The Road Warrior

Getting lean is a process. Unless you are naturally gifted, this will take some commitment on your part. You will have to lift weights to maintain and build new tissue. You will have to develop a solid nutritional plan. Finally, you will have to implement an effective cardiovascular routine. It's time to run, Road Warrior!

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Time to lace up my shoes, hit the road, and run for endless miles..."

Nope.

Here come the intervals!

While long, slow, consistant cardio programs (5k, 10k, Marathons, etc) have their place in the fitness world, they are not the best at producing a lean, muscular physique. It's just not in the science. I'll explain that a little later, but for now, it's time to learn some Anatomy & Physiology boys & girls! (just a little bit)

To understand the importance of interval training or HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) as most people like to call it, you need to know the basics of how your body operates.

Your body runs on three basic cardio engines:

1. Creatine-Phosophate Engine

The Creatine-Phosophate Engine is responsible for providing the body with a maximal energy supply through the first 8 - 10 seconds of activity. It is your stored energy reserve that allows you to respond to an instantaneous change in your muscular state (I.E. Going from a resting state to a full sprint instantly). Ever start out running at 100% and then suddenly hit "the wall" in which you have to give that extra effort to maintain your speed? That's your body running out of stored creatine phosphate or PCr (Pcr). Once that happens, you move on to engine #2.

2. Anaerobic Glycolysis Engine

This engine system is responsible for producing your energy during short, intense exercise (weight lifting, sprints, etc); It provides energy for a period ranging from 10 seconds to 2 minutes. The anaerobic glycolysis (lactic acid) system is dominant from about 10-30 seconds during a maximal effort. The main source of full for this engine is sugar (carbohydrates) stored within the muscles of your body called glycogen. This will be our focus.

3. Aerobic Oxidative Engine

Most people find themselves training in this system. It is the easiest to learn to train, thus takes little effort past "just go out and run". This system becomes dominate after 2 minutes of continuous exercise (I.E. marathon running). It works by combusting Oxygen and Body fat to make your fuel.

It's more of the "set and forget" system because once you reach this state, you can maintain a constant stream of fuel for multiple hours at a time. The main source of fuel for the aerobic system is pure body-fat. And while that may sound like a good thing, its time to tell you why you want engine 1 & 2 driving away your belly:)

Alright, after the descriptions above, you are probably thinking that if you were to train in the aerobic system for an extended period of time that it would be the best thing for getting rid of all that unsightly fat; however, you are wrong! Follow me for a moment and I'll explain...

1. Your brain thinks: if I burn fat, then I will have less fat on me!
2. Your body thinks: if we are going to be running for hours at a time, I need ample stores of fat to be able to perform! I'll make sure we always have some available!

See the disconnect? In order to be able to do burn off the fat in your body, you must have it available to burn off... It's a catch-22 folks!

Saying all the above to say this: Training your #2 engine will make you leaner, more muscular, & faster. Adapting the body to hold on to sugars (which are stored in muscle) as opposed to holding body-fat (stored in your gut), seems like a winning formula to me. But you decide:

Distance folks--Try this program out & let me know what you think:

Day 1: 30 minutes, 10% incline, 6.0mph - 7.0mph