Burn, Baby Burn

"Gonna hang around, wanna get a reaction" Jet, Cold Hard Bitch

One of the benefits of me getting smarter by going back to school is that I get to pass on what I've learned to you. Granted, I'm by no means an expert, but I've got my textbook with me so damnit, I've got some credibility.

If you want to burn fat through exercise then you will primarily do that aerobically. Your best bets are endurance exercises at low to moderate intensities. The reason for this is both simple and complex. Your body needs energy to do everything. Go ahead, blink you eyes. Bam! You just burned energy. But where that energy comes from is key.

When we perform endurance type exercises (long distance running, walking, swimming) our body taps fats, carbs and protein as energy sources to keep us moving. Initially, when we start exercising, our body taps our anaerobic system to rapidly produce energy for power (think weightlifting, sprinting, basketball). The drawback here is that our anaerobic system is designed to only hold out for very short periods of time (20-30 seconds to 2-3 minutes, tops).

Consider for a moment these two photographs:

The women on the top are distance runners. Marion Jones, Olympic Sprinter (let's ignore her recent steroid problem for a moment), is competing in the picture on the bottom. Notice the two very different body types of the runners. The distance runners have very lean bodies because they are burning energy from fat, proteins and carbs. Not so for the sprinters. They are pulling their energy anaerobically from ATP-PC (adenosine triphosphate-phosphocreatine...which is probably WAY more than you wanted to know) and glycogen.

So what does all this mean for you? If you want to get leaner, quicker, it's best to aim for endurance training. Get on the treadmill for 30 minutes to an hour, go take a walk around your neighborhood, or swim laps for 45 minutes. Keep that up and you'll be a fat burning machine. (Never forget the weights, though! Weight training is still very important.)

If you want to bulk up, warm up on the treadmill with a slow walk for 5 minutes and then jump off and then hit the weights. Or knock out some sprint training.

Of course, I would be doing you a huge disservice if I didn't mention that we are all fundamentally designed differently. There are certain people who, try as they might, will never be huge bodybuilders or super lean runners. But you can still get healthy with some dedication.