The Muscle Couple has probably written about the effectiveness of HIT CARDIO over twenty times  in the blog in the last 7 months.  It’s one of the 10 Commandments of Physique Improvement for Men and Women.

Go Faster-Harder and Shorter!

What if we told you in addition to being the single most effective form of exercise for fat burning, it also builds bigger muscle cells?

In a recent study, it was reported that as few as 6 sessions of HIT Cardio over two weeks (totalling 15 minutes of all out effort)increases the maximal activity of mitochondrial enzymes and increases satellite muscle cell formation in the muscles being trained.  In very lay terms, this means the harder you peddle, jump or sprint, the bigger your targeted muscles will grow as a direct adaptation to the training.

So what does this tell any hard training bodybuilder or fitness athlete?

Train harder and not longer when performing cardio.  The higher the intensity, the greater chance you have at building bigger-stronger and harder muscles in less time.  All the while burning fat and keeping your body humming along as a metabolic furnace.

And who really wants to do long, slow moderate intensity sessions of cardio every day anyway?

TMC Bottomline:

• Perform HIT Cardio for 15-20 minutes ED to maintain Sub 10% bodyfat levels year round
• Perform HIT Cardio 3-4x per week for 12-20 Minutes to maintain cardio endurance for everyday life activities.

MIHWCS