Best Cardio Workouts to Burn Fat – Introduction
What are the best cardio workouts to burn fat in as little as 12 weeks?
If you want to take off some pounds before the New Year and wonder why you are not losing weight, despite doing cardio workouts every day or several times a week, it is time to take a closer look.
Have you been doing the same treadmill/elliptical/running cardio routine for many years?
Are you still doing the elliptical or treadmill for 3 or 3.5 mph every workout?
That is why you are not seeing results!
You have to start training and demanding more from your body than you are right now.
That is when you will see changes because of the overload principle and Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome.
They are the secrets of body transformation.
My own experience provides some anecdotal evidence.
Outside of walking, my cardio of choice is elliptical because I have a torn medial meniscus and was advised by a physical therapist to use the elliptical.
When I began to implement the cardio programming you are about to read, combined with other principles of the Fit Apprentice program, I dropped 75 pounds in 6 months.
5 Best Cardio Workouts to Have in Your Toolkit
Here are five types of cardio training that you might not be too familiar with:
- Long slow distance
- Pace/Tempo
- Fartlek
- Long Intervals
- Short Intervals
Which of the above five cardio workouts can help accelerate your fat loss dramatically?
Let’s look at each one of them before answering this question.
#1. What is Long Slow Distance and its Benefits?
You might not have heard of a long slow distance workout, but you get the idea.
You go slow for a long distance.
Perform Long Slow Distance cardio workouts once or twice a week for 30 minutes up to 1 hour.
Use an intensity of 55 – 70% of your target heart rate.
Go here to find your target heart rate.
Or, measure intensity using a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) of 5 – 7 on a scale of 1 – 10, where one is super easy, and ten is going all out.
The benefits of long slow distance training are:
- Improving your cardiovascular function
- Enhanced thermoregulatory function, which means better temperature control of your body.
- Increased utilization of fat.
- Sparing of glycogen reserves in your muscles.
- Increased endurance of all involved muscles.
#2. Fartlek? – I did not make that Up
What’s a cardio workout that you never heard of?
For sure, you never heard of fartlek unless you know Swedish.
Fartlek means – speed play.
After you build up your cardiovascular fitness, you will play around with your speed.
So, while doing long, slow distance training at an RPE of 5 – 7, you will have some speed bursts up to level 8.
For example, run at 4.5 mph for 5 minutes and then run at 5.0 mph for 30 seconds.
Every 5 minutes, you can speed up to 5.0 or 5.5 mph or more for 30 seconds to a minute or more.
Everything depends on your level of fitness.
The concept, though, of fartlek is to help you build up your cardiorespiratory endurance.
And you do this by challenging yourself to run, walk, swim, StairMaster, cycle, or run faster.
The recommendation is to do Fartlek once or twice a week for 20 to 60 minutes.
Fartlek is a long slow distance workout with bursts of speed wherever you want them.
The Benefits of Fartlek
You will increase your VO2 max.
VO2 max is a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen that you can use.
The better your VO2 max, the greater your cardiorespiratory endurance.
You will improve your lactate threshold, which means that you will not fatigue as fast.
Your fuel utilization of fatty acids, oxygen, and glycogen will improve.
Whichever activity you choose for cardiorespiratory endurance, your technique will improve.
Fartlek is the next progression after Long Slow Distance (LSD).
Once you feel comfortable with Fartlek, which is an RPE of 8, a level 8 intensity, then you can move up to:
#3. Have You Tried Pace/Tempo?
Pace/Tempo is also likely to answer the question of a cardio workout you never heard of.
It is cardio training at a level of 8 intensity.
This type of cardio will feel “comfortably uncomfortable.”
An RPE (rate of perceived exertion as explained above) of 8 is equivalent to a target heart rate of 70 – 85%.
Perform Pace/Tempo once or twice a week for 20 to 30 minutes max.
Do not do more than 30 minutes of Pace/Tempo, or you will risk overtraining.
Pace/Tempo will improve your cardio fitness beyond where Long Slow Distance and Fartlek can take you.
This applies especially to your lactate threshold adaptation, which means you will fatigue much less.
You will move easier throughout the day and climb those subway stairs more easily.
Besides walking and running for the bus when you need to or playing touch football.
You will be fitter for your kids and/or grandkids, nephews, or nieces.
Give Long Slow Distance, Fartlek, and Pace/Tempo a shot, and then try out the last two cardio workouts that you probably did hear of.
#4. Long Intervals
Long intervals will improve your anaerobic capacity, and yes, long intervals are uncomfortable.
Because they are above the lactate threshold, so long intervals will feel uncomfortable.
The recommendation for long intervals is once or twice a week for 3 to 5 minutes.
Long intervals are uncomfortable because the intensity level is a 9.
This means the target heart rate is 90 – 95% of your heart rate max.
Long intervals are very close to your VO2 max.
As a result, you will increase your VO2 max, speed, and anaerobic adaptation.
Anaerobic adaptation means that your cells will become better at producing energy without oxygen.
How is that for a magic trick?
You can do sets of long intervals for a maximum of 30 minutes total.
Do one set for 3 to 5 minutes at level 9, then rest for at least the time of the set.
Therefore, in a 30-minute workout, you can do 2 to 5 sets of 3-minute intervals with at least 3 minutes of rest between sets.
By the way, whenever you see a range in this ‘what’s a cardio workout’ that you have never heard of, always start with the lower number.
So, if you have never done long intervals, start with once a week and build up to twice.
#5. Short Intervals
As opposed to 3 – 5 minutes for long intervals, short intervals are for 30 – 90 seconds.
This means that beginners should start with 30 seconds.
The rest ratio for short intervals is 1 to 3 or 1 to 5.
Therefore, if you do a short interval of 30 seconds, rest at least 3 x 30 seconds or 1.5 minutes.
You can even rest 5 x 30 seconds or 2.5 minutes between intervals.
You need a longer rest time between short intervals because the intensity is all out.
This means you will be going at level 10, an RPE of 10, the maximum effort you can do.
The benefits of short intervals are to improve your speed, your technique, and your anaerobic metabolism, the ability to produce energy without oxygen.
Cardio Workouts to Burn Fat – Wrapping Up
Which of These Cardio Workouts Have You Never Heard of Before?
Fartlek is probably one, Pace/Tempo is another, and even Long Slow Distance might not be a typical cardio workout that you think of, especially at a level 5 to 7 intensity.
We have all heard of intervals, but maybe not short and long.
The point is that all five of these cardio workouts can get you into better shape faster than you would ever believe.
And, just doing Long Slow Distance, Fartlek, and Pace/Tempo at the recommended intensity level is enough to help you lose 20 to 25 pounds over 12 weeks.
Of course, in combination with a better nutrition plan like the Hashi Mashi™ plan, which focuses on eating real food daily, aka the secret sauce for weight loss.
What’s Next
You can follow a cardio plan like this if you are a beginner:
- Saturday or Sunday – Long Slow Distance for 30 to 60 minutes (rest up one of these days) @ RPE Level 5
- Monday – Fartlek 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 5 to level 7/8
- Tuesday – Pace/Tempo for 15 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 8
- Wednesday – Long Slow Distance for 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 5 – 6
- Thursday – Fartlek for 20 to 30 minutes @ RPE Level 6 to level 8
- Friday – Long Slow Distance for 30 to 45 minutes @ RPE level 5 to level 7
Mix up your cardio programming as shown above using whatever cardio you like best, walking, rucking, running, swimming, etc., and you will see amazing results!
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AUTHOR BIO
Rich “Hashi Mashi” is the founder of HashiMashi.com, a fitness website dedicated to the natural treatment of obesity and its correlated conditions like depression.
The Fit Apprentice™ training program can help you improve your overall fitness, even if you think it is hopeless or too late.
Rich learned the hard way.
He spent many years trying to manage depression with antidepressants that had catastrophic negative side effects.
He was also obese, near diabetic, and felt invisible and hopeless.
Out of desperation, he began implementing a nutrition and exercise plan based on real food and physical activity like walking, squats, deadlifts, and pushups.
Not only did he experience a more stable mood without antidepressants, but his body also responded and transformed, losing 75 pounds in 6 months, and getting fitter than he thought possible after the age of 50.
Hashi Mashi’s Fit Apprentice™ plan can help you build a leaner, stronger body and fight depression without antidepressants at the same time.
He is a graduate of the Integrative School of Nutrition and a NASM-CPT.
HashiMashi.com is among the Top 100 Weight Loss Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2023.
Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer),