subject: High Intensity Workouts and Target Workouts - Read This Before You Start Exercising! [print this page] For a very long time, fat burning was intrinsically tied to the 'target heart rate'. This was the benchmark - if you could get your heart rate in the target zone, you would achieve fat loss. Or so we were all told.
What exactly is the 'target heart rate'? Well, this is the heart rate at which fat loss occurs. The longer you can sustain this rate, the higher the chances of losing a lot of fat quickly.
As a general rule, you could find out your target heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Therefore, if you are 30 years old, your target rate would be 190 beats per minute (b.p.m)
This misconception that fat loss occurs only in this range is the reason why low-intensity workouts such as slow jogging, etc. are still the preferred form of exercise for most people. Unfortunately, low intensity workouts have very few benefits even if they can take your heart rate within the target range.
Why?
First of all, it can take a long time to get your heart rate to that level. If you are jogging at a normal rate, it may take you half an hour or more. By that time, your body would've already exhausted itself and you would find it difficult to maintain this rate.
Secondly, low intensity workouts have very little 'after-effects'. Once you stop exercising, the heart rate quickly drops to normal and whatever benefits you may have derived from the workouts cease.
The real solution to fat loss isn't to exercise longer, but to exercise with more intensity. It has been an accepted principle in most workout sciences that high-intensity workouts have a lot more benefits than low intensity ones. Most professional trainers will tell you this, as will professional sportsmen - high intensity workouts give you a lot more benefits in a much shorter span of time.
For one, such workouts get your heart rate into the target range very, very quickly. Try it: sprint 100 meters and check your heart rate. It should be easily in the target range. This would've taken you 20 minutes or so with light jogging.
Secondly, high intensity workouts put greater strain on your muscles, leading to muscle development. You may have seen how most short distance professional runners are completely ripped while an Olympic level 10,000 meter athlete will most likely be very skinny.
So stop obsessing about the heart rate and instead, focus on increasing the intensity of your workout.
High Intensity Workouts and Target Workouts - Read This Before You Start Exercising!
