Time has shown us that cardio isn’t the answer to losing flab. Nowadays we know that those who train with circuits, intervals and resistance have leaner bodies Let me tell you about what the most recent studies show on the matter. There was a study done in Brazil that compared traditional aerobics with intervals and ciruit-based exercise approaches.
This program took twelve weeks to see how people responded to the different ways to exercise. There was one section of people who were used as a reference, another that did aerobics for over half an hour 3 days out of seven, and then another one that was using circuits by using over half their maximum weight for more than half an hour.
What really surprised the researchers is that by the end of the study the weight lifters were just as aerobically fit as those who were training with aerobics. Both groups boosted lower body strength equally, but the circuit-based group had the additional benefit of a stronger upper body.
This kind of performance should be disappointing to those who think that they’re getting a lot of benefit from their aerobic routines: they could be getting a lot more benefit from the same amount of time invested in exercise.
This is good news for people who have a limited time to exercise and thus cannot maintain two separate workout tracks. The bottom line is that traditional, slow cardio will not do anything good for you when it comes to burning fat. Circuit based resistance coupled with interval training is the way to get results.
The kind of movements that you want to do to get the best results are those that engage multiple muscle groupings. Therefore you should be doing squating, push ups, and rows.