Cardio - Heart Rate - Exercise & Fitness Message Board

Gymoholic · 09-18-2002, 05:17 PM

I've heard it two ways:

1) Maintain no more than 85% of your max heart rate to burn fat. Greater than 85% will promote muscle wasting.

2) Go hard for 20 minutes and don't worry about your heart rate and you'll burn fat more effeciently WITHOUT muscle wasting. And you'll continue to burn fat for up to an hour after you get off the machine.

Thoughts ????

darkwolfofvoid · 09-18-2002, 10:01 PM

oh, that is just bad lol

Heart rate plays a very large role in what kind of endurance training you're going for. The higher intensities will isolate certain types of 'energy pathways' such as your lactate anerobic (glyocytissomethingorother) system which is hit more so when you work at around say 85% for a certain duration.

But you can go look that stuff up yourself, about the fat burning, you burn fat more efficiently (as opposted to lactate or glycogen - atp, pc, etc) when you work at lower intensities. This is why for an essential cardio workout it's easy to begin with a low intensity for 20-40 minutes. Around that 60% intensity you're burning more fat than muscle glycogen (actually i think your body hits reserves in the liver first, eh?). But as is commonely said, if you're more athletic to hit your THR zones higher up to the 85% area mainly because it gives conditioning to the other active systems that one must incorporate in their endurance training.

Another thing to note, go for at least 30 minutes, 30+ minutes is when your body really starts to condition your aerobic endurance (02, breathing, etc) so 20 minute is minimum, but over 30 is perfered. Especially in runners/walkers of any kind, a ten minute warm up and cool down is also good to add. So i always suggest a simple 20-30 min low intensity cardio workout for anyone trying to just burn fat and feel healthier, but if you're trying to condition yourself at all, 3 to 4 days at least of 50 min workouts, of course minimum. Eventually moving up to longer durations at lower intensities and working at higher intensities to build them up.

Another thing to note to anyone who does run, get a heart rate monitor for when you run, it's a great help to know your heart rate as you're working out, especially on longer runs.

But if you really want, you can find the Sport's Coach link through my links page on my website in my profile. I find the site great and gives lots of info on stuff like this, i read through the stuff often to keep it fresh in my mind and know i'm training right.

Gymoholic · 09-19-2002, 03:44 AM

I understand that method is the conventional wisdom. But almost everything I've read recently about cardio says that low-intensity, long duration is "old technology." Pick up a Muscle Media or a Muscle and Fitness magazine sometime and see what they're saying about cardio now. Exercise physiologists with several more Ph.D.'s than me are reporting findings from extensive research that suggest high intensity, shorter duration will burn more fat without wasting muscle.

Believe me, I'm not a masochist that gets off to killing myself on a piece of cardio gear. I'd love to dail it back if it's more effective to do so. But I want to make sure I'm getting the bang for my buck. And there seems to be some conflicting information out there.

Chelle1977 · 09-19-2002, 07:01 AM

I just read yesterday, and don't remember where, that you want to be somewhere in between going all-out and a moderate pace and that you want to work out for at least 40 minutes for optimum fat-burning. I think I saw that bit of advice on the cool running website. Personally, I think you should use a variety of intensities.

Naxis · 09-19-2002, 10:01 AM

That's a general rule and it does not take into consideration sparing muscle mass. That kind of advice is dished out to cardio-bunnies. Sprints and low intensity are probably the safest as far as sparing muscle and getting quality cardio. If you're not cutting, long, moderate intensity cardio sessions are fine, but if you are on a restricted calorie diet and trying to get lean and keep muscle, you have to be a little more careful.

There was something posted here ~ a week ago saying that some studies have been done that claim that consuming some whey protein before cardio (like in the AM, as opposed to doing it on an empty stomach) will still burn fat and help spare muscle since the protein doesn't have any effect on you blood sugar levels. Anyway, just something to consider.