Each and everyday online, people hop onto a search engine such as Google and search for ways to lose belly fat and develop a nice set of six pack abs. It never fails, that men and women are looking to get cut for the summer or to lose massive amounts of weight and look great in the process. During this search, people will stumble upon a bunch of BS about crash dieting and special abs crunching machines to get you ‘shredded’. These methods are mostly wrong, it is a myth that you can do endless crunches and look great or that you can crash diet your way into a great physique. This all leads people down the wrong path and creates endless frustration for those trying to meet their goals.
Let me state definitively and once and for all….Nutrition is the most important thing towards getting more muscle, less fat, a great set of abs, or whatever your particular goal is…not just some specialized workout. But while we are in a caloric deficit, sometimes doing high intensity workouts can be better for fat loss than low intensity. High intensity cardio can help us to maintain muscle mass and not be as much at risk of losing it as long, slow, traditional cardio can do. Keep in mind that someone muscular burns more calories than someone with more fat in their body composition, why? Because muscle needs more energy than fat. While in caloric deficit the body tries to conserve its energy storage and so it will also use muscle mass for energy in lieu of fat stores at time. As such, it’s a good idea to train intensely with weights during a cut, so that muscle mass is preserved and all your hard work doesn’t fly out the window . Doing lots of high reps and low weights isn’t going to have much impact on the body in this deprived state.
Some simple ways to bump up the intensity of a cardio workout and really blast the fat include, shortening the amount of rest time in between sets or intervals. Also, trading in the slow jog for workouts that are more akin to sprinting or other forms of high interval training. As you progress, you can shorten the rest periods from around a minute down to 30 seconds and really experience that burn. If you do pullups, rising fast, or looking for at least the low speed but very slowly, controlling the movement (eccentric portion) This will cause a greater adaptive stimulus in a greater number of muscle fibers. This is not only great for gaining definition but also burning fat. No more than 60 minutes a day with rest days are necessary to get a great body, to get the hot bikini body or shredded abs that so many desire.