Two years ago, I took a break from endurance training and I lifted consistently three to four days a week along with a metabolic workout one to two times a week and an occasional short, hilly run. I maintained the body you see in the picture.
Without changing my diet (and in fact staying very conscious of what I was eating), only shifting my training from mostly lifting to include more steady state aerobics, my body would shift to my “endurance body” with less muscle and more fat as a percentage. Interestingly, my weight didn’t change much, my body composition was just responding to the activity I was doing.
I enjoy competing and love crossing a finish line. Unfortunately, looking back, my body composition around race time has once again confirmed my original statement: the more steady state aerobic exercise I do, the softer my appearance seems to be.
Changes I made to training
There are a few things this could be attributed to, other than just the fact that I was doing more steady state cardio, including:
1. By doing more steady state cardio, I end up doing less strength training. Is it necessarily the cardio that’s the problem, or just not strength training/metabolic interval training as much?
2. The strength training I’m doing could be suffering in quality and recovery since I usually head out for a run either the morning of, directly following, or on the opposite day when I could be recovering from my lifting session.
3. Increased appetite from doing more steady state cardio. I’m pretty careful about tracking my intake, but we won’t rule this out as maybe I do end up hungrier and make up for the extra calories burned in my food intake. And of course the carb-loading process 1-2 weeks before the race.
Your body will adapt
Here’s the catch: your body quickly adapts to steady state aerobic activity, decreasing the amount of calories you burn with each walk/run, making you more and more efficient at the activity.
This is the goal if you’re training for an endurance event – to be super efficient using the least amount of energy (calories) possible to complete the distance. You want just the opposite if you’re trying to lose fat.
Advanced interval training techniques in Dubai
According to a recent study relating to interval training and fat loss which can be found here interval training does show significant fat loss training results.
Here are three types you can do for high-intensity interval training:
- Fixed Work, Fixed Recovery: you work for 30 seconds and rest for 30 seconds (most basic and suitable for beginners)
- Fixed Work, Progressive Recovery: Instead of having the same rest period a progressive rest period can be used that gets longer each round as you’re getting tired.
- Variable Work, Fixed Recovery: You work for 30 seconds, however each round you try to achieve more reps and you rest for 20 seconds.
Other training elements to add to your interval training for fat loss in Dubai
Incorporating Kettlebells, sandbags, free weights and slides in your interval training in Dubai will help you burn fats and challenge your body constantly.
Also, a huge bonus of using sandbags and slides would be that they are having a lower impact than other aerobic options, like running or jumping rope. Easier on your body and more effective!
I always ensure to end my private sessions with 10-15 minutes of metabolic training in addition to weight training. Similarly with group sessions using metabolic training is the most efficient way for fat loss.
At the end of the day, nothing beats the burn of a good metabolic workout.
If you’re getting ready for a photo shoot, a beach body reveal, or want to look like a physique competitor with chiseled abs, skip your run for a few weeks and make strength training and interval training your priority.
Mix in a heart rate monitor, kettlebells, and sandbags and see if you reach the same conclusion I have.