Take a look at the following two men:
Marathon runner In my opinion he looks sick.
Sprinter
Strong, lean, powerful and healthy looking!
Have you ever noticed how strong, ripped and powerful sprint and power athletes look? In comparison, long distance athletes appear thin, worn and older than they actually are.
Everyone wants to look like a sprinter, and sprinters do almost ZERO continuous
Think about this: few people want to look like a marathon runner, but the common advice is that to look like a sprinter, you need to train the way a marathon runner does. How weird is that?
We can even transfer this to the gym.If we look around the gym, where do we find the lean, muscular or toned physiques? In the weights room! NOT in the cardio section, spinning or aerobic classes.
Strength training is a lot like sprinting. Short burst of maximum intensity followed by rest. Running on a treadmill or stepping away in a class, is directly proportional to a long distance race.
Every year thousands of overweight people complete triathlons and marathons. This alone proves that the nature of aerobic activity involved in such a pursuit has a limited or zero effect on fat burning.
Jamie Eason, seen on the left, has the kind of body most women dream of. Most people assume she must spend every waking moment in the gym doing grueling cardio! Here's what she has to say:
“I'm not a huge fan of cardio. I prefer to eat clean. Most women overdo the cardio and avoid weights for fear of getting too big. That is a huge misconception! I tell women all the time that they can do cardio and diet all day long but they're never going to achieve the "tone" they're after. Without incorporating weights, they will likely end up just a smaller version of themselves.”
Some women, like Rachel Cosgrove, take Jamie's advice to heart... (next page)
Tip: Of course, diet also plays an integral part in weight loss. I have written a complete nutrition guide which you can find on my website. This will help you gain muscle and lose weight without ever feeling hungry!
http://fortiusfitness.com/nutritionmanual
“I worked my way up to doing over twenty hours of endurance training a week. I also kept track of every calorie I ate; making sure my nutrition was right on track. I thought I'd be able to eat whatever I wanted, but I couldn't. I had to watch myself to keep from gaining any weight. I now have first-hand experience that steady-state aerobics is absolutely, completely, utterly ineffective for fat loss. After working my way up to twenty training hours a week, I can tell you that long, steady-state endurance is not the answer for a defined, lean physique and it's a waste of time if your goal is fat loss. It's only the answer if your goal is to complete an endurance event.”
Today, Rachel spends 5 hours a week weight and interval training to maintain her “toned” look. “I eliminated all steady-state endurance exercise. No running, biking, swimming, or anything else in the steady-state. In an eight-week period my body returned to being strong, defined, and lean. I no longer looked like a flabby endurance athlete, and I did it in a quarter of the time, compared to the aerobic training. Get off the treadmill, stop spinning your wheels, and push yourself in the gym if you want to lose some serious fat.”