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 THE PROBLEM IS THAT FOR TRADITIONAL FAT LOSS METHODS TO WORK THE CLIENT NEEDS TO SPEND A LARGE AMOUNT OF TIME ON STEADY STATE CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE - SOMEWHERE IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF 10- 20 HOURS PER WEEK - FOR SUBSTANTIAL FAT LOSS TO
OCCUR

A kilogram of fat has 9,000 calories. Running burns approximately 700 calories per hour. Therefore to burn a kilogram of fat our clients would need to run for almost 13 hours! Clearly this is not an ideal situation and a more time-efficient method must be used.

ANAEROBIC INTERVAL TRAINING V STEADY STATE TRAINING

Anaerobic interval training consists of periods of intense work followed by periods of rest.
Intensity, in exercise science terms, refers to how hard you work in comparison to an all out 100% effort, or all out sprint. The periods of work are typically performed at much higher intensity than normal (85%+) and the periods of rest are either comprised of active rest (light jogging, skipping, walking, etc.) or complete rest.

With that said there is now a trend in the fitness industry to label interval training as High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT. To be clear about this – anaerobic intervals are always high intensity!

Commonly, interval training has only been used as a time-effi cient way to increase anaerobic fitness or sport-specific power endurance in the final weeks before competition. However, new research on interval training has shown it to be a very efficient method of fat burning.

CONSIDER SOME OF THE FOLLOWING ON STEADY STATE AEROBIC TRAINING AND FAT LOSS:

• A 1998 study showed that the addition of 5 x 45-minute sessions of aerobic training sessions per week for 12 weeks had no effect on fat loss.
• A 2007 study showed that 5 x 50-minute sessions of aerobic training per week for 6 months had no effect on fat loss.
• A 2008 study showed that 3 x 40 minutes of aerobic exercise per week for 15 weeks actually resulted in a fat increase!
• And now consider the following about interval/anaerobic training and fat loss:
• A 1994 study actually showed that interval training reduced body fat by nine times more than traditional cardio training, despite using fewer calories during the session and taking less time.
• A 1999 study showed that the addition of a resistance training program to fat loss increased its effectiveness by 35% over diet and purely aerobic training.
• The same study showed that 3 x 50-minute sessions of aerobic training for 12 weeks (36 sessions) increased fat loss by only 450g over diet alone.
• The rise in metabolism after anaerobic training (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption - EPOC) results in further calories being burnt for up to 38 hours after the fi nish of the session.

The indications are clear: this type of information should go a long way in helping fitness professionals design and implement effective fat loss programs. It’s not the workout - it’s the effect of that workout on EPOC.

EPOC is defined scientifi cally as the “recovery of metabolic rate back to pre-exercise levels”. It can require several minutes for light exercise and several hours for hard intervals.
In layman’s terms it means you keep burning calories at an increased rate after a workout.

If you can imagine a big forest fire, you understand that it doesn’t just burn for an hour and then burn out - it gradually burns out so that over time there is no fire any more. The peak of the fi re may have been hours ago, but there are still flames being produced for a long time afterwards.
We call this afterburn - metabolic disturbance - elevating EPOC to maximise caloric burn for the other 23+ hours per day. Is there much of a real world effect of burning 300 calories per workout (e.g. aerobic work) if I don’t elevate EPOC?

If we could elevate EPOC even an apparently insignifi cant 1/4 of a calorie per minute for the 38 hours that the study showed, then that 31-minute resistance training workout would burn maybe 300 calories during the session plus an extra 570 calories over the next 38 hours. That becomes very significant.

In the past, fitness professionals and researchers have looked at how much fat is burned during the exercise session itself. This is extremely short-sighted.
As American conditioning guru Alan Aragon said: “Caring how much fat is burned during training makes as much sense
as caring how much muscle is built during training.”
Think about that. If we looked at a weight training session that started at 9am and fi nished at 10am - how much muscle would we see built if we stopped looking at 10am? None.
In fact we’d see muscle damage. We could make the conclusion that weight training does not increase muscle - in fact it decreases muscle, right? It’s only when we look at the big picture - and look at the recovery from the session - that we find the reverse is true - weight training builds muscle.

Fat loss training is the same way. Someone talking about the benefits of the “fat burning zones” or “fasted cardio” is a sure sign that the individual has stopped looking at the end of the exercise session.
They have come to the conclusion that fasted, lower intensity steady state exercise burns the most fat and made a massive leap of faith to suggest it is best for real world fat loss.
Using that same logic, these same people would suggest avoiding weight training if you want to grow muscle.

Take home message - focus on the afterburn, not just what happens during the exercise session.
There is another, more subtle reason why intervals are superior to steady state training.

THE BODY DOES THE OPPOSITE

If you don’t drink enough water, the body will retain it. If you drink too much the body will excrete it.

If you don’t eat often enough the body will store body fat. If you eat often (and correctly) the body will be encouraged to lose body fat.
So when it comes to preferential training for losing body fat one must consider which form of training is optimal.
Low intensity aerobic exercise primarily burns body oxygen and fat, while higher intensity exercise will burn mostly carbohydrate. But in every head to head comparison, higher intensity exercise burns more body fat than low intensity exercise even though a lower proportion of fat was burnt during exercise.

WHY IS THAT?

Along with EPOC it is because the more of one type of training you do the more the body becomes effi cient at it. So by performing a lot of steady state aerobic work the body becomes more effi cient at using fat for a fuel source.
This actually makes it harder and harder to continue losing body fat from aerobic exercise as the volume of work must keep increasing to keep fat loss continuing.

While increasing this from 1 to 2 hours per week may not be a problem, at some point there comes a point of diminishing returns and continually adding aerobic volume to your week becomes impossible.

TYPES OF INTERVAL TRAINING

At its simplest level, interval training refers to a period of work followed by a period of rest. Traditional weight training is, in fact, interval training.
You would perform a set of repetitions (the work) and then put the weight down before resuming. (The added advantage that weight training has as a form of interval training is that it builds muscle, further adding to the increased metabolic effect needed for fat loss).
But how else can interval/ anaerobic work be performed? And how can we use it as PTs to make our sessions more fun, interactive and enjoyable?

Circuits are a great addition to any workout. A circuit is simply a series of exercises performed in continuous fashion before resting and repeating. An example would be:
• Push Ups for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest x 8
• Jump Lunges for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest x 8
• Med Ball Slams for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest x 8
• Burpees for 20 seconds, followed by 10 seconds rest x 8

The above follows the popular Tabata protocol – found to be as effective for fat loss as an hour of steady state training!
Other forms of interval training could include the use of kettlebells, particularly useful for those with bad knees who can’t take the pounding required for sprinting. Master RKC Kenneth Jay has recently come out with a book entitled “Viking Warrior Conditioning” that entails the use of the kettlebell snatch for interval training. He has devised several protocols
to follow, all using a single 16kg ‘bell for men, and 12kg for women.

THE BENEFITS OF PERFORMING WHAT I THINK OF AS “LOADED CARDIO” ARE AS FOLLOWS

• Increased heart volume and weight
• Increased capillary density of the heart
• Both eccentric and concentric hypertrophy of the heart (very important. Unlike in normal aerobic training, instead of the heart just growing bigger, it becomes larger and stronger, allowing it to fully utilise its new size effectively)
• Decreased resting heart rate
• Decreased blood pressure
• Increased ventilation at maximal exercise intensity (remember we want to burn as much oxygen as possible during training to increase our afterburn)
• Increased fatty acid uptake from the blood

Having performed this routine personally and with my clients, I can say that it’s not unusual to see caloric consumption up to almost a 1,000 calories for 40 minutes of effort and that’s without taking the afterburn into effect! I would have to run for two hours to accomplish the same thing!

Other forms of equipment can be used for interval training too. A more useful approach to traditional gym-based cardio training is to still use the cardio equipment, but instead focus on interval training.

EXAMPLES COULD BE:
• Warm up with 5 minutes of easy running at an intensity of 5/10.
• 5 minutes at an intensity of 7/10.
• Perform 4 x 90 second sprint (or more likely just run as fast as possible) with 90 seconds walking recovery.
• Cool down with 5 minutes easy running at an intensity of 7/10.
• 5 minutes at intensity of 5/10

As the client gets fi tter you could either add intervals, shorten the interval or both. (NB. This last option would only be used on advanced trainees once all other options have already been used and only then for a short period of time).
Intervals like the above can be performed on any piece of cardio equipment. Additionally the workout could be used with skipping, running outdoors or any other form of anaerobic training.

SUMMARY

The key to anaerobic work is intensity. Anaerobic work is defined as work being done by the body that is of an intensity level that is too high for it to be fuelled by oxygen consumption alone. These energy systems utilise big, powerful muscles that need incredible amounts of energy to fuel. It is this need for refuelling after the effort that creates the massive fat loss associated with anaerobic interval training.

Andrew Read is Australia’s leading kettlebell instructor and head of Dragondoor Australia (www.dragondooraustralia.com) and www.ptreference.com

 Article Contributed by:

Ultra Fit Magazine
www.ultrafit.com.au