Some of the most common questions that I get asked are: when should I do my cardio, what intensity should I do my cardio, and how often should I do it. In order to accurately answer these questions we have to first determine what your goals are. There are really only two major goals in this sport when it comes to cardio and training: build muscle or burn fat. No matter if you are trying to lose body fat or build muscle, cardio is essential for maximal progress with either of these goals.

Most of the time we think of cardio as a tool for fat loss and so much of the focus is put on the cardio that is done during contest prep or done to burn off extra body fat so you can continue to look nice and trim. However, if performed correctly cardio can also aid in encouraging you to build muscle. First, let’s focus on fat loss. This is the most pressing reason cardio is done and it is usually why I get questions on cardio. Most people want to know how to make their cardio the most effective and get the most results.

CARDIO FOR FAT LOSS

First let’s look at cardio for fat loss and what is the most effective. Assuming that your diet is on par with losing fat, your cardio will be the second most important element in your fat loss program that will aid in burning off your unwanted body fat. In general, doing cardio in the morning before any meals and before your blood sugar level has risen is the best time to do fat burning cardio. Bar none, most athletes feel that they get more fat burning done with this kind of fasted state cardio. I also recommend that prior to your fasted cardio you should take the following: some BCAA’s so that you decrease any risk of accelerated muscle wasting, L-Carnitine which is required by your body to burn fat as fuel, and a fat burner to increase the thermogenic action during your cardio training. Here is exactly what I recommend 20 mins prior to your cardio training:

• 5-15 gm of BCAA’s (depending on lean body mass)
• 500 mg of L-Carnitine
• Scorch (fat burner)

This combination of nutrients will help you increase your thermogenic mechanism, give you the raw components to burn your fat as fuel and ensure that you preserve as much lean tissue as possible. Actually, Figure Fuel combined with Scorch will give you all these components and is a great way to ensure that you get all these together in the correct amounts.

Once you have loaded up on nutrients and you are ready to do  your cardio, how should you perform it? There are many schools of thought on this and every competitor and athlete has his or her own particular way they may like to do it. I recommend that if you are focused on fat loss then doing steady state is the tried and true way to go. You should choose the intensity level that is consistent with your fitness level and one that will get you hot and sweaty after about 12 to 15 minutes. Some people don’t sweat as much, especially if you are a small woman or if you just don’t have a lot of body mass. In this case, gauge your intensity by how hot you get. In other words, how much heat you can produce while doing your cardio. The most important aspect of fat burning cardio is heat generation. The simple truth is…the more heat you generate the more calories your body is burning and our goal is to generate as much of a energy deficit as we can by burning, burning, burning those calories.

CARDIO FOR MUSCLE GAIN

Cardio for muscle building seems like an oxymoron, but if done carefully and correctly this kind of activity can enhance some of your body’s processes, and thus aid you in building the muscle that you want. First, you have to understand that the primary type of muscle fiber that is prone for growth are your fast twitch fibers. These fast twitch fibers are generally shorter and are the fibers that contract rapidly with more force but tend to run out of steam quickly. Fast twitch fibers predominantly derive their energy anaerobically, which means they generally prefer energy pathways that don’t require oxygen such as the phosphate system and glycolysis. During activity this type of muscle fiber creates ATP (which is the energy your muscles use to contract) by first exhausting what is in the muscle (0-3 seconds worth of energy), then it turns to creatine phosphate (CP) to resynthesize ATP until the CP runs out (another 6-8 seconds of energy later). All this is magically happening as you workout continuously and the speed of which this happens is based on how you are doing your cardio or workout.

To put a fine point on this, if you do high-intensity intervals in your cardio training, this can be a great way to recall more of these fast twitch fibers that are prone for growth. By stressing them with enough intensity in your cardio session to damage them you can encourage a certain degree of growth in the end. High intensity interval training has been done for years by many athletes to help them burn more calories during a cardio sessions by increasing effort and energy output. But if done in moderation you can get muscle building benefits. Again, if your diet is right and it is supporting your nutritional needs for muscle growth, then this kind of cardio in moderation will enhance recovery and stimulate growth by creating the kind of fiber damage that causes growth.

I recommend that you do your high intensity intervals in a certain manner to have the best results. Do your cardio in a steady-state form for about 3 minutes, then increase the intensity for 90 seconds and repeat this over and over until your cardio is finished. However, I do not recommend that you do any more than 3 sessions of cardio a week if you are trying to put on muscle. I also recommend that you do no more than 30 minutes of cardio in this fashion at a time. Extended periods of cardio and cardio done too often in your week can create some recovery issues and put an extra burden on your energy systems and can work against you building muscle.

Additionally, you can encourage the best muscle building environment in your body by taking some BCAA’s and having a good abundant creatine source before your sessions. I recommend doing this by taking a serving of Figure Fuel and a serving of Clout before a cardio session or workout. One serving of each of these products should support and give you what you need to survive a rigorous 30 minute session of high intensity interval cardio.

No matter what your goals are for doing cardio, you will need to support these activities nutritionally for optimal results, and you will need to perform your cardio in the manner that is most appropriate to your goals. Good luck and happy cardio!

Every year many people go through the ritual of re-defining what it is that they want from their bodies and setting goals for this is a common place. Here are my suggestions to making this more than a just a ritual but apart of your year’s success process.

BE SPECIFIC

First, make sure you are very specific about what you want. What this means is define exactly what you want in concrete terms. You should know what you want so that you not only know when you get there but also so that you can more easily design a path to accomplish it. If you want to gain muscle this year then you should know exactly how many pounds and what you are going to do each day and week and month in order to acquire this goal.

KNOW YOUR DESTINATION

You should also have a planned date in the year when you expect to accomplish each goal and you should be specific about this date also. If you don’t know how long you have to get there then you really have few ways to know what kind of pace you need to set for yourself. This also increases your focus when you know exactly what you want and when you want to achieve it.

MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS

Make sure that you have some way of measuring your success throughout the year. If you don’t have a clear way to understand how well you are doing then it is likely that you will give up sooner. If you can measure your success or failure each day, week and month then you will more likely to fix any problems and address any challenges along the way. Also, knowing where you are in your process can be an incredible way to get a sense of accomplishment as you plug along the path to your end goals. It is always important to recognize what you are doing right, and not just beat yourself up when you feel you are doing poorly. You will thrive more off recognizing your successes, which can create momentum in your year’s journey, than focusing on just where your challenges are.

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

The people who accomplish more goals consistently than others share one big thing in common…positive attitude. When I say positive attitude it means more than just thinking warm fuzzy thoughts or saying only things that seem to highlight where you want to be. For me positive attitude can mean some of this, but more importantly it is a way in which you approach your day. It encompasses your overall world outlook and often controls your responses to challenges and helps guide your intentions. Attitude is the sugar in your Cool aid! Without it victories can seem disappointing and short lived.

Pointing your attitude toward the positive also means focusing your attention, thoughts and actions on what produces the good feelings that we all want more of each day. Your attitude will be the single most important attribute and will influence your success more than anything else in your life. Your attitude will define your life, open or close opportunities to you, and give you a sense of fulfillment in your life of fill you with a sense of despair about your existence. Ask any great diplomat, negotiator, CEO, world leader, or athlete and they will all tell you that you must have the right attitude to achieve success in anything.

DON’T GIVE UP OR GIVE IN

I really see this as a point of a positive attitude but being able to not give up and stick through the challenges and hardships as  you travel the path of your goals is also a requirement. As a matter of fact, if you can’t look disappointment and failure in the face and keep on going then you might as well not try to accomplish anything great in the first place. Challenges and obstacles are inevitable in everyone’s year goal procurement. If our goals and desires weren’t significantly challenging then everyone would have the body they want and the success in their lives they want but the fact is that most don’t. So recognizing that there will be challenges along the way and possibly more failure than you expected should be on the table from the start. It is O.K. to acknowledge that you won’t always reach your goals when and how you expected to. This is a part of the goal achievement  process. The point is that you don’t give up or give in when you are knocked down.

I see so many people every year who try to achieve their body goals and falter so quickly and the second they are knocked down they seem to refuse to get up and continue to try. It is as if they have hit a wall and somehow know that it is un-scalable. Don’t see these intermittent challenges as obstacles, instead see them as opportunities to learn how to be better at whatever you are after. Remember, you are in control of your actions and you will be the one who decides to give in, give up or keep on going. I don’t know how many times I have talked to successful people about how they have accomplished the things that I wanted to emulate and the first and most important part of each of their stories are what they learned through the obstacles they had to over come. And it is often these challenges and failures along their path of success that defines their journey and gives them a heightened sense of elation and fulfillment when they finally reach their goals.

What an incredible honor we all get to be able to choose our life’s paths. We don’t often get to choose how victory comes to us, nor do we often get to set the timelines but we decide everyday to be on the path. As long as you are on the path and have the right attitude that points you forward you will get there eventually. And I know that a life focused on these kinds of principles will be one that is filled with tremendous value and lessons.

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