i2 Article DirectorySubmit Articles, Search and Find Free Content

Some guys are naturally lean and can more or less remain that way seemingly no matter just how much food they eat. But in reality, men like this are rare. Most of the rest of us need to incorporate cardio into our training routines as a way to maintain the excess body fat at bay. Just how much cardio needs to be integrated into your routine will vary depending on a lot of factors including: age, activity level, physical wellness, body type, diet, sleep patterns and weight training approach.

For the weightlifter or bodybuilder searching to maintain muscle mass while also cutting body fat, the thought of incorporating cardio into his routine is generally not a pleasant one. This is since adding cardio to your training routine doesn’t just stimulate fat burning, it also causes you to lose lean muscle mass also. For those of us who desire to be huge and lean, this is at least an annoying reality of aerobic physical exercise. It’s frustrating to invest a substantial quantity of time and effort into creating muscle only to see if disappear due to our efforts to get lean by doing cardio.

And though yes, performing cardio is excellent for the mind, body and spirit, as a fat burning strategy, it may be time consuming mainly because sadly, aerobic activities inevitably burn far fewer calories than we think. After performing 20-30 minutes of cardio you might feel as although you have burned 600 calories but the cold reality is far different. As an example, researchers measured the number of calories burned when walking versus running. The study showed that the average man burns just 124 calories when running a mile and only 88 when walking the exact same distance. So by running 3 miles you could anticipate to burn about 396 calories and by walking three miles you’ll burn about 240. Figures for other aerobic activities are shown below (these are calculated utilizing a man who weighs 190 pounds).

- Stationary bike (light): 474 calories per hour;

- Walking uphill (3.5 miles per hour): 518 calories per hour;

- High impact aerobics: 604 calories per hour;

- Stationary bike (moderate): 604 calories per hour;

- Jogging (light pace): 604 calories per hour;

- Running (5 miles per hour): 690 calories per hour;

- Stationary bike (vigorous): 906 calories per hour;

Given that you have to burn approximately 3,000 calories to lose one pound of body weight, it is possible to see how easy it is to underestimate how much cardio you should be performing to burn body fat.

The fact that aerobic exercise also burns fuel from muscle cells-resulting in a loss of muscle mass-in addition to fat calories, is a secondary drawback of cardio. The reason this happens is that periods of aerobic physical exercise cause the body to shift into survival mode. In this state, it strives to preserve access to fat cells by also burning fuel derived from muscle cells. It does this since the body is incapable of understanding our motivation for doing cardio. As far as it is concerned, it just needs to maintain fat reserves for any pending emergency situations where we might not have access to food.

In sharp contrast to ordinary cardio, adding resistance to aerobic activities significantly boosts the number of calories burned (and fat too) while also eliminating the loss of lean muscle mass. As an example, one study showed that in comparison to ordinary aerobic exercise, men who engaged in resistance cardio activities burned up to 44% extra calories. In another study, researchers looked at two groups-one participating in regular aerobic activities and another, participating in resistance cardio activities. The results showed that not only did the group participating in resistance cardio burn more fat than the ‘aerobic’ group, but that they did so without losing any muscle mass. Numerous other studies have achieved similar results. In fact, all of the research has shown that resistance cardio burns considerably a lot more calories and fat than ordinary cardio alone.

Nearly any aerobic activity may be turned into ‘resistance cardio.’ As an example, if you like to walk or jog you can pick up a set of dumbbells, some ankle weights or even a weight vest. If biking is your thing, just kick up the resistance. Whatever cardio activity it is that you like to do, add some resistance and not only will you burn a lot more fat but you’ll also be able to maintain far more of your hard-earned muscle mass.

Want to Build Muscle? Visit this today and be well on your way to your new image.

Article Source: i2 Article Directory (www.i2articledirectory.info)