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How do fat burning sessions work?
Bruce Harris: "I am 44, 6' tall and fairly fit (sub 7:30 for 2,000 metres). My question regards cardio workouts. I like to vary my workouts, sometimes high performance (150-160 beats per minute), sometimes long steady fat burning sessions (125-130 b.p.m). There are workouts that I like where I run hard for 3 miles then bring my heart rate down and do 40 minutes at the fat burning rate on the rower. Would this session still be regarded as fat burning even though it is immediately preceded by a high performance run?"
Terry O'Neill: The simple answer to your question is yes, you would be burning fat. Like most things in life, however, it is not that simple. What people generally refer to as fat burning exercise is low intensity work where fat is the major fuel. These sessions are usually 30 minutes or more in duration. Even at a low intensity fat will only provide 60% of the energy with the other 40% being carbohydrates. At a very high intensity you can be burning 100% carbohydrates, so the fuel mix is on a sliding scale. At a high intensity you burn fat at a higher rate but the sessions have to be shorter, and they are difficult to repeat on a daily basis. To burn off fat you have to look longer term rather than session by session.
If you follow a hard run with a 40 minute low intensity row, we would call this an active recovery session. The major benefit you would gain from this combination is that during the 40 minute row, the heart rate is kept elevated and the increased blood flow through the muscles will flush out any debris caused by the impact of running. This will reduce stiffness in the muscles and also speed up the shunting of any lactic acid built up in your legs. This training programme is ideal for players of hockey, rugby and football who sustain a lot of impact damage during a match. If you enjoy this type of training then it's a good session; I would not, though, recommend this session close to an attempt at improving your 2k rowing time.
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