The goal of any
exercise program is to elevate your heart rate. The more intense your program,
the more your body is screaming to get blood and oxygen pumped into those
muscles. Your body is burning calories and that is attributing to your weight
loss. So, how hard do you need to work to get to that fat burning stage? Let’s
use a little math to figure things out.
You want to
figure out your Max Heart Rate which is 220 minus your age. For me, as a 41
year old, that means my Max Heart Rate is 179. Now, generally speaking, the
zone where you are hitting the “fat burn” is 60% to 70% of your maximum heart
rate. I only learned this after I had been wearing a heart rate monitor for a
few of my workouts but this is a learning process for me too.
I try to
register my heart rate after most sets. Do a set of Bench Presses, check the
rate. Do some Seated Cable Rows, check the rate. On average my heart rate was
floating in the high 130s. Occasionally I would see a spike over 140 if the
weight was really heavy and I was straining really hard. So I break out the
calculator… 70% of 179 is 125. 60% of 179 is only 107. This means that if I can
maintain a heart rate between 107 and 125 beats, I am burning fat.
Considering when
I would check my heart rate and I was never dropping below 130, that means I am
doing awesome! And how do I sustain this heart rate? The key lies in Circuit Training (aka Antagonistic Sets). For just a brief
refresher course, Antagonistic Sets are two exercises that complement each
other. If you do an Overhead Shoulder Press, you then immediately do a Lat
Pulldown afterward. You are not just waiting around to shake off that fatigue.
You could even throw in a third exercise, something ancillary like a Dumbbell
Calf Raise or a Forearm Dumbbell Raise. All that strain keeps the heart rate
elevated, which means you are burning more calories.
So how much of a
difference does this strategy make? If you log into the My Fitness Pal app and
log “Strength Training” as a cardiovascular activity, it will ask you how long
did you work out? If you punch in 60 minutes, the base amount of calories they
estimate is 331 calories.
I recently asked
a friend of mine that is a runner. She tracks her runs via Nike’s app. She said
that an hour run at a 5 mile per hour pace, will burn her approximately 530
calories. Obviously, the more you run and the more frenetic the pace, the more
you will burn but who can sprint for an hour?
Meanwhile, using
circuit training and minimal reps… My calculations show that 1 hour in the gym
nets me 900 calories burned. Let me stress that. 900 calories. That is
basically two meals. At first I thought something was wrong. But like they say,
once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. As of
this research, I can consistently get to 900 calories in an hour’s worth of
work.
Now, that is not
to say that you can just stroll in, go about a standard milk run workout, and
expect 900 calories to melt away. I clang and bang. I don’t socialize. I put my
headphones on and I go to mutha humpin’ work. The other regulars know once my
headphones go I on, I get into my zone very quickly. My music is loud and I
stay focused. I am not strolling about in between sets. I am not hitting on the
chicks. I am there to work. To paraphrase the immortal Rowdy Roddy Piper, I am
there to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.
I think there is
a reason why medical science is proving that resistance training is superior to
straight cardio when it comes to weight loss and the evidence is clear. 530 calories
burned running versus my 900 calories burned while pushing iron. I have said it
before and I will say it again. Sure, I could run on the treadmill but who
jumps off the treadmill and flexes their thighs in triumph? But I can get done
and hit a Double Front Biceps pose and feel pride in my accomplishments.
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