What's Your Zone?

Keeping an active lifestyle is an integral part of staying in great physical shape. For those of us aiming to reduce fat, cardio is the go-to exercise. Many people work on the theory that the faster and harder you work at your chosen cardio, the better your results will be. However, your optimal fat burning heart rate zone may not require as high octane a workout as you might think.

Now, while I’m not saying that you should give up your HIIT workouts for good, it’s worth noting that there are other ways to target your fat stores effectively.

A higher intensity workout is great for tackling the energy that is immediately available. This means that the calories you have consumed prior to the workout will be used effectively and burned off. In particular, the body will be burning sugars and carbohydrates that are available. The fat burning heart rate zone level cardio will target existing energy stores. So you will be burning the fat deposits your body has created for saved up energy.

So, if you’ve been smashing it at the gym, giving it 100% and not seeing the results you want, it might be time to take it down to giving 65%. It may seem counterproductive, but add some cardio within the fat burning heart rate zone to your routine.