Do You Need Cardio To Burn Fat?

Dana Lynn Bailey Says No!

Since the1970's,  "aerobic" exercise and "cardio" training have been taught as the way to burn fat, but is it a true statement?

If you look at the science and real world results, the answer is a resounding, NO!

The first part of this error lies in believing that the body changes while you exercise, which is simply not true. You provide the body with a stimuli while you train. Then, while you recover your body uses that stimuli to create your adaptation. So, let's look at what cardio and aerobic work does.

The first part of your training is fueled by ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). Then, after you've burned through your ATP your glycogen stores kick in to fuel the next part of your workout. After that, once you've burned through both of those, body fat kicks in to fuel your work. And this is where the misconception starts.

To make the math easier let's say that it takes you 30 minutes to burn through your ATP and your glycogen. This means that if you exercise for 45 minutes, you've only touched your body fat for 15 minutes of fuel. Still with me? Good.

This is where most people think, "Holy Hell, if I train for 45 minutes and only burn 15 minutes of body fat I better train longer. I better do an hour of jogging/cycling/spinning so I can at least get 30 minutes of fat burning to happen. And this would be true if you're body changed while you were training. But it doesn't.

Your body trains while you recover.

So, let's say that you've spent the past few weeks doing an hour long spin class 5 days a week. What is the stimuli that you're body is adapting to?

Your body is saying, "shit, we're doing "cardio/aerobic" training five times a week for 60 minutes at a time. This means that I need to store at least 30 minutes worth of body fat so I'll have the energy to continue riding that damn bike.  Since I like to super-compensate though, I'll make sure to store enough body fat to fuel at least 60 minutes worth."

In other words, you actually are training your body to store body fat for fuel.

So, if you're training your body to store fat for fuel, are you burning body fat and getting lean>

No!

This is part of the reason why you'll see so many people that have lost a ton of weight that just look like smaller versions of their fatter selves. Because they are simply smaller versions of their fatter selves.

By embarking on the "cardio/aerobic" path you train your body to store fat for fuel while at the same time eating up your precious muscle tissue (not just your abs and pecs either, but the muscle from your heart and lungs as well), and you stop the production of good fat burning hormones such as Growth Hormone and Testosterone.

In other words, if you want to get lean and have your weight loss be from fat, ditch the "aerobics" and opt for strength training and sprinting.  You'll thank me when you see yourself in the mirror.

Yours in strength,

Brett Stepan

Also, if you're looking for some personal development, Law of attraction, self-empowerment info feel free to check out www.brettsliveyourdream.blogspot.com

Upcoming Seminars

Hey Everyone,

Just wanted to let everyone know about some up and coming seminars. Of course, you're all invited to join in on the Friday night Self-protection Workshops that happen ever Friday night at 7pm. But, there's some other wonderful seminars coming up.

Saturday, October 19th:
The Super Abs Seminar:
This Seminar, starting at 3pm, will be focusing on how to really train to build incredible abdominal strength. I can guarantee that you don't know the material in this seminar, it'll be the first time that I've actually taught a lot of it. And, it's all stuff that you won't find in any book or magazine. This is the real deal on how to build incredible and super ab strength. Registration is only $50.

　
Saturday, October 26th:
Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling 101:
Join me to explore the wonderful grappling arts of Brazilian and Japanese Jiu-jitsu with a little Judo, Sambo, Submission Wrestling and Catch Wrestling thrown in. Looking for an incredible workout, a great sport to be a part of, an incredible and enjoyable martial art, and a great way to train without getting hurt. Look no further. We'll be going over the basics of these powerful and amazing arts as they apply to grappling and ground fighting. Registration is only $50.

Feel free to register with me at bolerobrett@aol.com or b_stepan@aol .com

Talk with you all soon.
Brett Stepan

Can You Create A Great Body With The Olympic Lifts?

One of my personal favorite methods of training is Olympic Weightlifting and it's variations. I'll admit it, I love to rip a heavy weight from the ground to overhead in one explosive, powerful and graceful movement like the Snatch. I also love to rip the bar from the floor to my shoulders and then powerfully drive it overhead like in the Clean and Jerk. And I love all of the overhead pressing, squatting, high pulling, snatch balancing and more that come with it. I personally find the Olympic lifting methods to be amazing for developing speed, power, explosiveness, flexibility, conditioning, strength and more. But, can you develop an amazing body through Olympic lifting?

I know when most people think of the strength sports they couldn't tell you the difference between Powerlifting, Olympic lifting and Strongman training; which is a shame. All three of them are amazing sports, and yes, all three of them are very different sports. Also, most people only envision the super heavy lifters that tend to carry a little more body fat, and they never realize that the lifters in the lower weight classes tend to be anatomy chart ripped.  Just take a look at the picture above to see what I mean.

And I know that there are a host of personal trainers that will say things like: "The lifts are too quick, there's not enough time under tension to gain muscle and get ripped." or, "There's no isolation movements so you can't develop great muscles with the O-lifts." or, "There's no muscle confusion, so you can't get a great body that way." or a host of other reasons why they don't believe that one can develop a great body with the O-lifts.

So, let's take a look at some bodies that have come out of the Olympic Weightlifting World:

Dmitri Klokov:

Lu XiaoJun:

Zoe Smith:

Marilou Dozois:

Cara Heads:

The Legendary Bill Starr:

The Legendary Dave Rigert:

My Man, the Immortal John Grimek:

Li Hongli:

As you can see, training hard and heavy with the quick lifts of Olympic Weightlifting and their variations can, without a doubt, lead to an amazing physique.

I think that the only real reasons why people tend to poo-poo them is because they are a little technical (although if you're training for fitness and health you don't need perfect technique) and they're hard. But, hard work is the only way to develop a great body.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett Stepan

A Little BMI Bashing

Ah, Body Mass Index (or BMI) the stupidest, most ridiculous thing in fitness just won't go away. It's funny how people started to realize that the old school Height/Weight chart was bullspit, so the medical field came up with BMI. To test your BMI you add you height in centimeters to your weight in kilograms and divide by two. If you're below a 25 you're supposedly healthy. If you're between a 25 and 29 you're supposedly overweight. And, if you're over 30 you are supposedly obese.

Hmmm, in the picture above where I'm doing the handstand on the park bench I am 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighing around 195 pound with a 9 percent body fat. Yet according to BMI I'd have a rating of 30.5 meaning that I'd be Obese. I don't see it.

It's funny to me that people actually think that body fat is somehow calculated in their BMI. People wake up! It's not. It's simply taking the height and weight scale and putting in a little math.

In my post a while back about the stupidity of BMI I used some examples of people that would be overweight or obese according to the BMI and it included Dara Torres, Jessica Scofield, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and more. Today I'm going to show you some more folks who would all be considered overweight or obese by the BMI standards:

For Example:

Dana Linn Bailey

Dwain Chambers:

Mandy Stafford:

Derek Poundstone:

Sara Backman:

Mariusz Pudzianowski:

Cara Heads:

Jamie Lewis:

As you can see, all of these people are very impressive physical specimens. Each one of them is insanely strong, in shape and pretty damn awesome. Also, each one of them would be considered fat or obese according to the Body Mass Index. Can we just get rid of that damn thing once and for all and have people realize that it's not how much you weight, it's what that weight is made up of.

If you're at a sub-10 percent body fat level I don't care if you have a 48 BMI, you're ripped and impressive. If you've got a BMI of 20 and you have a body fat percent of 38 percent, you have way too much body fat.

Stop worrying about your BMI, get in the gym and lift heavy and hard and develop a great body, not a skinny weak body.

Yours in strength and health,
Brett