I know it’s cliche and you may think it doesn’t work, but Men’s Health recently interviewed fitness coach Paul Revelia about how he uses walking to prep for his fitness competitions.
Here is a quick summary of some of his tips for using walking to get shredded (Yup, he’s shredded and his primary cardio is walking… or so he says):
Fast intense gasping-for-breath workouts burn carbs, while lighter (not easy), moderate breathing exercise burns fat. If you want to get shredded you want to burn fat.
Paul recommends starting at 30 mins 5 times a week. He uses a treadmill, but you can do it outside, it’s just harder to increase intensity as your cardio improves.
He reminds us that losing fat is a time challenge not an intensity challenge. We are all strapped for time, so he likes to make cardio fun by pairing it with other activities…
When you stay at a moderate intensity, you can multi-task… he has a treadmill set up and watches tv, answers email on his phone, talks with clients and even works on his laptop.
He gauges his intensity based on his breathing, sweating and increasing body temperature. Having this happen means the body is working. When it becomes too intense it’s a sign that you’ve switched into high intensity workout and burning carbs rather than fat.
When you keep the intensity at a lower rate, your recovery time back to daily activities can be much lower. He talks about doing sprints and having it take hours or even a nap for him to feel like he’s back to normal/not sweating. While after his moderate paced walks, he can be back to normal in 5 mins.
You can watch his full 12 min talk on setting up a walking routine below (Seems long but entirely worth it, he is straight to the point with little to no fluff on his video). This is a link to the video on Youtube: Cardio Workout For Fat Loss. Seriously, I watched the video and it made me want to start taking my walking more seriously and I’m a runner.