We are going to go a bit physiologically nerdy here (but don't worry, I will try to make this as simple as I can).
First you need to understand that hard tough training beats low intensity, relaxing training. Hard is of course relative, for my clients who are senior citizens, hard may be brisk walking. But for my national level athletes, hard could be repeated 200m sprints.
The main thing is that hard training is the best kind. We are already sedentary in most of our jobs and city lifestyles. Does it make sense if we do minimal work during our exercise time as well? That makes no sense.
EPOC is one of the coolest things about hard, intense training. It stands for "Excess-Post-exercise-Oxygen-Consumption".
When we train hard, we use energy faster than we can get it form oxygen in the air. This creates a "debt" in our energy system that will eventually need to be repaid. Sounds fair? Yup, all that energy came from somewhere! That somewhere is our anaerobic (no oxygen needed) sources that are already present in our cells.
So what have we just done? We have used energy beyond what we can sustain. If we were doing low intensity work, we could just breathe and get all the energy we need from our aerobic (oxygen needed) source. But no! We have exceeded that source and have tapped into other sources beyond what we can sustain.
It's payback time. Once the intense activity stops, the body starts to recover from that activity. During this time many things are happening to get the body back to a "normal" state. All these things use CALORIES! In fact the above-normal calorie usage can last 30 or more HOURS after the end of the hard training session.
Like I have always said, hard training is like putting money in a growth fund which makes money while you do nothing! With EPOC you literally burn calories in your sleep (just like many of the scam products out there claim) the only difference is that this is real!
Here is a short list and description of what your body is doing to get back to a rested, normal state. This is quite a long list of items and you will soon see why and how EPOC has the ability to help you burn lots of calories.
Restore ATP-PC: In simple terms, this means that we need to replenish the anaerobic sources in the body that we tapped into during the intense training
Restore Oxygen Stores: This gets our blood oxygen levels back to normal
Restore Heart and Breathing Rates to Normal: When a hard, intense exercise session stops, your heart rate, breathing and other functions do not suddenly go back to normal. This of course requires energy as well as time, because they are both needed to restore the body back to its regular functioning.
Restore Hormone Levels: There are several hormones (ok fellow nerds - epinephrine, norepinephrine, thyroxine, cortisol) that are increased. To clear the excess hormones out, the body has a chemical "pump" that needs energy to function.
Restore Body Temperature: During exercise, heat production is likely to excede heat removal. That means increased body temperature. For each degree celcius above normal, a 13-15% rise in calorie usage is needed for recovery.
Remove Lactate: Lactate is a by-product of exercise and it accumulates in muscles. It also takes energy to remove.
That's why all good fat loss programs make full use of the EPOC property. That means weight training with low rest periods, exercises that use the whole body and interval training as opposed to long slow endurance type activity which only burns calories during the exercise session.
In my fitness consulting business, I get the opportunity to talk with people from all walks of life about their health, fitness, and weight loss goals. Whether their goal is to lose weight, gain muscle, stick to a diet plan or program, improve their cardiovascular health, or simply to maintain their current fitness level they all have one common enemy---TIME.
For most of us, the #1 challenge in the quest to stay in shape and/or lose weight is not exercising itself but being able to actually fit an exercise program into our busy schedules.
So how do you do it? How do you balance the demands of family, career, important errands, relationships, organizational responsibilities, and working out? I have found that there are five keys that will help you to be able to fit a consistent workout plan into your already hectic life.
Commit to a specific schedule
When you fail to plan you plan to fail. Don't try to haphazardly fit your workouts into your schedule without any rhyme or reason. Don't think you're guilty? If you've ever told yourself "I'll workout as soon as I get some time", you were in direct violation of this key principle.
In order to set yourself up for success, you will need to take the time to literally write your workouts into your weekly schedule. In order to be effective, you will want to be following your exercise program at least 3 days per week. Anything less would be kidding yourself.
Therefore, right in the midst of all of your appointments, "to-do" lists, etc., should be a written plan for your weekly workout routine, so that you will never be in the dark as to when you committed to yourself to go.
Utilize the weekend
Take advantage of the fact that it only takes 3-5 days per week to put together an effective, results-producing workout. One trick to help you pull it all off is to workout on the weekends. One of the benefits to this course of action is that your schedule is more flexible and under your control during this time.
What is also means is that when the hectic weekdays roll back around, you will only be responsible for working out 1-3 days during the work week.
Keep your workouts as a high priority
One of the biggest mistakes that even many people who have scheduled a workout program into their schedule make is allowing it to be bumped off of their schedule to easily.
Although things will occassionally come up that will cause you to have to reschedule the workout you had planned, you must be vigilant in making sure that only the most important emergencies are allowed to temporarily take you off of your plan.
In the event that one of those important emergencies does happen and you can't make it to your workout, reschedule with yourself to make it up on the next possible day that you are available to do so. If your own health, fitness, and efforts to lose weight are not a priority to you, they certainly won't be so to anyone else.
Enroll others in your goals
Don't go at this alone. Let the important people in your life know what you are up to. Your spouse or love interest, parents, children, co-workers, and close friends will often pitch in and help you to meet your fitness or weight loss commitment to yourself if you make them aware and ask for their support.
Leverage these relationships to delegate some of your normal responsibilities or even allow you to shift appointments that you have with them as you restructure your schedule for your workout. If any of them are into exercise or trying to lose weight themselves, don't hesitate to form a buddy system with them as you move forward with your program.
Don't beat yourself up
No matter who you are, there will be times in your workout program that you just aren't able to keep it up as you would like due to outside demands. Don't be too tough on yourself when that happens.
Remember that it is what you do consistently over a long period of time, not what you do in spurts, that truly counts. Just make sure that you get back on the horse full force as soon as you can and continue to press forward, doing your best to avoid slacking off again.
No matter what goals you have for health, fitness, or weight loss, you CAN fit an effective exercise program into that hectic schedule of yours and be amazingly successful at getting the exact results that you want!
Both Jonathan Wong & Lawrence Cole are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jonathan Wong has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Trainer, Finances and Personal Trainer. Coach Jonathan Wong, is a sought after Singapore personal trainer and performance expert who has helped hundreds of clients of all ages from 7-77 in Singapore achieve their fitness, fat loss and sports performance goals. He Is also a fitness author and a. Jonathan Wong's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.