Burn Baby, Burn
You might be diligent about going to the gym and spending hours doing cardo on a treadmill or eliptical machine – which is great for your cardiovascular health- but are you left without 
noticeable results?
In a cardio session, you burn calories, but the calorie burn ends when you finish your cardio session. If you want to maximize your calorie burn, you have to take it up a notch and achieve something called EPOC, or “excess post-exercise oxygen consumption”. It is a “measurably increased rate of oxygen intake following strenuous activity intended to erase the body’s ‘oxygen deficit.'”
What does that mean?
It means, “afterburn” – the continual burn of calories after a very high-intensity workout. It also means your metabolism, highest post exercise, is fired up much longer after you finish a workout session. Your body is working hard to re-coup a normal heart rhythm and resting state. You burn calories by consuming more oxygen. Therefore, the longer it takes you to regulate your oxygen intake, the more calories you are burning. This post-consumption state can burn as much as an additional 150+ calories throughout your day. More calorie burn & a higher metabolism = more results, faster.
So how do you achieve it?
Higher intensity workouts. This means bringing your heart rate to 75% or more of your resting heart rate. The longer you perform high intensity exercise, the larger the EPOC effect. It also means performing a high intensity workout for 30 minutes is much more effective than a steady state on a cardio machine for one hour.
Resistance training (with weights or body weight), especially with high intensity interval training, is one of the best ways to increase EPOC.
Guidelines to reach EPOC:
- Perform at a high intensity (out of your comfort zone) – at least 75%+ of your resting heart rate
- Exercise for at least 30 minutes
- Include resistance training in your workout
- Incorporate interval training
Although high intensity workouts are effective, it is recommended that you limit this type of workout to only a couple of times/week as you need time to rest and recover your body.
Try to push yourself and work past your current limits and there’s a good chance you will start to see results much faster.
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enthusiasm and his positive disposition is contagious. He was just highlighted in the “Hero’s Issue” of Tennis Magazine and is the winner of USTA’s 2014 Senior’s Service Award and inducted into the USTA Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame. He is a former engineer and fought in World War II and started playing tennis in the 1940’s. However, it wasn’t until after retirement that he enrolled himself in a Professional Tennis Registry certification course and began coaching at Kent Place School… at the age of 75. He also started the Summit Tennis Association and revitalized and revived multiple tennis courts across the city to repair them for more active play and give back to the community. He still plays in the USTA League event in the 90-95 age group. Dick inspires me.
farmer who has no choice to feed his family, will work until he can’t work anymore. His mind frame never shifts to “it’s time for my steady decline until I reach the end of the road.” They naturally live a more active, longer life because they never consider the alternative. Similar to the story of Dick. He has never quit or believed it is time to stop.
Loved this article. All so true and never too late to accomplish anything. Thank you so much for the inspiration.