Question of the Day

It's another example of oversimplification. Your body doesn't "burn muscle tissue." That makes it sound like you have enzymes that start attacking your own muscle cells and begin to tear them away. It's in the same category as that dreaded "starvation mode" that seems to go around permanently damaging everyone's metabolism.

What do you mean by "safe"? In other words, people run marathons that last hours, and they survive. So apparently it is safe as in, you can do it. Is it safe to preserve muscle? That depends less on the time and more upon how you work up to it - going from nothing to 60 or more minutes is different that slowly working to 60 minutes and having the right nutrition and recovery.

No! You said you want to remove the fat. Are you buying into the myth that cardio burns more fat? It doesn't. This has been well researched. If your goal is to lose fat, then you should do both cardio and weight training. This combination burns far more fat than cardio alone.

Cardio is really a modern term that has grown to replace aerobic exercise. To avoid the stigma of the aerobic craze of the 70s people switched to cardio when discussing it relative to fitness and strength-training programs to disassociate with the aerobics-only phenomenon.

It depends on what your goals are. If you are looking to lose fat or maintain health then HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) and weight-lifting are two entirely different entities.

Most people cannot sustain 90% of max HR for a prolonged period of time ... and if you target this, what happens is that your body adapts and the heart becomes more efficient so it becomes harder to raise the rate. The intervals do several things. They allow short bearts of near maximal effort, which by definition and design of your energy systems would be impossible to prolong, so the second thing is the lower intervals allow active recovery to prepare for another bout. The stimulus creates an adaptation - the heart is able to return to a normal heart rate more quickly, which is a good thing, and you create more post-EPOC consumption.

Someone was told that 45 minutes, 5 days a week was the key to more rapid weight loss. Is this true? The answers is ... yes and no.

There are many ways you can add cardiovascular exercise to your workout schedule. Running is only one of them. While running is a great activity that burns a lot of calories, it's not for everyone. There are several factors that will determine how much you should run.

While I don't believe you have to increase the intensity every week, I do feel that something has to change in order to see success. The body is extremely efficient at adapting to your current environment and habits. If you don't change things, the body will stop responding.

What do you mean by "safe?" In other words, people run marathons that last hours, and they survive. So apparently it is safe as in, you can do it.

You should be fine doing cardio after lifting. Not a problem. I've done it. For nutrition, I would get a meal in as soon as you are comfortable.

Absolutely ... in fact, you can get lean without doing any exercise. The question is, why would you want to do it that way? The problem with avoiding cardio is twofold. One reason has to do with the way you lose the fat, and the other has to do with health in general.

Is an apple healthier than an orange? Is it better to have a maple tree or an oak tree in your front yard?

Dan asks, "Some trainers tell me I have to go steady and nonstop for 30 minutes or more to burn fat. Others tell me I have to do intervals and they have to be in a very specific ratio of work to recovery interval."

Cardio before a workout is fine. People get excited about "theory" and try to turn it into some magic law, i.e. "you lose glycogen during weight training and therefore your cardio is forced into fat-burning mode." It's taking part theory part science and trying to establish a hard and fast rule.

No, it should not. Cardio exercise does not promote building muscle. In fact, if anything, it may result in losing some muscle mass while your body favors structures that support endurance activities over strength activities.

Random Picture

Lizzie Marie in Girl Scouts Leader Magazine
Click the link above for more...