I don't care how many calories this burns, there's got to be an easier way.

This is a message I just got from a friend of mine which pretty much sums up the reason exercise can’t do much for weight loss unless you’re really watching your calories:

“30 minutes of very high intensity boxing– dripping sweat, almost puked: probaby burned 400 calories, tops

I was at the gym this morning and between sets I looked over at a man who seemed to be in his 50′s about 50 pounds overweight doing one legged lateral step up’s onto a bench and then into a balanced one leg dumbbell curl (while standing on the bench)

I thought for sure I was going to be a witness to a hip fracture. This guy had no business doing a step up by itself let alone trying to add in a dumbbell curl while balancing on one leg.

My guess is this is some ridiculous routine he learned from one of the gyms dim witted personal trainers (or he could have read it in an equally dim witted exercise magazine)…and I’ll bet he couldn’t care less about being a good step-up and curl guy, I’ll bet he just wanted to lose some weight.

Regardless of where he learned to do this, it’s not a good idea. For starters he could barely get up without some serious balance issues. Half of his reps he had to restart half way through as he lost his balance or couldn’t generate enough force to get up without ‘hopping’ into it.

This is a big problem I see with people trying to use their workouts to do ‘functional training’ and burn calories in the gym with multi-joint multi-planar movements.

It’s simply not necessary, it’s not going to accomplish much of anything and in reality it’ll probably give this guy joint problems because his form was a disaster and the exercise itself made zero sense from an exercise physiology and biomechanics standpoint.

There seems to be a trend to make workouts look more and more complex using elaborate looking combination movements that end up doing little for any of the muscle groups involved.

The more complex the movement the steeper the learning curve and the more base strength and coordination you need just to attempt them.

For most people there is never any need to do these complicated movements unless you’re well accomplished in the gym and just bored with what you’re doing.

And even then most of these weird looking exercises are pretty pointless.

The point is that there is a limited number of ways you can move your body, and there is even less ways to move your body that make any sense for building muscle and getting ‘in shape’.

There are two ways to keep a working interesting and effective:

1. Finding creative ways to move and build sets and reps

2. Finding an intelligent way to create those new sets and reps and movements that still accomplish the goal.

Unfortunately most trainers get the first part right and completely ignore the second.

John

P.S. If you’re just getting into exercising body weight training is a good place to start.

The Claim: Cardio on an empty stomach in the morning causes you to burn more fat than glycogen

Answer: FACTOID

After an overnight fast (sleeping) you will be burning a higher percentage of fact vs glycogen simply because you haven’t eaten in a while. By the time you wake up your body will have burned a significant amount of the glycogen stored in your liver and will be relying on an increasing amount of fat for fuel.

Doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach doesn’t make your body burn any more calories than it would have at any other point of the day. Also it doesn’t really change the amount of fat that would be used for that particular exercise.

The time of day is not what determines the fuel used for an activity, the intensity does.

For example, while you are asleep your body burns a high percentage of fat. On the other hand a sprint intervals require predominantly glycogen for fuel.

The time of day of your cardio workout is irrelevant to fat burning as your total calories in vs out will determine if you can reduce your fat stores.

John

The Claim: High Intensity Interval Training causes you to burn more calories than steady state cardio (given the same amount of work)

Answer: FACTOID

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is marketed as the being superior to steady state cardio for calorie burning and fat loss. From a time and efficiency stand point it might work better simply because you can get more work done in the same amount of time. But as far as the total amount of work done there is no difference.

HIIT is useful if you want to get a cardio workout done in a short period of time, but you and I both know most people are doing it for fat loss and not for the cardiovascular health benefit. In which case it’s just a matter of total work done.

The people who market HIIT demonize steady state cardio as if it is something bad for you but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Slower paced steady state cardio is a great way to clear your mind, relax and unwind. There is definitely a place for lower intensity activity like walking or jogging. Anyone who tries to tell you that it’s not good for you is just trying to sell you a HIIT program.

For general health walking at least 30 minutes per day is one of the best things you can do.

And HIIT is just fine too if you like doing it, but if you don’t like it there is no reason to you have to do it.

And a final note, neither of them are any good for fat loss.

John