Aerobic Conditioning

posted March 2009

March 31, 2009

Aerobic Base Building is the single most important way to reduce body fat, next to eating wisely. Working out just below the tipping point from Aerobic to Anaerobic is the key to training your body to burn fat instead of sugar (glucose).

For many years I've struggled to understand that despite busting my butt in the gym my body fat remained in the 13-15% range. The reason is that I had trained my body to prefer glucose as fuel by doing weekly Anaerobic sessions. An Aerobic conditioned athlete burns fat for fuel during training. Too much Anaerobic Threshold work turns off fat burning and creates other negative side effects such as cravings for sugar.

To find your Aerobic baseline number use 180-age +/- 5-10 depending on conditioning. Example age 60: 180-60= 120. Add 10 if you are in great condition, 5 if good. Subtract 10 if you're just resuming exercise, and 5 if you're deconditioned. Stay just below the baseline number to train your body to become a fat burning machine. One your reach your targeted body fat then introduce Anaerobic training (about 10% of the work) to increase your fitness further.

If you're working out hard and not getting the desired results then you need to working solely on Aerobic conditioning. Forget the hard stuff until later!

One of the side effects of too much Anaerobic conditioning is the over production of cortisol. This is a normal adaptation response to exercise stimulus. Too much cortisol is an UNWANTED side effect for most people because it results in loss of muscle.

The body needs fuel. Glucose (sugars), fat, muscle, and lactate can be turned into fuel by a body. If you could pick what fuel your body used which would it be? The highly conditioned endurance athlete prefers the use of FAT and Lactate as fuel. This results in a lean and therefore easier to move body! Most exercisers don't want to lose muscle so we need to pay attention to cortisol levels in the blood!

Lactate is a byproduct of the burning of glucose as fuel. The "burn" felt in muscles is caused by the build-up of lactate. Training in the Anaerobic zone teaches the body to tolerate and even burn lactate for fuel. This is one of the benefits of Anaerobic training.

Here's a test for those interested in increasing their level of cardiovascular fitness. It's called MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function). This is for the person who is already exercising 5-6 days a week.

Steps:

1. 10 minute warm-up
2. 20 minutes of exercise on a treadmill (something that measures distance) at EXACTLY 80% of your maximum heart rate. (use the formula 180-age +/- 5-10 depending on your condition. Adjust the speed or resistance to maintain 80% over the entire 20 minutes. Keep the elevation constant.
3. Record the distance traveled for exactly 20 minutes.
4. Repeat in 3 weeks while doing ONLY aerobic exercise (below 80%).
5. You should see an improvement.
6. Repeat every 3 weeks.
7. Once you hit a plateau (distance traveled doesn't increase) then introduce Anaerobic threshold training to improve fitness. Time in the Anaerobic zone should be no more than 15% of your workout time including warm-up and warm-down. Do this for about 4 weeks then return to training in the 80% zone. Retest then start again!
8. For every Anaerobic workout then do a recovery day (65% or less).

Here's what you'll accomplish:
1. Increase Aerobic fitness and all the benefits.
2. Reduced body fat as you train your body to use FAT as it's primary source of fuel.
3. Reduced production of cortisol.

If you tend to crave sugar or sweet things then you'll need to make an effort over the first few weeks to cut back on these foods. Substitute protein, good fat, and carbohydrate from veggies for pasta, rice, fruit, etc.

Update November 4, 2009: Stress test showed maximum heart rate of 179. Bodyfat is around 14%. Been doing Anaerobic drills 2x's a week for about 2 weeks. Hopefully, will see performance gains.