The Best Cardio for Fat Loss After 35: HIIT, Sprint Intervals, and Zone 2 for Body Recomposition

Hello ladies, welcome back to the Body. Recomposition Podcast. This is your host, Robin today. We are going to go over the ever. Contentious. Area of cardio and we're going to cover. All the different. Types of cardio. And what type you should be doing if you are a woman above. The age of 35 Who is? Trying to lose fat? Because we have all heard the various types of cardio there are and if you are like everybody else, it's. Incredibly confusing there. Is hit, there's sit, there's Zone 2, there's.

No zone cardio and you're just running or walking or stair climbing aimlessly with no target in mind for. An hour. Two hours. 10 minutes. What do you do? How much do you need to do and what is each? Method of cardio. Doing to you. We're going to go. Through all of that, today I would like to preface this episode with. If you enjoy going for. Walks without. Constantly looking at. Your heart rate, Please do. That that's very important if that's something that makes you happy. Please do that if you.

Are marathon training and you have. Other goals outside of body. Recomposition, which means dropping fat and maintaining or gaining muscle. This is not relevant for you. This episode is just. Going to go. Over the. Best method of. Cardio if your goal is to drop fat. And keep that. Muscle, which is body. Recomposition SO. If that is your goal, we are going to talk about how you can use cardio as a way to get there. More efficiently and you can also. Use cardio as a way to. Improve your aerobic endurance because zone 2 has been life changing for me personally.

For example, I'm not a runner at all, I am a lifter. I love lifting. I don't like running, it hurts my knees, it doesn't help me maintain my leg muscles and I work so hard for. Those because I have. Chicken legs, so I'm not a runner. But. Once in a while I do like to challenge myself and run a 10K once in a while, meaning every year. So mostly because one of my best friends, her and I run it and some years she wins, some years I win and we just don't stop. So, and I think it's really important. To have a.

Well-rounded repertoire of training. Bases because if you are a lifter, why? Would you completely cut out running? Or Pilates or yoga. You want to be. Versatile because that's. What keeps it fun? And that's what keeps challenging your body in different types of ways that you otherwise wouldn't experience, but in this. Episode, as I said. We are going over. Cardio. And how to? Utilize it for body. Recomposition specifically for women above. The age of 35, I say. That in every episode. And there's a reason for that.

The reason being. At age 35. Most women start experiencing seeing hormonal shifts. I mean, you can deny it or say. That's silly, but it's true. That's what starts. Happening and you need to start using cardio more strategically if you want. To go. Through a body recomposition. Process. So let's start here. Heart rate. Zones. The reason why cardio is very. Unproductive for a lot. Of women is because they are not. Aware of and. Watching their heart rate zones during. Said cardio activity. So if you are somebody.

Who is walking until you're sweaty on the cardio or on the treadmill for a long time without watching your heart rate? That is not productive in terms of losing body fat. If you are somebody. Who's going to Orangetheory? Classes. Or some sort of high intensity interval class. Or. Running outside without keeping an eye on that heart rate, that is not productive in terms of body fat reduction. So as I said, the purpose of this episode is go through. Going through what we can do with our time. That we devote cardio.

To make it most impactful before you even start dabbling with cardio in the way that I'm going to. Describe. You will need to find. Out your 5 heart. Rate zones. I do this. For my RAC ladies, I actually love doing this for them. It's kind of it's so interesting to me to see the variances, but if you are not one of them and you'd. Like to calculate. Your own heart rate zones. Just go online and type in heart rate zone calculator. I use a couple. Different methods in combination with one another. As well as data.

That I can pull from their heart rate. Trackers. Be it an Apple Watch or a Garmin or a Fitbit. Or what? Have you? But if you are not mine, you will go online and just type in calculate my heart rate zones. It might not be. Quite as accurate as if if I were to do. It or another professional but it. Will work for the purpose of. Moving forward with intentionality in your cardio now that you have. Your 5. Heart rate zones written down on a little postage or put in the notes section of your phone and I refer to mine all the time.

You actually need to write these down or put it somewhere where you can grab it and refer. Back to it which? Ideally is in your phone because we're always holding those right. You can just go back and what was my zone again? So now that you have your. 5 heart. Rate zones designated we are going to jump right into. The cardio you've probably. Heard a ton about on social media zone. 2. If this is a foreign concept, you might be wondering what the heck is zone two? Well, now that you have your heart rate zones calculated, you might have.

OK, these are my numbers, not yours. My zone 2 is 138 to 149. So when I'm on the treadmill doing a session of zone two, my. Heart rate has to. Continuously be in the zone of 138 to 149. How do I monitor that? I personally use my ale watch and I have it U doing a cardio session and actually can go on the screen now with their new update and I just have it U and I watch and make sure that my heart rate is in that. Threshold. And it's important that you stay in that threshold because when you are in the threshold of zone 2, for me, 138 to 149, your body is using.

Fat as. Fuel to complete that session. Zone 2 specifically is in support of fat oxidation. Burning fat. That's what you want to do now during one of my Rack roundtable sessions, we have these Zoom calls once a month we were going over. How all the ladies? Are trying are getting into their zone 2 and what those numbers look like for each of them specifically for me, my favorite way to do a zone two session is really early in the morning after I have 30 to 40 grams of protein and I marched down to my treadmill and I will put it on an incline of four and a.

Speed of four. And that primarily keeps me within my zone 2 range. Remember that 138 to 149. But sometimes, depending on how much caffeine I've had, I might need to turn down the intensity. Or depending on how much caffeine I have not had, I might need to bump up the intensity and I can do that. 3. Different ways I can increase the incline, I can increase the speed a. Bit. Or I can do something else like. Wear a weighted vest or hold little. 1 LB dumbbells which has been my. Favorite choice lately?

My other rack ladies. They. Do their zone 2 on the stair climber and they have a. Specific speed that they are at. To make sure they're within their zone 2 and as you progress in your session, you might have to bump up the intensity or it's not going to be stagnant the entire time. But you'll get used to it. You will get a feel for it if. You are continuously watching your heart rate on whatever. Device you choose. To make sure you're staying there, you'll learn what. Speeds. What inclines? What intensities?

Work for you to. Keep you in zone 2 and again zone 2 is important because you're using fat as fuel during that session and it's also great for improving your aerobic index when I was training for my 10K, which I do. Every single year, but. Again, I'm not a runner. I really just do it to compete with my best friend. Like I have to win and I didn't last year, so I will be doing it again. So when I'm training for that. I just do 4. Sessions of Zone 2. Every week for. 40 minute sessions I don't run at all, I just walk at an incline.

But that's enough stress on my my heart to improve my aerobic index and I notice it as I continue being consistent with my Zone 2, I notice. That I have to. Have a higher incline consistently or have a little? Bit of a higher speed, which is great because. My body is becoming more efficient at performing the task I'm asking it so the task being go at a speed of four on an incline of four and stay within the confines well as I get. Better at it. I have to increase the intensity and that's. Good your workouts.

Whatever they are lifting. Cardio they should always be progressively getting. Harder, I mean not getting harder, but you should be challenging yourself, which means you're either going to be lifting heavier or more sets or you're going your cardio is going to have higher incline or higher intensity. That is how you continuously. Stress the body. Spur muscle growth, spur increase in aerobic ability and also. Spur fat. Oxidation for Zone 2. Now how much zone 2 do you need to do? Well, according to Doctor Stacey Sims, your session length the amount of time each of these sessions should.

Be 30 to 40. 5 minutes. That's your magic. Spot the frequency. 2 to 4 sessions per week. That might sound daunting. It might for some. You might think, well, I could supplement that instead of me doing a pointless Orangetheory Fitness. Class or I could. Supplement that instead of watching TV at six O clock at night. Whatever you want to. Do but two to four. Sessions, if you're a beginner, start with one, move your way up to 4 might take you 6 months a year, but you'll just continue to progressively overload on that zone 2 meaning adding more with the goal of completing 4 sessions a week.

Now I've been lifting, training, running, doing all the things for like 15 years so. I do 4:00 to 5:00. That's what my that's the stimulus my body, me needs. To produce results. That might not be yours. If you are really. Seasoned and getting old like me? Maybe. If not. Start where you are. Just start. And here's a. Tip Here's a tip. If you want your zone 2 to be a little more enjoyable, if you have a. Podcast or a TV show that. You enjoy watching? Habit stack that. So you are only able. To watch that show.

Or listen to that. Podcast while. Completing your zone 2. You can't do it, you can't watch it, you cannot listen to it unless you are doing zone. Two, while you take. In that content, there's a habit stacking trick and I. And actually, I really love my I. Love. My zone 2 I zone. I'll actually I key. Into what I'm listening to on my podcast, I have a rotation of probably 10 and I glean so much information from them and some of them are just just nice. Just nice to listen to like a little morning Bible thing or I don't even know.

A nice happy thought. Who knows that I enjoy my Zone 2. It's really one of the best parts of my day. Now, if you're consistent with that two to four times a week, 30 to 45 minute sessions, I promise you, you will start seeing some fat. Loss at 2 weeks. So that means faster fat loss than you would have had you not started doing zone 2. If you're on, check with your nutrition now we are moving in to. Hit. And sit high intensity training versus Sprint interval training. They are different. Why? How are they different?

Hit. Think of. Hit as a big. Umbrella and think of. Sit. As the most intense version of interval training within that umbrella. So remember, we have 5 heart rate zones, OK, Zone 1, recovery zone 3, pointless orange theory stuff. Zone 4:00 and 5:00. That's what we're hitting for hit and sit. So let's start with HIT. So HIT high intensity interval training. You are working in that zone 4 to zone 5 at the. Peak of each. Interval, so those working intervals 85 to 95% of your heart rate Max zone four and five as I said now when it drops.

Back to the recovery. Portion of the intervals, you're in zone one and two, OK, So your effort is 9 out of 10. Now the duration of hit is it's kind of movable. So the high intensity portion can be anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes per interval. As an example, your warm up five to 10 minutes easy whatever your Sprint 30. To 60. Seconds in zone. Four or five. If you get there, that's fine. If you get to zone 5, don't worry about it, but you're shooting for zone 4:00 to 5:00 and then recover for one to two.

So Sprint 30 to 60 seconds at that high intensity pace and then. Recover fully recover for. One to two minutes and you can repeat that 6 to 10 rounds. It really only takes like 20 minutes. Nice and fast. Way faster than zone 2. Now we're going to move into SIT Sprint interval training and if. You are a follower of Doctor Stacey. Sims She's an exercise. Physiologist who has. Been front and center in the news for maybe like 5 years now, but she specializes in Women's Health specifically. Hormone Aware.

Training and nutritional. Protocols age 30. 5 and up because that's when our hormones. Start to fluctuate. But Doctor Stacey Sims has a lot of emphasis on sit being of utmost important in a woman's training protocol. At least once a week until I started following her super. Closely. Which I don't remember if I mentioned this or not in the beginning, but she is who spurred me to start my business a year and a half ago, but until then I had never. Really heard of SIT before? I had heard of HIT before.

And when she kept mentioning it Stacey Sims in various podcasts in the books, I was kind of like, what is the. Difference. So the. Difference in a nutshell. Is hit. When you were at the top. Peak. Part of your interval you are exerting a nine out of 10 in terms of intensity. Sit. At the peak of the interval is a 10 out of 10. And you might be thinking, Oh my gosh. Yeah, it is. But there are. Less intervals required for sit and the actual length of each interval interval is much shorter. So whereas a hit session.

Might be 20 minutes a sit minute. A sit session can be as short as 10 minutes. Mine usually last 50 and a typical sit. Structure looks like. 20 to 30 seconds of all out effort, 10 out of 10 and then two to three minutes of full recovery. So in terms of heart rate zones. The all out effort effort, you are at the peak. Of zone 5 and then you. Scale it back. For two to three minutes back into zone one, it's going to take you the full 2 to 3 minutes to get back to zone 1, and then you do it again and you repeat.

That 2:00 to 5:00. Rounds so your sit session. Quick 2:00 to 5:00. Rounds and when you first start, please don't expect to be. Able to do 5. Rounds you might start more realistically with 1 maybe. Two but. Then we continue, we progressively continue to add intensity as time goes by because that's how we get stronger. Now you might be wondering why. Sit. Why is that? So imperative for women who. Are over 30. 5 because I wondered the same thing. I was like, well. If our goal. Is to burn fat. Can we just do zone 2 if we don't want to do near death interval training once a.

Week because I. Don't so much like that. I don't like feeling like I'm going to throw up in public. I don't know. I just, it's not my thing, but I'll do it. And I've actually learned to very much enjoy hit. I am not in a state of enjoyment for sit, no, but I'm getting there. I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep doing it. I'm going to keep telling my rack ladies they're doing it too, but the primary difference between sit and zone? Two both types of cardio very valuable they. Just send different signals.

To the body, body. So zone 2. Cardio that builds your aerobic capacity. Remember I said I used it to train for a 10K but I never ran once, I just did zone 2. Yup, supports fat burning because during zone 2 you're using fat. As fuel if you're. Staying in zone 2 and then it's just low stress on your nervous system. We're not having these big boom, boom, boom intervals. It's just a nice easy podcast listening Netflix binging activity. Now how does sit? Differ. Sit stimulates fast twitch muscle fibers, the ones that make us look toned in another.

Episode I talked about. Our muscle. Fibers you have type. One you have type 2. Women tend to hold on to type 1 fibers, which are our endurance fibers. Type 1 fibers are what enable us to run long distances better than men as we age. Type 1 fibers we naturally hold on to. They make no change in our physical appearance. They don't make us look toned. They are not the type. Two fibers which the type 2 fibers are fast twitch muscle fibers. We lose them as. We age. We especially. Lose them after. Age 35.

1% per year and those muscle fibers are what make us look toned type 2 muscle. Fibers are what is. Stimulated during strength training, which is why everybody and their mom is always telling you, you need to strengthen you do you need to strength train because that's the only way you can build type 2 muscle fibers along with sit because sit incidentally, incidentally, actually stimulates. Those fast twitch type. Two muscle fibers as well and again type 2 make you toned. Now why is sit? So imperative instead of.

Hit. Those. Short. 10 out of 10 extreme intense intervals. Create a huge stress. Signal to our bodies, and when that happens, multiple systems are responding at once. So there's a there's a neurological response that stimulates the neural pathways in the brain and improves communication between the brain and muscles. That intensity improves the communication between your brain and your muscles, the neural pathways, and then again the type 2 muscle fiber recruitment sit. Sit activates those type.

Two, those toning muscle. Fibers fast twitch the. Responsible for strength, power, and your muscle shape. Please please Please remember that because the me making a distinction between type 1 and type 2 muscle. Fibers is has. Happened in previous episodes of mine and going forward in the future and I can't impress it enough. Which is you already have enough type 1 fibers just being a female, because type 1 fibers are characteristic of women and as we age we don't lose them and type 1. Is what is activated.

During long runs and cycling and stair climbing and zone 2. That's great. That's awesome. We don't need any more of them. We need to activate the type 2 and that's what spurs body recomposition because type. 2 is what gives us real solid visible. Tone, shape, strength. That's what we want. Sit equates to type. 2 weight training. Equates to type 2. Another thing sit does. I can't pronounce this word but I thought it was really cool. I wanted to share Another thing sit. Does is that it triggers the.

Release of myokines. Myokines. I don't know how to pronounce it. I heard on a podcast and I can't find which one but it's MY OK INES and that is a signaling molecule released from contracting the muscles and that also signals to our. Body. To use free floating. Fatty acids for fuel. Instead of storing them as. Visceral fat. Fat, which is your belly fat? In other words, sit signals our body. To use the. Fat floating in it as fuel instead of storing it in your. Belly as visceral fat. Think of it like that more.

Sit less belly fat. Now if that sentence spurred some excitement and made you think, how often do I have to do it, I will say it again. Doctor Stacey Sims. She recommends one to two sit sessions. Per week. And as we close. I would like to. Lay out an entire framework for cardio and you might use this framework, you might not be. At the ability. Level of doing this framework, but use it as an example and this comes. Straight from Doctor Stacey. Sims book so she recommends 2 to 3 sessions of zone 2.

For 40. 5 minutes. You can go up to 62 to three sessions of zone. 2 for 40. 5 minutes and remember you need to stay in zone 2, your zone 2 for the entirety of the session. She also recommends one to two sessions of sit. True sprints. 10 out of 10 you're going to puke. One to two sessions of sit. She recommends strength training. Three to four days per week. Now that's Doctor Stacey Sims. I defer to her for a. Lot of things for me, I like to strength train. Five days a week I like to do. 4 rounds of zone 2 because a lot of times it's just my routine.

I like to do 1 bout of sit during the week and then if I don't do. Sit, I will do. One bout of hit. That's my framework. Is it exactly what she recommends? No. Is it what works for me? Yes. Am I hitting my? Targets, yes. Am I doing it in a way that is still makes being active enjoyable? Yes. So keep. That in mind, that's just an example framework of utmost. Priority is that you're. Doing. Activities that you will actually do so. Try your best to make it enjoyable and if that means you are doing Pilates once a week and it doesn't count towards strength training zone 2.

Or hit. So be it. That's. Still an enjoyable activity that is going to benefit you in other. Ways like your core stability or your. Spinal health, But for body recomposition, the framework I mentioned is what doctor Stacey Sims recommends. As a whole. Do a couple zone. Twos do a couple. High intensity intervals. Make sure your strength training a few times a week and you're set. You are then pulling all. The levers for body. Recomposition. And if you feel like you are ready. To take on a strength training program for body recomposition and you would like one that's personalized to your equipment, to you, and to your needs, you can e-mail me at [email protected].

I will. Develop you a. Strength training program with your cardio. Everything included. There's just a few. Quit 2 quizzes to complete prior to that. And that is $99. Also in another mini episodes I mentioned, I do custom macro formulations. You can e-mail RAC recomposition for those. As well. Those are $99.00 and they are. A4 page PDF. Complete with a little video of me explaining what you're going to eat, when you're going to eat it, and everything else necessary to understand macros. As a beginner, intermediate, advanced, I've had all levels of women interested in getting their custom macro formulations and with that process.

It is a three. Quiz one it takes it takes some time, so be patient with with that. Ladies, thank you so much. I read all your emails. I love all your emails. It really just brings me joy when you take a moment to send me. A word of whatever. It might be like, oh I bought the book or I've been doing the thing and makes me so happy. You should put your questions on. Spotify or Apple podcast? In the comments make sure everybody can see them because as I said last time, the only bad question is one that goes asked.

OK, thanks for listening ladies. You will be hearing from me next week.

The Best Cardio for Fat Loss After 35: HIIT, Sprint Intervals, and Zone 2 for Body Recomposition

About this episode