Cardio Workout - Help!

[getjacked63]

Hello,

For the last two months my cardio workout has looked like this:

1.5 Minutes @ 5.5 MPH
1.5 Minutes @ 6.5 MPH
2 Minutes @ 6.0 MPH

Repeat 3 More times for a total of 20 MIN cardio. I do this 4-5 times per week.

It is getting fairly easy for me now, as opposed when I first started this routine there were some days that I couldn't even finish. Now that it is getting easier I am wondering what I should do to improve it. Should I do the same intervals and go for 30 minutes? Should I up the speeds and still go for only 20 minutes? Does this workout suck and should I be doing something completely different?

I am about 175 lbs and 12%-13% bodyfat. The only place that I really have fat is in my chest, stomach, and love handles. My arms and legs are pretty much pure muscle. I am really tryin to lose the gut, whats the best way to go about doing this?

I will be starting a ph cycle here in about a week, so I am looking for a good workout to go with my lifting to help drop that fat.

Thanks for any advice!

[bpmartyr]

I would start by increasing to 30 minutes.

[thesinner]

2 things (and these are just my opinions of things):

1) It sounds like you do your cardio to burn a few extra calories (and shed some fat). It would seem to make sense (to me at least) that you design your cardio workouts to burn calories instead of lasting a duration of time. To save yourself the trouble of figurin' a bunch of sh*t out, the amount of calories you burn on the treadmill is related to your weight the distance you run. A common rule of thumb (or at least the algorithm most treadmills use) is to multiply [your weight in pounds]*[distance in miles]*0.75 = [calories burned]. 3 miles (for me) is the minimum i'll run for workout, but I've been running for years. Right now you're doing ~1.5miles (about 200 Calories per workout), so I'd say your first order of business would be to work up until you can do 3 miles for a workout (about 395 Calories per workout)

2) I'm a HIIT whore. So my advice would be to try using a greater deviation between speeds, to create the HIIT style of training

1 minute @ as hard as you can go
1 minute @ 6 mph
1 minute @ a walking speed

Try that for 5 times around (15 minutes), followed by a medium-paced jog for another 10-15 minutes. I can guarantee you'll see a noteable difference by mid-April.

[workin2005]

I too am a big fan of HITT cardio...I feel its second to none in it's ability to shed Body fat, while maintaining lean mass...assuming proper timing and diet of course.

Workin

[getjacked63]

2 things (and these are just my opinions of things):

1) It sounds like you do your cardio to burn a few extra calories (and shed some fat). It would seem to make sense (to me at least) that you design your cardio workouts to burn calories instead of lasting a duration of time. To save yourself the trouble of figurin' a bunch of sh*t out, the amount of calories you burn on the treadmill is related to your weight the distance you run. A common rule of thumb (or at least the algorithm most treadmills use) is to multiply [your weight in pounds]*[distance in miles]*0.75 = [calories burned]. 3 miles (for me) is the minimum i'll run for workout, but I've been running for years. Right now you're doing ~1.5miles (about 200 Calories per workout), so I'd say your first order of business would be to work up until you can do 3 miles for a workout (about 395 Calories per workout)

2) I'm a HIIT whore. So my advice would be to try using a greater deviation between speeds, to create the HIIT style of training

1 minute @ as hard as you can go
1 minute @ 6 mph
1 minute @ a walking speed

Try that for 5 times around (15 minutes), followed by a medium-paced jog for another 10-15 minutes. I can guarantee you'll see a noteable difference by mid-April.

thanks man, im definitely going to give that a go. you were pretty much dead on with the 200 calories burned per workout, although i do finish a bit over 2 miles per workout. I will try the workout you just layout out and see how it goes.

[thesinner]

thanks man, im definitely going to give that a go. you were pretty much dead on with the 200 calories burned per workout, although i do finish a bit over 2 miles per workout. I will try the workout you just layout out and see how it goes.

1.5 Minutes @ 5.5 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.4125 mi
1.5 Minutes @ 6.5 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.4875 mi
2 Minutes @ 6.0 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.600 mi
0.4125mi + 0.4875mi + 0.6mi = 1.5 mi
Your treadmill is (for some reason) telling you total distance in kilometers. (1.5 mi = 2.41km)

Good luck with the HIIT, I think you'll like it.

[getjacked63]

1.5 Minutes @ 5.5 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.4125 mi
1.5 Minutes @ 6.5 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.4875 mi
2 Minutes @ 6.0 MPH * 3 bouts * (1 h /60 min) = 0.600 mi
0.4125mi + 0.4875mi + 0.6mi = 1.5 mi
Your treadmill is (for some reason) telling you total distance in kilometers. (1.5 mi = 2.41km)

Good luck with the HIIT, I think you'll like it.

thats interesting, my treadmill must just be a piece of **** haha. it says i come in at like 2.1 mi almost everytime. perhaps I am running faster than it says (I hope haha) or maybe it just cant do math and I am only going 1.5 mi. either way, I will be trying the HIIT today in just a few minutes. here is my plan:

1 Minute @ 9 MPH
1 Minute @ 6 MPH
1 Minute @ 3 MPH

Repeat 4 more times for a total of 15 Minutes. Then do a 10-15 minute run @ 6 MPH.

How does this look?

[thesinner]

Sounds good

[workin2005]

thats interesting, my treadmill must just be a piece of **** haha. it says i come in at like 2.1 mi almost everytime. perhaps I am running faster than it says (I hope haha) or maybe it just cant do math and I am only going 1.5 mi. either way, I will be trying the HIIT today in just a few minutes. here is my plan:

1 Minute @ 9 MPH
1 Minute @ 6 MPH
1 Minute @ 3 MPH

Repeat 4 more times for a total of 15 Minutes. Then do a 10-15 minute run @ 6 MPH.

How does this look?

Workin

[getjacked63]

damn that was a hell of a workout! just finished, and here is how it ended up:

1 minute at 9 MPH
1 minute at 6 MPH
1 minute at 3 MPH

Repeated 4 times for a total of 15 Minutes, then did:

1.5 minutes at 5.5 MPH
1.5 minutes at 6.5 MPH
2 minutes at 6.0 MPH

Repeated 2 more times for a total of 15 minutes.

Total workout was 30 minutes, and ran 3.1 miles. (according to the treadmill, apparently math proves otherwise). The treadmill also said I only burned 275 calories, this seems a bit low, does anyone know if this is right?

Either way, my first HIIT training was awesome! I loved it! Much better than the last 2 months of running, and I feel like I got much more out of it. I was sweating my nuts off when I was finished! Thanks for the help guys! I will be using this workout for atleast the next 2 months during my pheradrol/mega zol cycle and through pct.

[thesinner]

Glad to hear you liked it.

Keep it up, and good luck!