Switching up cardio - is it really effective
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IouliaN
Posts: 16
Hi all:
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
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Replies
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The way to lose fat is to preserve lean muscle during weight loss. This is done with a good protein intake and strength or resistance training. I have never personally heard of switching up cardio having any direct effect on fat loss vs LBM loss.0
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I've know a lot of ppl that have successfully broke their plateau by switching things up... If I don't lose anything for a bit I change what I'm doing & it does seem to help me also... I'm not sure how much of a switch jogging vs walking would be but it's worth a shot... I would think something like aerobics or adding weights would be more effective...0
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The body adapts to fitness programs in about 6-8 weeks. It's efficient to change programs after that time to give the body a different stress to try to adapt to.Hi all:
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
If you've been doing the same exercise for several months or longer, your body is not burning nearly as many calories as when you started. It has become very efficient at doing it. You also need some resistance training at least twice a week,0
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Thank you, everybody.
My resistance training is yoga. I jog every other day and do vigorous yoga every other day - usually exercise every day. It sounds like most people think switching up would be effective. I will not switch away from yoga - it's a practice - but I do switch routine every time. As far as cardio, I am thinking I might switch to from jogging to some P90X cardio routines(my hubby's) rather than walking.
Thanks all!0 -
Or, since you've already found a fitness activity you seem to really enjoy, you can just change things up by running harder and faster.0
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Hi all:
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
No that is not true. That statement is related to the concept of "muscle confusion" popularized by an infomercial workout program. The idea is marketing gibberish. Varying the training stimulus is important for making continued fitness improvement. However this doesn't mean you have to change activities. Randomly changing activity will more likely lead to FEWER calories burned, not more. That's because you won't be proficient enough at he new activity to push yourself as hard.0 -
If you've been doing the same exercise for several months or longer, your body is not burning nearly as many calories as when you started. It has become very efficient at doing it. You also need some resistance training at least twice a week,
If weight and workloads are the same then you are burning the same number of calories. "Efficiency" has little effect.0 -
for weightloss, no. however, varying ur exercise is still a good idea!
yoga + p90x is perfect! 0 -
Hmm, controversial I see. Well, good thing winter is coming (never thought I would hear myself say that) and it will get tougher to run outside, so good reason to switch to P90X at home anyway:)0
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The body adapts to fitness programs in about 6-8 weeks. It's efficient to change programs after that time to give the body a different stress to try to adapt to.Hi all:
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I would think you'd have to have a carefully-defined goal for doing that. Just changing for it's own sake is not very productive. If you are a runner, for example, then, unless you were interested in cross training to prevent injury or overtraining, it would be more beneficial to incorporate different training stimuli from the start (e.g. intervals, hills, endurance, etc) rather than, say, switch to cycling after 6-8 weeks. Maybe we are talking about two different things.0 -
I don't think a jogger can ever switch back to power walking! I wonder if I am the only one that gets that "YOU HAVE TO MOVE FASTER NOW" feeling when I am walking/jogging ! can't help it LOL. However, on subject, I switch back and forth between jogging and HITT every other day. I love it and my body seems to like it.0
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Yes, I do get that feeling, Jillian:) What is HITT?0
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Hi all:
So I stalled after a good start in weight loss. Mostly just not sleeping enough and being so tired (and hungry) from work and study that I end up eating slightly more than I should. But anyway..
A fitness dude at a health fair told me that one of the keys to loosing fat is switching up one's cardio routine from time to time. Do one thing for 3 months, then something different. I currently jogg for cardio and have done it for a few years now - the ROI on it is so high - you burn so much in so little time - perfect for me. If I switch to, say, power walking for a while, I will have to add time to compensate for lower intensity. But he got me thinking.
Has anybody heard of this? True/false?
No that is not true. That statement is related to the concept of "muscle confusion" popularized by an infomercial workout program. The idea is marketing gibberish. Varying the training stimulus is important for making continued fitness improvement. However this doesn't mean you have to change activities. Randomly changing activity will more likely lead to FEWER calories burned, not more. That's because you won't be proficient enough at he new activity to push yourself as hard.
This!
Varying your exercise helps you become more fit in a wider range of activities rather than only being good at one thing. I believe the infomercial in question actually gets some amount of benefit out of this because it maximizes your "noob gains" by eventually hitting the whole body. As well I think it can be good for your emotional well being by keeping you interested and setting/achieving new goals. But as a philosphy? As a plateau buster? Not unless the new activity is fundamentally more intense than the old one.
In order to break a weight loss stall you either need to eat less or burn more. If changing to another exercise helps you burn more than it will work. But as you say the ROI of jogging is already very high, few routines will top it for efficiency.
As mentioned you could jog longer or faster.
You may also consider switching to resistance training, which can have the effect you desire for different reasons,0 -
HIIT is high intensity interval training. It's doing intervals but giving everything you have during those intervals. You should never finish a HIIT workout feeling like you could go farther.
So say you do three minutes off and one minute high intensity. For that minute, you push yourself to the limit, running as fast as you can and then the three minutes off are your recovery.
I like HIIT workouts, but I have to follow someone elses cues. I don't know how to organize my own. :-p0 -
Try adding some HIIT workouts (High intensity interval training), they are fun and change things up! www.fitnessblender.com has some great free ones!0
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Yes, your body can get adapt to the same work out routine as much as it adapts to food. I plateaued and learn to switch up cardio to trick your body. I started doing 10min of rowing, then 10 treadmill, then 10 bike, then 10 elipical....it really busted my plateau. And I also change the routines on these machines...I will do intervals of hard, recover, hard recover...etc.0
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Hi OP, sorry to hijack the post, but after reading the responses, I have a follow up question.
I am resistance training and jogging. Does increasing weight in my resistance training add up to increasing/adjusting the level of intensity of my workouts? Or would I need to do something else in addition to that to keep my body from getting bored (reason tells me that increasing weight would challenge my body while building strength and therefore accomplish the same aim as "switching it up" but I'm still a bit of a novice about all of this...)?
Thanks, all!0 -
I do want to say that what most people in this thread are talking about is changing up your routine (or intensity level) to increase CALORIES burned once your body becomes more efficient at an activity. There is evidence to support this to an extent, but I haven't seen any evidence showing that this increases FAT loss over LBM loss, which is what the person at the fitness fair seemed to be suggesting.0
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I don't think you need to quit jogging. i think you just need to change up the intensity. Like jog at your usual pace for 2 minutes then increase pace to slightly difficult for a minute then switch back to easy pace and repeat.0
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