There is no reason for me to school you that if your primary goal is to reduce your body fat storage and prevent future accumulation, then you MUST integrate a specific cardio workout that will help you skyrocket your metabolic rate and retain its velocity for hours after you’ve left the gym.

Considering, of course, that you have your diet in check and your eating habits are under control.

I usually refer to this as the simple fat burning equation:

Burn body fat = proper diet + cardiovascular exercise.

Fairly simple and easy to remember, right?

In our quest to reduce our stored body fat as quick as possible we often fall victims to various cardio fads. Some try Zoomba, others try pilates, third are under the assumption that the best cardiovascular methodology is long and exhausting runs or cycling.

Some work well, others not at all.

As a result the vast majority of the individuals who are interested in cutting down those extra pounds that they’ve unintentionally stored, fall victims to the evil negative perception that they will never be able to achieve the results they’ve always hoped for and decide to just give up.

Something that I really enjoy repeating over and over is that your training, inside or outside of the gym, is what brings you the best results. Your diet is constructed as a reflection of your workout intensity, not the opposite.

This does not mean that nutrition is not important, it is, the total number of calories you consume, insulin manipulation, carb cycling, healthy fats, lean protein, complex carbohydrates, all of these play an important role in your fat loss mission and should never be taken lightly.

What makes a good cardio workout?

The purpose of doing cardiovascular training in the first place is to reduce stored body fat as much as you possibly can. What will determine a good, or even the best, cardio workout is the one that helps you achieve the best results then, right?

This does not mean that the type of cardio workout I am about to present to you in this post is the only one you are suppose to do, but rather one of the workouts that you really need to consider integrating if you truly wish to see great results and tone your body for the summer.

Make sure that you always alternate your cardio workouts.

If you just do the same thing week after week you will start noticing how your results slowly but gradually stop being visible and at one point they will just disappear.

Anyway, your cardio workout’s purpose is to boost your metabolic rate and most importantly keep it at the same heightened velocity for hours after you’ve left the gym. This is why you need to make sure that your cardio is of higher intensity.

Low intensity cardiovascular workouts, such as long-ass runs or walks, tend to work well as a conclusion to your intense training, because they target fatty acids as an energy source more specifically.

After a workout of high intensity you have fully depleted your glycogen storages and thus left your body with no carbohydrates that it can use as energy and as a result your body switches to its secondary source of energy – fats.

What is the Tabata workout?

Tabata is a very short high intensity interval workout that has a serious impact on weight loss as well as other benefits.

The Tabata workout is my favorite form of cardio for two main reasons:

It’s extremely quick to finish – this is perfect for people who lack the necessary free time to go to the gym for longer than 30 minutes but still want to improve their physique and helps you achieve amazing results in a matter of no time!

The name Tabata comes from the man who invented it – Dr. Izumi Tabata, a Japanese physician.

In 1996 he conducted a study concerning high intensity interval training and the effects on the human body.

His aim was to see if athletes would benefit from completing a workout, which he’s the architect of, where the subjects would perform a cycle which would be 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise, also known as VO2 Max or maximum effort of the human body (every person has a different peak that can be considered as the maximum effort based on genetics, physical strength and physical activity), and 10 seconds of rest or 10 seconds of low intensity exercise depending on personal endurance levels.

They had to complete a total of 8 cycles resulting in a total of 4 minutes of HIIT.

Professor Tabata took two groups and put them on an exercise program for the course of six weeks. The control group did one hour of low-to-moderate-intensity exercise five times a week.

The other group were subject to his own high-intensity training.

The control group had a total of 1,800 minutes of training versus 120 minutes of training for the Tabata group. The Tabata group managed to improve both its aerobic and anaerobic fitness levels. The anaerobic fitness level increased by 28 percent.

The Tabata experiment showed that the study subjects managed to improve their overall endurance and strength by pushing against their maximum barrier. In other words, Dr. Tabata didn’t just develop a HIIT program that delivers incredible results, but also managed to provide us with tangible evidence that through high intensity resistance training your body’s strength increases.

Hence, the idea to increase the weight of the rack if you want to see results in both muscle mass development and general strength.

Furthermore, due to the fact that you are training at maximum effort, or your body’s maximum capacity, means that your heart rate and consequently metabolic rate will skyrocket.

To a biological standpoint it’s absolutely logical – your body is working at full capacity and as a result it will need as much energy as it could possibly gather.

The elevated heart rate means that there is more oxygen flowing to your muscles to keep them moving, providing them with enough ATP, oxygen, electrolytes and other micronutrients (minerals and vitamins), and glycogen to keep them moving as fast and strong as possible. There is also blood flushing your brain to ensure high concentration and focus as well as to make sure that you’ll not faint in the process.

The elevated metabolic rate is your body screaming “WE NEED MORE ENERGY”.

Just imagine an old-school ship such as the Titanic, for example, that runs on coal and how 10-20 people are tossing coal as fast as possible. Your metabolism is responsible for the rate at which macronutrients, primarily carbohydrates and fats, are being transformed into energy for the body to use.