Tabata Protocol for Cardio?

HondaV65

HondaV65

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Where's the "sweet spot"??

I think this may be a good way to burn fat while not catabolizing muscle? Essentially ... right now, using a Concept 2 rower ... I do 10 mins warmup at moderate pace ... then 8 intervals of 20 seconds (Hell Bent for Leather ON!) followed by 10 secs (OFF).

Man ... I tell you ... I do those 20 seconds with just about everything I have in me ... and I'm tired as **** when the intervals are done. But I'm not too sure this is burning as much fat as I wanted it to? Do I need to dig deeper and find more "blood and guts" to put into the intervals or do I need to increase the number of intervals - or perhaps the length of the "on" and "off" cycles?

I want to burn fat while spending the least amount of time on cardio that I can possibly get away with. I'm not a sissy ... I'm willing to allow a 300 pound Samoan to beat me with a baseball bat if necessary during that short iteration of cardio work in payment for reduced time on that boring rowing machine.

And besides - all that repetitive motion with my legs is killing the **** out of my squats and giving me tendonitis ...
 
Rosie Chee

Rosie Chee

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Where's the "sweet spot"??

I think this may be a good way to burn fat while not catabolizing muscle? Essentially ... right now, using a Concept 2 rower ... I do 10 mins warmup at moderate pace ... then 8 intervals of 20 seconds (Hell Bent for Leather ON!) followed by 10 secs (OFF).

Man ... I tell you ... I do those 20 seconds with just about everything I have in me ... and I'm tired as **** when the intervals are done. But I'm not too sure this is burning as much fat as I wanted it to? Do I need to dig deeper and find more "blood and guts" to put into the intervals or do I need to increase the number of intervals - or perhaps the length of the "on" and "off" cycles?

I want to burn fat while spending the least amount of time on cardio that I can possibly get away with. I'm not a sissy ... I'm willing to allow a 300 pound Samoan to beat me with a baseball bat if necessary during that short iteration of cardio work in payment for reduced time on that boring rowing machine.

And besides - all that repetitive motion with my legs is killing the **** out of my squats and giving me tendonitis ...
I started doing Guerilla Cardio (i.e. tabata, but running) in 2004 and have been doing variations and modifications of ever since.

HIGH intensity training is going to burn more fat in the long-term than low intensity, no matter the period of time you spend doing it - see The Cardio Debate for Fat Loss: High Intensity versus Low Intensity. You don't need to add more intervals, although you can once eight efforts gets easy - I did.

Look at using other modes of cardio for your efforts - for example, I do them running, cycling, rowing, even periods boxing.

~Rosie~
 
HondaV65

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Thanks Rosie ... so basically - just keep at it and hitting it hard? That's cool - I've only done this about a week and half so far so I'll just keep at it. I suppose it will do it's work a lot better once I perfect the technique.

Yeah now ... on the different modes of cardio - well I can do rowing and eliptical ... but as far as running that's tough.

Also - do you to HIIT exclusively or do you still throw in some low intensity cardio.

By the way - my 40 min sessions had an average heart rate of 145 ... with the latter 15 minutes up over 150 ... since my target hr at my age is 137 - would that still be considered "low intensity"??

Whatevs it got real boring doing it for that long that's for sure!
 
Rosie Chee

Rosie Chee

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Thanks Rosie ... so basically - just keep at it and hitting it hard? That's cool - I've only done this about a week and half so far so I'll just keep at it. I suppose it will do it's work a lot better once I perfect the technique.

Yeah now ... on the different modes of cardio - well I can do rowing and eliptical ... but as far as running that's tough.

Also - do you to HIIT exclusively or do you still throw in some low intensity cardio.

By the way - my 40 min sessions had an average heart rate of 145 ... with the latter 15 minutes up over 150 ... since my target hr at my age is 137 - would that still be considered "low intensity"??

Whatevs it got real boring doing it for that long that's for sure!
No worries :)

You've only been doing this for a week and a half - there's NO need to add more intervals until you've been doing this for at least 8-12 weeks (I didn't start adding more intervals for a couple of years, making sure that I maxed out for every sprint)!

Yes, running is tough, but you're going to get the best results through sprinting IMO. It's tough for a reason, and nothing worth doing is ever easy. Just depends on how much you want it and what you're willing to do to achieve your goals.

I don't do low intensity cardio, no - all of my cardio is well above 80% of my maximum heart rate.

Don't rely so much on heart rate for your long sessions - anything more than 20 minutes is starting to become a long, slow cardio session, IMO, especially since most people generally cannot keep intensity up past that period, but generally anything less than ~70% of your maximum heart rate is considered "low intensity".

I don't use heart rate any more when training - not like when I was cycling, and then it was important, because my training was periodized and based on specific phases with specific goals and intensities, etc. - because the more intense my training, the better my fitness and health. In the end, though, you have to do what is right for YOU.

~Rosie~
 
HondaV65

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Heh ... well heart rate training is my old Navy training coming through - which I already should know is flawed. We used to teach that people should go 80% max HR for 20 mins - at least three times a week.

Yeah - I know that's bunk but old habits are hard to break!
 
Rosie Chee

Rosie Chee

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Heh ... well heart rate training is my old Navy training coming through - which I already should know is flawed. We used to teach that people should go 80% max HR for 20 mins - at least three times a week.

Yeah - I know that's bunk but old habits are hard to break!
All good - it took me a long time to stop thinking the way I did re training as I did when I was cycling. Not all of it is bad though, and some habits are good to KEEP. Habits, whether good or bad, are hard to break though, I agree.

~Rosie~
 

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