CW’s Training Tip #7!…
People often ask me about doing cardiovascular exercise in order to lower bodyfat levels, be it for contest preparation or to just simply look and feel better.
I personally believe that for most people a combination of steady state fasted cardio and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) style cardio usually goes well.
My preferred way to perform HIIT cardio is to choose either a stationary bike, recumbent bike or cross trainer and start off by cruising for 3 minutes on low resistance level, say level 3.
At the 3 minute mark you then quickly quadruple the resistance level, to say level 12…and pedal as fast as you can in this sprint phase for 30 seconds.
After that, crank the resistance back down to level 3 and then cruise for 90 seconds.
When you reach the 5 minute mark, you simply repeat this process of 30 second sprint followed by 90 second cruise. Just make sure you really try to ‘give it hell’ when performing the sprint phase.
This is now repeated every 2 minutes, on the ‘odd’ minute mark (ie; 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 minutes) until you finish your session after 20 minutes in total.
It is important to note that this type of cardio should only be utilised 3 times per week and best done on non-consecutive days.
Some of the benefits of this include:
1. Burning stored body fat
2. Oxygenating the body which in turn can help improve recovery from your weight training
3. Stimulating your metabolic rate so as to then help you burn body fat throughout the whole day, even whilst lying asleep in bed!!
4. Boost GH levels, and we all know how important this is!!
5. Releases Endorphins, which in turn clears your head and improves your mood.
And, by performing a sensible amount of cardio this allows us to eat a bit more, as opposed to lowering calories to ridiculous levels for an extended period of time where you end up feeling terrible, lowering your metabolic rate, comprising your muscle mass and horribly constipated!!!
All of the people I have helped in transforming their physiques that have used this cardio protocol have achieved outstanding results all whilst feeling fantastic in themselves.
Cardio is an effective tool in ridding unwanted body fat but like anything in life too much of a good thing can be counterproductive.
So start off with 2-3 HIIT sessions per week and then, depending on how you are looking, perhaps add some steady state fasted cardio on alternate days.
Enjoy chiselling off that excess festive season baggage folks!!
Bodychisel by Craig. 
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