Baron's Journey to Single-Digit Bodyfat

[Baron]

Interval training is great stuff...run, bike, elliptical, row, pool...whatever.

It's amazing to me how fast the body adapts to the steady state training. When I first started this whole journey, 20 minutes of steady state would have me sweating like crazy. Now I can do 30 - 45 minutes of steady state and barely break a sweat. After a few sessions of doing exactly that a couple of weeks ago, I realized I needed to crank up the HIIT training to get back into the sweat zone.

 

[Frederick Foresight]

It's amazing to me how fast the body adapts to the steady state training. When I first started this whole journey, 20 minutes of steady state would have me sweating like crazy. Now I can do 30 - 45 minutes of steady state and barely break a sweat. After a few sessions of doing exactly that a couple of weeks ago, I realized I needed to crank up the HIIT training to get back into the sweat zone.

I read that people doing steady-state cardio become efficient in the movement. So while they may get more fit, part of the improvement over time is attributed to making the exercise movement as easy and efficient as possible. Whereas when you go all out, well, you go all out. No easy way out.

 

[Baron]

I read that people doing steady-state cardio become efficient in the movement. So while they may get more fit, part of the improvement over time is attributed to making the exercise movement as easy and efficient as possible. Whereas when you go all out, well, you go all out. No easy way out.

Yep, that's spot on.

 

[HobbyTrading]

It's amazing to me how fast the body adapts to the steady state training. When I first started this whole journey, 20 minutes of steady state would have me sweating like crazy. Now I can do 30 - 45 minutes of steady state and barely break a sweat. After a few sessions of doing exactly that a couple of weeks ago, I realized I needed to crank up the HIIT training to get back into the sweat zone.

While I agree that one gets better at cardio due to training, I don't think that using the amount of sweat (i.e. how wet the shirt gets) is a good indicator.

Using HIIT to make the cardio training heavier is one option. Other options are to make the session longer, or to increase the resistance of the cardio machine. I used a combination of the latter two to ensure that my cardio sessions remained a challenge to me.

 

[Baron]

While I agree that one gets better at cardio due to training, I don't think that using the amount of sweat (i.e. how wet the shirt gets) is a good indicator.

Using HIIT to make the cardio training heavier is one option. Other options are to make the session longer, or to increase the resistance of the cardio machine. I used a combination of the latter two to ensure that my cardio sessions remained a challenge to me.

I'm currently right in the middle of the difficulty level. The two options are Incline and Resistance. Incline is from 1 - 20 and I've been at a 10. Resistance ranges from 1 - 100 and I've been at 50. So I definitely have room to crank up the difficulty to make it even more challenging and will do so incrementally between now and my goal date of July 25th.

 

[speedo]

Yep, the "training effect" exists in cardio as it does in weight work. If you do a long easy paced run every day, you learn to run an easy pace and will get dusted in a 5k. If you do 40 lb curls every time in the gym, that becomes easy, but if you want to get stronger .....

 

[Frederick Foresight]

Yep, the "training effect" exists in cardio as it does in weight work. If you do a long easy paced run every day, you learn to run an easy pace and will get dusted in a 5k. If you do 40 lb curls every time in the gym, that becomes easy, but if you want to get stronger .....

As far as resistance training is concerned, I would think that going to failure overcomes whatever ease would have been provided by the "training effect."

Whatever the activity, there's really no cover when you go all out.

 

[luisHK]

Body fat estimates are so confusing... In the video below, @2:00 an elite weightlifter enters a machine (bot pod ?) to check his body composition, BF comes out at 9.5% but comparing to some bodybuilders dexa scans I saw, it looks more like 15%.
Very confusing - what those weightlifters lift overhead is also extremely confusing, but that's another topic:

 

[Frederick Foresight]

Body fat estimates are so confusing... In the video below, @2:00 an elite weightlifter enters a machine (bot pod ?) to check his body composition, BF comes out at 9.5% but comparing to some bodybuilders dexa scans I saw, it looks more like 15%.
Very confusing - what those weightlifters lift overhead is also extremely confusing, but that's another topic:

Say what?! I'm noticeably leaner than that guy, and my bioelectrical impedance scale clocks me at over 18%.

 

[Baron]

BF comes out at 9.5% but comparing to some bodybuilders dexa scans I saw, he looks like at least 15%.

I will admit that I wouldn't have guessed him to be 9.5%.

It seems like two people can have the same body fat percentage but look quite a bit different depending on how their body fat is distributed.