Get Rid of Love Handles by Optimizing Cardiovascular Training

In November of 2000 young Billy Hofacker tied for first place in a North American Grappling Association grappling tournament. Billy handedly defeated all 3 of his opponents submitting two of them with a kimora (severe shoulder lock) and a leg choke (Billy actually used his legs to choke his opponent into submission).

Due to other obligations, Billy hasn’t competed since then. In August of 2005 Billy will once again compete in a North American Grappling Association event. This one is called Battle at the Beach and takes place in Wildwood, New Jersey. One major difference between now and then is that in Billy’s first tournament, he fought at the novice level while this time he’ll compete at the advanced. Stay tuned for Billy’s progress and training.

2) Get Rid of Your Love Handles by Optimizing Cardiovascular Training

Q: Hey Billy, Rich Younker. How is everything? Hope all is well. I just wanted to start off by thanking you for all the help you have given me in the past, I appreciate it. About 11 months ago you gave me some advice when I was 230lb. By the end of the summer I was at 195lb. And after almost a full year back at college I am still 195lb (the best you could hope for in a full year of college is breaking even). Anyway, I’m kind of stuck on this weight and would like to lose say 10 more pounds. I was wondering if you thought more cardio could help this, say like rollerblading or elliptical. If you have any new ideas I would really appreciate hearing them. Anyway, thank you again for everything.

A: Good to hear from you Rich and I apologize for not responding sooner. I’ve been tied up studying for biochemistry and physiology classes among other things. I’m glad to hear that you maintained your gains after a full year in college and am thrilled to have helped.

As far as additional cardio, it’s possible that more can help. It’s one way to create a calorie deficit (burning more calories than you’re taking in). There is a right way and a wrong way to approach your cardiovascular training though and I’ll try my best to steer you in the right direction.

First I want to begin with your question. It’s not the question you really want to ask. I’ll explain. You say, “….I would like to lose say 10 more pounds.” While it’s a very common statement for someone to make, you want to lose 10 more pounds of FAT. Weight can also be composed of muscle and water. Losing muscle would be counterproductive because you’ll wind up with a slowed metabolism. You’ll then be very efficient at holding onto and storing fat (a bad thing). Water loss is temporary and meaningless. It won’t do you any good in terms of long term weight loss. In fact, too much water loss can be detrimental to your performance. Make sure you drink plenty of fluids when training aerobically, especially when its hot and/or humid (your water loss will be greater).

Now that you understand that its fat you want to lose, how can you optimize your aerobic training? The main thing is to make sure that you’re exercising in the correct training zone. Many people don’t get the results they desire because they are exercising at an improper heart rate. If you want to get serious and knock off 10 pounds of fat, you might want to invest in a heart rate monitor. A good way to figure out what your target heart zone (thz) is, is to use something called the Karvonen Formula. This formula takes your current fitness level (using your resting heart rate) into consideration when figuring out your heart rate. If the Karvonen formula gets too complicated, use something called the percent of age predicted maximal heart rate (APMHR) formula.

APMHR=220-age

This is only an estimate of your maximal heart rate. It can be 10-15 beats higher or lower than your actual maximal heart rate. Once you have that number, you simply multiply it by the percentage you want to work at. If for example you wanted to work at 75% of your maximal heart rate, you would calculate as follows.

220-age x .75(for 75%)

You would then bring your heart rate to that number when exercising.

The Karvonen formula takes things a step further to include resting heart rate. First, measure your resting heart rate, first thing in the morning, for one minute (You can place your index and middle finger on the thumb side of your wrist to feel palpations on your radial artery). Once you have this #, subtract it from your APMHR (from the paragraph above). This will give you your heart rate reserve which is the available increase in heart rate over the RHR, up to the APMHR. In other words, it’s the # of beats per minute that the heart rate can increase from resting up to maximal. Now that you have your heart rate reserve, this is how you calculate your target heart rate.

THR=(HRR x exercise intensity) + RHR

This is better than the first (APMHR) method, because as you become more fit, your resting heart rate will decrease, your heart rate reserve will increase (a greater reserve to draw from), and you’ll always be in the appropriate ranges.

Now that the exercise science is out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff.

It’s important (as with resistance training) to alter both the intensity and duration of your aerobic sessions. The following program is some what advanced and has worked tremendously for some of my clients.

You will cycle 3 days of cardio routines. For example a training week might look like this:

Monday- Long duration (45 minutes), but lower intensity (60-70% of your max heart rate using either the percent of APMHR formula or the Karvonen formula).

Tuesday-Shorter duration (20-30) minutes, but higher intensity (75-85% of max heart rate).

Wednesday-Interval training for 20 minutes where you’ll alternate 1 minute of lower intensity with 1 minute of higher intensity for 20 minutes.

Thursday-Monday repeat

Friday-Tuesday repeat

Saturday-Wednesday repeat

Make sure to consult with a physician and/or qualified personal fitness trainer before beginning this program.

I hope you enjoyed this issue of Get Lean! This newsletter is for you so if you have any questions or topics you would like me to write about, let me know.