The Road To Healthier, Better and Leaner Physique ( II )

Anti Cardio Group

A lot of trainees will tell people to do H I I T ( High intensity interval training ) where you do different types of exercises one after another. For example, you do 10 repetition of jump squats followed by a couple of push ups then do something else. As the name implies compared to cardio the intensity is a lot higher.

The purpose of this training is not on-the-spot fat burning but after burn.

You can see that HIIT trains your muscles hard, hence, increasing your anabolic hormones such as testosterone, growth hormones which encourage muscle building and promote fat loss. Not only that, because of the oxygen compensation that occurs after the HIIT, the body will keep burning fats.

Another thing is that when muscles are trained, your muscle cells will become more insulin sensitive. That means they will respond better to this hormone, insulin, as such glucose will be stored efficiently in the muscle cells. Confused? All0w me to elaborate this last paragraph.

When you consume, carbs, they will be converted into glucose. These glucose molecues will travel in the blood and that is what we call " Blood Glucose" or " Blood Sugar ". There is a limit to how high or how low Blood Glucose level can be. So, when you eat rice or bread or sweet potato, BG level will go up. In response to it, Pancrease will release a hormone called " Insulin ". These insulin molecues will bind to glucose molecues.

Your muscle cells have insulin receptors and when they come into contact with these insulin molecues, they will absorb the glucose molucues that go along with insulin molecues.

But, when your muscle cells are insulin resistant, meaning, their insulin sensitivity level is low, they won't respond to the amount of insulin that they used to do. When that happens, pancrease will have to release more insulin in order to reduce BG level.

One thing you must know is that if there is excessive amount of glucose in the blood stream and your muscle cells do not take it up, the liver will convert them into fats.

Now, you see why it is important to make sure that our muscle cells are insulin sensitive.

There is one more reason why these trainees support HIIT. Remember that I mentioned " having more muscles will make it easier for you to build bigger ones and lose fats " in Part I of this series ?


Shredded Natural Bodybuilders without cardio


It is true that muscles will keep burning calories even when at rest. But, it does not mean they will be burning fats all the time. Notice that the Calories your muscles keep burning are not necessarily the fats in your adipose tissues ( fat tissues ).

Bodybuilders won't even need such thing as " Contest preparation" or " Cutting Phase " if their muscles keep burning fats. Everyone one of them will be RIPPED, right? But that is not what it is.


That is why it is not right for you to be Anti Cardio.

Yes, you can do HIIT if you want, but you should not ditch Cardio when you are trying to make your buldging tummy flat.

The Road to Healthier, Better, Leaner Physique ( I )

The Road to Healthier, Better, Leaner Physique ( I )


Rise and Shine! We gonna go Jogging!

People seeking fat loss solution like to do jogging in the morning after they rise and shine.
It is ok to do so. But the problem is that they do such activity on an empty stomach.
Aren't we supposed to exercise on an empty stomach when trying to burn fats?
Yes, partly right!
Remember that you have gone through the entire night without any intake of foods. During these 7-8 hours your muscles are sleeping as well.

Well, not really. They are not!

Unlike fat cells, muscle cells require incessant feeding to survive. They will keep burning calories even when you are sleeping.

So, by the time you wake up, your muscle cells and liver glycogen stores are empty. Empty of what?

Remember that the body uses ATP to walk, run, read and anything. And ATP is generated from glucose.

Your muscle cells usually contain glucose, so does the liver. Glycogen stored in the liver comes of glucose.

Ok, we now see what is glycogen and also realize that muscle cells and liver store glucose to generate ATP so that the body can use it to function.

When these guys are empty in the morning, how are you gonna jog ? walk ? talk ? read ?

Well, since there is no glucose stored in muscle cells and liver, they body will start breaking down your muscle proteins ( muscle cells ) into Amino Acids. These amino acids will then be converted into glucose in order for the body to produce ATP.

Now, you are losing muscles! The more activities you do, the more muscle proteins will be depleted.

Losing muscles = Higher difficulty in losing fat

Muscles are the ones that burn calories. Just having more muscles makes it easier for you to build bigger ones and lose fat. Also these guys are associated with anabolic hormones which play major roles in fat loss and muscle building.

Physical Stress = Higher difficulty in losing fat

The body's muscle proteins being used up is a type of physical stress. Whenever there is a form of stress, be it mental or physical, stress hormone called " Cortisol " will be released in large quantities. This hormone will rob away muscles, bones and skin.

Also, when you see skinny fat people, recognize that they have this hormone in constantly elevated state. They have skinny hands, body and legs but they have this tummy.

When we wake up in the morning, stress hormone cortisol and another hormone dopamine are high in level to drive us into action. We will feel awake, enegertic and are ready to get going bcos of them.

So, the bottom line is that we need these guys to be awake and active but skyrocketing them by doing physical activities before eating any meal of the day is unwise and will fail to get desired results. In stead, we will face the adverse effects.

One Year and 9 Months' progress

15 Apri 09