Are you a cardio bunny? Yet struggle with fat loss?
Are you running every day with little to no physical benefit? The more you run, the less body fat you lose? Sound about right?
Don't feel bad though, it's all you were ever told you should do to burn fat, right?
Well, thankfully, there is loads of research done, as well as millions of people all around the world who achieve actual fat loss without touching a treadmill or even a pair of runners for that matter.
Let's start with the basics, running is designed to help you build cardiovascular fitness. Running is also a very stressful activity to put the body through. We all know that the more stress our body endures, the more body fat we gain/store/can't lose. So, plain and simply, Why do we continue running? Then when we can't lose any body fat, we run more! And more! Sound crazy to you too?
There is no resistance when running. You remember when you went for a run and got "into a rhythm"? That's because you hit the point where your body can maintain the speed and energy expenditure level. Ever hit that same "rhythm" doing deadlifts? Didn't think so, it's because you don't have a set speed you're moving/lifting at. When we introduce resistance, we also increase the difficulty of the movement/activity. This is where strength is increased and muscular development occurs. When we build muscular strength, then we are also burning a hell of a lot more calories to power them on a daily basis. An even bigger positive is that this type of muscle also is really efficient at burning lots of different types of calories. But its main source of fuel is glycogen, which is what our body converts to fat and stores it.
So the better you can become at burning glycogen, the less body fat you will store and the leaner you will become, achieving the body you always wanted.
So the next time you throw your runners on, consider doing some heavy deadlifts instead ;)
Stay healthy!