FIGHT FAT WITH CLEVER CARDIO

Cardiovascular exercise is in some ways the simplest form of fitness there is just jump ona bike, lace up your shoes or dive in and away you go. But if you want to use cardio as an effective fat loss tool, there’s a little more you need to know. Let us show you how to make the most of your sessions to maximise the burn

- 

Cardiovascular exercise is excellent for your physical and mental health. But to turn running, cycling or swimming workouts into legitimate fat burners, it pays to have a slightly smarter approach than simply plodding it out session after session. And that means you need to make at least some of your cardio - whether in or out the gym - short, sharp and intense.

If you've tried and failed to lose weight before, the chances are you started doing more running or cycling, especially longer-distance jogs or rides. But while steady-state cardio which is when you run, cycle or swim at a consistent and comfortable intensity for a significant amount of time - has many health benefits, maximising fat loss isn't one of them.

That's because this type of endurance-based exercise doesn't push your heart, lungs and muscles hard enough to significantly initiate the process by which your body is forced to start tapping into fat cells to release fuel for energy.

Fat loss efforts are then often further hampered by eating huge amounts afterwards, which can mean more calories are consumed than have just been burned. And that's just not an effective way to lose fat, because ultimately the fat loss equation relies exclusively on calories in vs calories out.

So if you enjoy cardio sessions, but want to turn them into fat-blasting workouts, you need to stick to the following advice.

THE CARDIO QUESTION

Follow these strategies for every cardio training session if you want to burn maximum fat

Warm up well

Before you begin any session, you need to thoroughly warm up your cardiovascular system and your major muscles, preparing for the intense work ahead to reduce your risk of injury. Do 10 minutes of gentle activity, gradually increasing the intensity, until you feel warmer and a little out of breath.

Stretch dynamically