Aerobic exercises such as running or even riding a stationary bike is an excellent way to speed-up the fat-burning process. As long as you don’t overdo it and it complements a customised weight training program, it will benefit you in a significant manner. You should never use it in place of weight-training as it doesn’t have the ability to permanently increase your metabolism and it doesn’t shape and tone your body.
When should you perform aerobic activity?
If you want your aerobic activity to be effective, you would have to perform it at the right times. There are 2 times that these exercises are effective in burning fat.
When you first wake up in the morning
This is the best time to perform any type of cardiovascular exercises. You should do these on an empty stomach & after you have drunk 500-700 ml of water (this helps prevent dehydration). When you do your cardio exercises at this hour, you actually burn 300% more of body fat compared to any other time of the day. This is because there is no glycogen in your body, to burn. This is why it has to automatically divert its attention to the stored fat to get the energy required to complete that activity.
Post your weight training
This is the other time that the cardio activity is the most effective. If you don’t perform these exercises the first thing in the morning, it takes your system at least 20-30 minutes to start burning fat (that’s the amount of time it takes for your body to use up its glycogen stores & transition into fat-burning mode.
Things to remember
It wouldn’t be beneficial to perform any type of aerobic activity at any other time of the day. This is because you have to perform it at least for 20-30 minutes before the fat burning process gets kick-started, and 20 minutes for you to actually burn that fat. This means you would end up performing aerobic activity for 40-50 minutes per day.
Unless you follow a perfect diet and are a competitive bodybuilder that has an excellent supplementation program that’s specifically-designed to protect your muscle mass, you shouldn’t perform aerobic exercise for more than 20-45 minutes each day, 6 days a week, if you are man. For women, this time frame is only 30-45 minutes; anything more than that puts them at a risk of losing muscle mass.
Sometimes, competitive bodybuilders may go as high as 45-minutes (7 days a week) for 2 sessions every day. However, this schedule is followed only for a short period of time and they have to combine it with a high-frequency, pre-contest diet, that is also supplemented with glutamine (which is effective in protecting muscle tissue). Always keep in mind, that when it comes to aerobic exercise, more isn’t always better.
Regularity counts
Incorporating these aerobic activities into your regular body building program is the best way to optimise the benefits of your workout. If you have any questions about building muscle or want a workout routine that would help, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at Schembri PT.
You can send us an email to info@schembript.com or fill in this contact us form and we’ll reply as soon as possible. We design custom body-building routines that will help you burn fat in a very effective manner, without impacting your boy’s muscle-building capacity.
Thanks for reading,
Schembri PT Team
02 9648 6405