What kind of cardio you SHOULD be doing!

As many things in Exercise go, the most effective cardio is relative to your lifestyle. Relative to your schedule, your habits, and, most importantly, the way you eat. Broken down to the cellular level, you can approach all activity in two mediums. Two mediums being Anaerobic Pathways (High Intensity, Short Duration) or Aerobic Pathways (Low Intensity, Long duration). In order for us to truly grasp what kind of Cardio you should utilize in order to maximize your potential for weight loss, we need to break this down even further.

We can begin with our Anaerobic Pathways. As I stated earlier, Anaerobic pathways are responsible for our High intensity and short duration exercise. Such as weight lifting, hill sprints, or HIIT. Our Anaerobic Pathways consist of two subcategories: Anaerobic Glycolysis and the ATP-PCr system. The ATP-PCr system is responsible for the first 5 seconds of any intense exercise, this pathway is made possible by our bodies built up Phosphocreatine storage. I don't want to focus on this pathway in particular, however, what I really want to focus on is Anaerobic Glycolysis which is responsible for 5 seconds-3 minutes of an intense exercise bout. The substrate or what fuels this system is known as Glucose and our Glycogen storage that we build up throughout our day via intake of Carbs. As many of you may know, Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in the liver and Glycogen in Skeletal muscle. In other words, when we activate this system, we BURN through glycogen or carbohydrate storage. From this severely dumbed down version of the pathways, you now can understand why someone who takes in predominantly Carbohydrates as their energy source of choice, might want to utilize higher intensity exercise as their cardio of choice.

On the opposite side of things, we have our Aerobic Pathways. When we participate in longer duration, lower intensity exercise. The main substrate our body uses to fuel this activity is actually Free Fatty Acids. Free Fatty Acids are in oils, meat fats, etc. One popular form of Free Fatty Acids is Omega 3 Fatty Acids. As many of you may know, Avocados are very high in Omega 3's. So, as we participate in long 10 miles hikes or a 5-mile jog, after a certain point we begin to heavily depend on our Aerobic Pathways and Fats to fuel this exercise. Thus, meaning someone on a Ketogenic diet or a higher fat diet may want to engage in what we like to call Steady State Cardio. In steady-state cardio and our aerobic pathways, we actually find what we call the 'Fat-Max' zone. The Fat-max zone is your body's point in which you oxidize or burn fat, as a substrate, at the highest rate. For some people, this may be around 50% of your VO2 max, for others, it maybe 75%. In other words, this is the percentage relative to your max-intensity, it could be walking on the treadmill for some or a fast jog for others.

Excuse me nerding out there for a second, to sum this all up for those reading. If you are someone who ingests mostly carbohydrates such as rice, bread, potatoes, fruit, etc as your energy source; I recommend opting for High-Intensity exercises such as Hill sprints, bleachers, or HIIT as your cardio choice. This type of cardio will utilize and burn Carbohydrates to make the exercise itself possible. If you are someone who consumes a lot of extra fats such as animal fat, avocado, or even butter/cheese, stick with the steady-state cardio due to its tendency to predominately burn fat as a substrate.

All in all, both of these types of exercise can benefit you in many ways. I feel it is best to have a combination of the two within your lifestyle. I thoroughly enjoy long 7 mile hikes, but there is nothing like a good ole' hill sprint. Find something that allows you to enjoy the workout before every worrying about what kind of substrate you will actually burn during the exercise. If you came here looking for an exact exercise that is scientifically backed to burn the most fat off your waist, sorry! because it doesn't really exist. Exercise effectiveness is dependent on a multitude of factors. Factors such as time, intensity, diet, temperature, etc.

Find something that makes you happy doing it, something you can't wait to accomplish. Go out there and do it. Do it hard, push yourself but enjoy every minute of it. You only get your body once, so sculpt it into the best it can be and strive for that every single day. Take this information with a grain of salt, utilize it if need be but at the end of the day...

Just get out there and hit the weights, the field, the track, or the pool.

Whatever it is, get out there and Exercise. Become the best version of YOU