Fit and Youthful Life

Guest Author: Holly Rigsby


t Results with your Cardio Routine. Crank Up the Intensity – Reduce the Time This is your formula for maximum fat loss. Trouble is, we start OFF doing this and slowly but surely, our results seem harder to attain. You’ve embraced the idea that Long, Boring, Steady State Cardio is just not going to cut it when real world fat loss is your goal.

You changed your cardio routine up and are trying the interval style routine – something like this… 1 minute high, 1-2 minutes low. Perform for 10-15-20 minutes. However, as human nature will have it, we ALL tend to take the path of Least Resistance. This leaves us with a Less than Effective interval routine that can impact the length of time it takes for us to see results.

It’s time to break out of your “Cardio Comfort Zone” and challenge yourself to see faster fat loss results. Signs you are In Your Cardio Comfort Zone:

You can hold a conversation. You enjoy the show that is on TV. You are reading a book or magazine. 20 minutes has passed and you could go for 20 more.

When it comes to Cardio and Fat Loss – Intensity is the Secret Ingredient. It takes intensity in EVERYTHING you do to lose weight, lose inches and burn fat. When your intervals are performed at an intense level, your body will spend the rest of the day expending energy to recover from the challenge you have given it. This is referred to as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) and it means that you consume a great deal more oxygen recovering from the exercise bout than you would have if you’d just done a steady-state workout – this in turn allows you to burn more fat and calories for the rest of the day.

However, our amazing body quickly adapts to any exercise routine we out it through, and each time we repeat a particular workout, our body has changed to meet the demands, becomes more EFFICIENT at performing the workout and thus ends up burning LESS fat and calories.

Therefore it is important to recognize that with each and every workout you perform, whether it be your intervals or your resistance training routine – you must find a way to change it up and keep yourself challenged. Training in your comfort zone is useless. Your metabolism will increase only when your body is forced to change.

Get Ready to Challenge your Body!

It can be as simple as the next time you perform your interval routine, check your previous session and stretch yourself just a tad to beat it. Either go a little longer, a little further, a little faster, etc.

I personally found that switching my “go to” interval routine on the treadmill from the 1 minute high at 7.5, 1 minute low at 3.5 – TO 30 second high, 30 seconds low allowed me to push myself even harder during this short burst of intensity…I was able to sprint at an 8.5 – something I could not accomplish for an entire minute in my regular “go to” interval routine. In just 8 minutes I was questioning whether I could complete the 10 I had scheduled for my routine that day. This is true challenge and true intensity and what it takes to bust through plateaus and see amazing results. (FYI: As always, if you are new to this style of exercise, do not begin without first consulting with your physician)

This week, take your cardio routine Up a notch or two and see how much more you can accomplish in Less time!



How French Women Stay Young

Guest Author: Rando Meresmaa


The best way to burn fat is the combination between nutrition, cardio training, weight training and motivation. If you leave out one of these factors then losing fat permanently is impossible. It is not enough to only do cardio or weight training, or even worse only using strict diets without any training at all. All of these factors have their own place, some are more important than others but all of them are important to achieve permanent fat loss.

Weight training

The primary fat burning effect of weight training into play comes after the workout from the increase in Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and from the increase in post-exercise metabolic rate. During weight training workouts, you are burning primarily sugar. The more muscle mass you have the more calories you burn.

For example:

BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

If a man weighs 85 kg with 25% bodyfat then his lean body mass (LBM) is 63.75 kg

If we do the calculation then his BMR is 1747 calories. but if another man who also weighs 85 kg but he has 8% bodyfat then he would burn 2059.12 calories. That is an extra 312.12 calories. But for most people the extra increase in resting metabolism is not enough to lose fat permanently.

Cardio training

Weight training has a bigger effect after a workout but cardio has a bigger effect during a workout. Because aerobic exercise uses oxygen and is therefore fat-burning in nature. If you do a 30 minute cardio (aerobic) workout then you are a bit leaner after the 30 minute workout then before. All calories burned will have an impact on fat loss because overall calorie balance is what really matters. Sustained fat burning, oxygen-utilizing aerobic exercise is critical for fat loss. It is really not important if you do steady state cardio or high intensity interval training (HIIT), what matter is how many calories you have burned.



Instant Skin Tightener

Guest Author: Yuri Elkaim


Interval training (HIT) involves a combination of high and low-intensity training within a single workout session. In this session, the individual alternates between a bout of higher intensity exercise followed by a lower intensity or “active recovery” bout. This type of training is in contrast to the more familiar “steady state” exercise where the intensity is much lower but longer in duration. Interval training is awesome for fat burning and aerobic conditioning but let’s have a look at some more reasons to use interval training for your cardio workouts.

What are the benefits of interval training?

1. Intervals vastly reduce boredom. Traditional steady state cardio training can become quite boring. HIT offers more variety and excitement to your workouts.

2. Interval training increases post-exercise energy expenditure (calories burned following exercise) more than steady-state exercise, which means that more fat is burned. After intense exercise, the body needs extra calories as it works to repair muscles, replace energy stores (i.e. carbohydrate) and restore the body to its normal state (e.g. reduce heart rate). As this can take many hours, you will keep on burning more calories long after the workout is over. In fact, research shows that metabolic rate is higher for several hours following interval training compared to steady state exercise.

3. Interval training stimulates the respiratory system, cardiovascular system and nervous system to a greater degree. Therefore, more fat and carbohydrates are burned to support the expanding energy demands of the body during, and after, intense exercise.

4. Interval training increases the activity of enzymes involved in fat burning. Research has shown that after a bout of interval training there is more fat in the blood (i.e. free fatty acids), which is an indication of more fat, being used for energy production.

5. HIT burns more calories. As an example, 30 minutes on an Elliptical machine using a steady state program will burn roughly 292 calories, whereas 30 minutes of intervals will burn approximately 584 calories!

6. HIT causes a greater increase in VO2max (aerobic capacity). By stimulating your cardiovascular system to work closer to its maximum capacity for a longer duration than steady state exercise.

7. HIT allows for better time efficiency. For instance, a typical 30 min steady state run on the treadmill could be reduced to 10 – 15 min of HIT due to its demands on the aforementioned systems.

8. HIT results in increased amounts of circulating growth hormone (GH) following exercise. This promotes an increase in lean body mass and increased fat burning. This does not occur to the same extent with steady state exercise. This is particularly beneficial for those looking to maintain their muscle mass and at the same time reduce body fat.

9. Interval training makes use of both aerobic (type 1) and anaerobic (type 2) muscle fibres. This is in contrast to steady state exercise that only makes use of type 1 fibres. By increasing the conditioning of these type 2 muscle fibres you will greatly increase your capacity to tolerate high-intensity exercise, which means an increased opportunity to exercise at higher levels that burns a lot of calories.

10. Because of the high-intensity of this exercise and the increased use of anaerobic type 2 muscle fibres there is an increased use of the body’s glycogen (muscle-stored carbohydrates) stores. This is very beneficial for fat loss as the body will conserve carbohydrate following exercise and thus use fat as an energy source for the body’s energy requirements. The more glycogen you use during exercise the more fat you will burn following exercise!

Guidelines for Interval Training

1. Intensity of high-intensity interval

2. Intensity of low-intensity interval

3. Duration of high-intensity interval

4. Duration of low-intensity interval

5. Number of Intervals

Because of its versatility, HIT offers 1000s of different program variations. This is great for those looking for variety and change. After all, the body adapts best to changing stimuli. Furthermore, this type of training can be done on any cardio machine. Again, switching between machines periodically will stress your body differently and lead to the best results!

It is recommended that the intensity for the high-intensity interval range between 75 – 100% of your maximum effort. This will depend on the duration of the interval, as the longer the interval, the lower its intensity.

The recovery interval should range in the 55 – 65% of maximum effort.

The ratio of work to recovery can be varied and will depend on your fitness level and desired goal. For instance, I recommend starting at a work : rest ratio of 1:4 for beginners. As an example, this could represent a high-intensity (work) interval of 15 seconds followed by a 60 second recovery interval. If you are more advanced you can play around with this ratio for increased difficulty.

What you will notice is that over the duration of the interval training session your average heart rate will tend to drift upward. This is due to the fact that, depending on the interval protocol and your fitness level, the length of your recovery bouts will not be sufficient to allow your heart rate to fully return to rest; thus, you end up working at a greater percentage of your maximum heart rate even while you recover.

Here is a sample 10-min interval training workout that is sure to leave you exhausted:

1. 10 seconds at 100% effort

2. 20 seconds at 60% effort

3. Repeated 20 times



Become Wrinkle Free NOW

Guest Author: Machelle Lee


Can you think of anything more torturous than spending an hour pedaling away on a bike or plodding along on the treadmill? You’re not alone. Most exercise enthusiasts dread conventional cardio – why?

Because it’s b-o-r-i-n-g.

So why do it at all? The goal of a cardio workout is to lose the unwanted inches and to develop the efficiency of your heart and lungs. But new studies are out that show our slow-go cardio sessions may not be as effective for burning off that holiday bulge as we thought.

When you plod along on the treadmill at an even pace, your body enters what is called a steady state. This means that your body has adjusted to the pace and is now trying to conserve energy.

Conserve energy? But I thought the point was to burn energy?

And so your dilemma goes: You can’t stand the monotony of traditional cardio and it leaves you with less than satisfactory results. So what should you do?

The answer is HIIT, a new training technique that blasts both boredom and fat.

“In research, HIIT has been shown to burn adipose (fat) tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise – up to 50% more efficiently.”

“HIIT speeds up your metabolism and keeps it revved up for some time after your workout. The bottom line is that HIIT training burns a greater number of total calories than low-intensity training, and more calories burned equals less fat on your body.”

What is HIIT?

High-Intensity Interval Training: is an exercise strategy that improves performance with short training sessions. These sessions involve a warm up period, several short, maximum-intensity efforts that are separated by moderate recovery intervals, and a cool down period.

In other words, your 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio is replaced with more effective, High Intensity Interval Training for as little as 15 minutes. The addition of explosions of speed into your comfortable pace will increase your power, muscle tone, speed, strength, endurance and best of all will melt the inches off.

Here is an example of a HIIT program – this can be done on any form of cardio equipment or even jogging outside or swimming laps:

* Start with an easy 4 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.

* Once you are sufficiently warm, sky rocket your intensity for 30 seconds.

* Return to your normal pace for the next 30 seconds and then sky rocket again.

* Repeat this 30-30 interval for 6 minutes and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

After your HIIT session you can expect to burn more calories due to an increase in your metabolism – sounds good, right? If you aren’t ready to jump into a full-fledged HIIT session, try on of the following modified HIIT workouts:

Modified HIIT 1:

* Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.

* Once you are sufficiently warm, increase your intensity for a full minute.

* Return to your normal pace and remain here until you have recovered enough to go again.

* Repeat this 1 minute interval with full recovery time between each one for the full extent of your workout and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

Modified HIIT 2:

* Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.

* Once you are sufficiently warm, change your speed and intensity for 2 minutes.

* Return to your normal pace for 2 minutes and then change your intensity and speed again. The key is to keep your body guessing – you aren’t doing full intensity work, but you also aren’t staying at the same pace for the entire length of the workout.

* Repeat this 2 minute interval for the full extent of your workout and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.

There you have it – all you need to take your cardio workout to the next level.

Guest Author: rosy


Aerobics (long, steady state sub-maximal cardio) aren’t much good for many health or fat loss related benefits. I’ve already done a post on why aerobics suck for fat loss. And then I went over the health benefits of interval training versus steady-state aerobics in my interval training for fat loss article

Cardio is used in reference to exercises and/or equipment intended for cardiovascular fitness and endurance training (aerobic exercise). “To do cardio” is a common term which means to engage in Running or other endurance training for a set period of time. Having Cardio equipment at home is a great way to be sure to get it in.

The exercises are also very much important to the men. These exercises will help develop the flexibility that will aid in reducing the chances of injuries to the body. These exercises also help in the continuous development of the body. The exercises work to increase the activity level and the oxygen supply to the various parts of the body.

It is important that we work out the cardio system. This is because the cardio system is the core of the body. With a weak cardio system there are not many exercises that we can perform. A weak cardio system also makes a person prone to many heart problems and diseases.

Again, that’s why you see these overweight aerobics instructors that can probably do well in a triathlon (because of excellent endurance), but don’t lose any fat weight.

Aerobics is also known as cardiovascular exercises and it improves oxygen intake and works major muscle groups like the lungs and heart. Aerobics speeds up your metabolism and this leads to fat burning and weight loss, by keeping your heart rate up for an extended period of time. Most instructors suggest 30 minutes of exercise to get the heart rate up to with a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down.

Because you would look forward to doing it and won’t likely miss (or “play truant”) and would likely stay put in it long, to achieve your goal- either to lose weight or to maintain good health.

Cardio and aerobic exercises are helpful to strengthen the respiratory muscles and it results in smoother and unlabored breathing. These exercises are good for strengthening the cardiovascular muscles and it also improves the hearts pumping efficiency. It tones the muscles of all parts of body that results in improved blood circulation and reduced blood pressure.

Most people perform cardio training to burn excess calories. With obesity as one of the leading health problems in the Western world today, people are seriously considering doing cardio workouts since they burn much more fats and carbohydrates in so little span of time. But it must be noted that the amount of calories burned during cardio training will always be dependent on the body weight of the exerciser, the intensity of his workouts and the type of activity he does.

If you were looking to change up your aerobic routine, I would suggest you try water aerobics.Also known as aqua aerobics or aqua-fit. Water aerobics is similar to any other kind of cardio exercise. You run, do jumping jacks, perform arm movements and kicks, except you are in the water.

Read about herbal supplements and also read about boswellia and mucuna



Look Young Again