Will jogging help you reach your #weddingdressgoals?
Jogging. Everyone does it, and it’s been the go-to way for people to “get in shape” for years. Is it really the best though? Well, honestly it comes down to what your goals are. For most of us here at Bells and Barbells the goal is to look and feel amazing on the Wedding day, and in a bikini the following week while we lounge on the beach. In my last blog I briefly touched on how losing weight doesn’t necessarily mean you’re losing fat. Well, the same principle applies to jogging.
Jogging is an aerobic exercise meaning oxygen is required by the body and fat is the main source of fuel. I know what you’re thinking, “YES! Jogging burns fat. I’m never touching weight again! Sign me up for a 60 minute jog every session Devin!” Hold on now don’t get too excited because while jogging does burn fat as fuel it’s actually not the most efficient fat burner.
High intensity training is what many of you go through at the end of your workouts. It’s that short 10-15 minutes of work where you’re completely out of breath and feel like throwing up. This type of exercise is anaerobic meaning oxygen isn’t required, and carbohydrates are the main source of fuel. However, in this type of exercise due to something called Excessive Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC for short) your body actually ends up burning fat more effectively than that long jog.
In simple terms, EPOC causes your metabolism to rise after you are finished with that 10 minutes of torture, and it can stay elevated for hours after you are finished. This means that not only are your burning through calories during the workout, but that you actually continuing to have an, “Afterburn,” effect well after you’ve finished the workout. In jogging you do burn fat during the exercise, but because of the low intensity nature of the work, once you stop jogging the fat burning stops as well. This is why here at Bells and Barbells we like to incorporate that high intensity work at the end of each workout. For just 10-15 minutes of all out work you can burn just as much, if not more, fat than you would we just told you to jog around the block for an hour.
Now, with all of that said I want to make it clear that jogging is by no means bad. Your body has multiple energy systems and it relies on the same energy system used when jogging for many daily functions. This means conditioning that system will help your body become more efficient at everyday functions. Not only that, but a good aerobic base is vital for getting the most out of those high intensity workouts. This just means that if you’ve been jogging for a while then the high intensity workouts will be somewhat easier, and also that you will get the most out of them. Aerobic capacity is the limiting factor for all other work so the more capable you are of completing aerobic exercise, the more work at high intensity you’ll be able to do which means even more fat burning, which our brides and grooms all love to hear.
Thank you to Bells and Barbells trainer, Devin Wyatt for this weeks Blog post.