by resting for a slightly longer period of time. An example would be sprinting full speed for 30s on the track, then resting for 60s. Typically HIIT sessions are completed within 10mins. In unconditioned beginners, 1-2min might be all they can sustain.
Q) 10 mins? But I heard that you only start burning fat after 20mins
A) That is a myth that has been spread for years, and one that needs to be eliminated. At best, it is a half truth. You see, your body initially uses your glycogen stores to fuel the activity, and gradually shifts towards using fat stores as fuel. The ratio shifts more towards fats as you run more than 20mins. It doesn't mean that you're burning no fat before 20mins and all fat after. In any case, this ratio is not as important as people would like you to believe, because the overall calories and fat loss due to HIIT is more than what you would get if you just jogged more than 20min. Do you know when your body is burning the highest percentage of fats? When you're sleeping! That's right, but you don't expect anyone to tell you to sleep to lose fat anytime soon. Also, steady state cardio burns calories mostly during the activity itself. However, HIIT burns calories during the activity itself, as well as hours after the activity. Simply put, after an intense HIIT bout, you'd be burning more calories even while you're sleeping!
Q) Huh? HIIT burns calories after the session? How is this possible?
A) It is possible due to 2 factors - EPOC and hormonal response
EPOC - stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, aka the oxygen debt, or afterburn. What this means is that because of the added stress and trauma you've put your body through in an intense HIIT session, your body needs fuel to repair cells, decrease your body temperature, etc. All this takes energy...a lot of energy if your training was intensive.
Hormonal response - An intensive training session, including HIIT, triggers the release of many anabolic(muscle building) hormones, as well as others involved in fat loss. The hormonal response is perhaps the biggest contributor to fat loss.
Q) So HIIT is better than jogging/swimming/other steady state aerobic exercise?
A) For fat loss and conditioning, yes. Contrary to popular belief, the human species was never made to run long distances. Our early ancestors didn't chase their prey over long distances to catch them for food...they sprinted short distances and killed them with tools. A recent study actually found excessive aerobic exercise to be detrimental to cardiovascular health, effects of which include the downsizing of the heart. This could be the reason why we've seen so many triathletes and runners pass away before their time recently. In addition to cardiovascular health concerns, jogging is also notorious for being bad for the joints. I'm sure you've read or heard that every step you take while jogging puts many times your weight on the joints of your legs. Besides this, joggers are also known to have severe muscular imbalances due to the repetitive and concentrated nature of the activity. What this means is that some of their muscles are much weaker, or much less flexible than others. This can lead to compensation in movement patterns, leading to injury. Another point more pertaining to women - women in general are less suitable for jogging than their male counterparts, because of something called the "Q-angle". Simply put, the Q-angle is the angle of the thigh bone from the hip. Because women have wider hips and narrow knees, they also have larger Q-angles, making you more prone to knee and other joint injuries. In fact if you look at the elite runners, they all pretty much look like men as far as their Q-angle is concerned - they have narrow hips and smaller breasts. They are better suited for running. Most women aren't.
Q) Wow! That sounds like scary stuff! I guess I shouldn't jog at all!
A) Not necessarily. There's no need to avoid jogging/swimming/steady state aerobic exercise if you truly enjoy it. However, don't make it the core of your exercise regime. As long as you also train your body with HIIT, you can counter the negative cardiovascular effects that steady state exercise brings.
Q) OK, so how exactly do I perform this "HIIT"?
A) There are several protocols. You can do it sprinting on a track, on a stationary bike, sprinting up stairs or up a slope, with bodyweight exercises such as burpees, squats, lunges, etc. However, stay away from the treadmill and elliptical because the former can cause joint problems and the latter's arc is unnatural and awkward. For beginners, you generally want to start with a 1:4 work:rest ratio. What this means is that if you sprint for 30s, you rest for 2min. Depending on the difficulty of the activity(sprinting up stairs is harder than sprinting on a track for example), you should be working for about 15-40s, and then resting for 4x that. Experiment with the timings to suit your own physical fitness levels. Generally you want to time it such that you are feeling ok for 1-2 sets, even when you are doing it the fastest and hardest you can. The numbers of sets you do this again depends on your physical fitness level. A general guide is to do as many sets as you can before puking.
If this idea makes you cringe, another idea would be to perform as many sets as you can before performance drops considerably. For example if you managed to do about 15 burpees for each workset, stop the exercise once your performance drops to considerably to 10 burpees. This is just a rough guide...you have to work these figures out by experimenting.
