ShareGood news. You don’t need to do ANY slow cardio to lose your belly fat.
Read that last line again. That’s right, zero cardio. Step away from the dreadmill. Cancel your spin class. That being said, I still see trainers prescribing 30-45 minutes slow, cardio for their body transformation clients. Beats me. This will NOT help you accelerate fat loss.
Click on the short video below and find out what you can do to replace long, boring cardio sessions.
One Warning
This training intensity is for ADVANCED people only. It’s NOT for beginners or folks coming off a long injury lay off. Be conservative and always listen to your body.
So you must be wondering, “how did I train for a half marathon?”
In my programs, I do not run more than 10 miles a week, or even longer than 60 minutes in a session.
My friend running with me was in shock that I could keep up the pace AND still chat to her – without doing any long, slow training runs. I even beat her up a few monster hills, thanks to the hill sprint workouts.
Instead, my workouts included training big movements and lifting heavy to get stronger, tortuous high intensity intervals and a splash of fat loss accelerators. Each workout typically lasted no more than 20-40 minutes.
Yes, you guessed it: fat loss training.
On paper, it looked brief and too easy. However, these short sessions were absolutely brutal. Recovery between workouts was a major emphasis, which some traditional half marathon/marathon training programs ignore.
Come half marathon Sunday, I felt strong, injury free and most importantly, mentally prepared to take on the challenge. It was an awesome day, and despite not running a personal best time, I felt strong, in control and most importantly I had a good time. Now that’s what it’s all about!
The major take away points from my latest experiment included:
1. Quality Trumps Quantity: As an advanced runner, you can effectively train for an endurance event without wasting time doing long slow workouts.
2. Less Exercise Volume = less wear and tear on your joints, muscles and heart means you can recover between workouts
3. Eating too many junkie, white carbs will slow you down and make you GAIN fat while training for endurance events. Carb loading is so old-school.
The stronger your body, the better you fair. This doesn’t only relate to running half marathons, it applies to your whole life. Get strong and mentally tough for life, and anything is possible.
Have an awesome week,
KV
