The majority of exercisers today still rely on long duration moderate paced aerobic exercise as their primary routine for burning fat.  But there are several reasons why this is a bad move, as it can actually keep you from burning fat and reduce your ability to handle stress.  But there are a couple of other reasons why you should think twice, or three times, before stepping foot on a treadmill again.

A few years ago, I was spending a lot of time with aerobic exercise on an elliptical machine, trying to burn fat fast.  I was doing the usual 30-45 minutes per session for about 3 times per week.  I was getting in better cardiovascular shape, or so I thought, but I didn’t notice any difference in my physique.  So I followed the “more is better” thinking that surrounds this type of exercise and added a fourth day.

After a few weeks I added a fifth day as I still didn’t see the results I wanted.  I was watching my diet too, so I figured that was the only thing that would do it.  Well, it wasn’t very long before I began to get worn out.

This might seem obvious, but I was so focused on my goals of burning maximum fat that I didn’t want that to get in the way, so I pressed onward.  Not many more days passed by and I got a cold.  What I realized later was that my immune system was so worn down that I was very susceptible to catching a virus, and I did.

Guess what? I didn’t stop.  I continued with my sessions and ended up with a horrible sinus infection that put me out for about a week and a half.  I was miserable, and I can tell you I hadn’t burned much fat either.  I had to take several days off of work to recover.  I learned an important lesson, however; one that you should never have to: listen to your body.

If you are feeling drained, take a day or two off until you’re really feeling ready to get back to it.  I also learned that aerobic exercise just doesn’t cut it when trying to transform your body for the better or burn fat fast.  If 5 days per week didn’t work, I certainly don’t think 6 or 7 days would.  And even if it did, would spending that much time in the gym be worth it to you?

I eventually discovered that the aerobics were training my body to actually store body fat to have available for the next workout…yikes!  And I also found out that I was actually reducing my body’s ability handle work and stress.  I was becoming more efficient and handling easy work, but it made me pant like a race horse when trying anything that was marginally more intense…even something like climbing a long flight of stairs.  And I wasn’t burning any fat either.

The other concern I have with aerobic exercise is that of overuse injuries and muscle imbalances. These are common in competitive athletes that perform the same monotonous motion over and over and over again.

The muscles primarily involved in these activities also receive the brunt of the work while the rest of your body is neglected.  This can be true for any of the aerobic movements recommended by many fitness professionals to burn fat because it is a repetitive motion continued for long time periods for several times each week, affecting the same muscle groups.

Runners are a prime example.  The pounding that this activity gives the joints associated (knees, etc.) can lead to injury from overusing that area.  And because the lower body receives the brunt of the work, you are creating severe imbalances with other areas of your body.  You’ll have to add more exercise to make up for this, and before you know it, you’ll be spending too much of your time devoted to workouts that were supposed to burn fat fast.

The good news is that you can avoid these problems entirely, and spend an average of 15-20 minutes, 2-3 days per week performing properly conducted intense resistance training to burn fat like you want to.

Students of my Fat Burning Furnace system know this and simultaneously burn fat, build muscle, strength, and lasting health with their efforts.  So get off of the treadmill and get intense with resistance training…your body will show you the difference in your fat burning success, and thank you for it down the road.

Ask ten people what type of exercise they should be doing to burn fat and fire up their metabolism and they’ll all probably tell you the same thing.  They’ll tell you that you need to do 30-40 minutes of moderately-paced aerobic exercise on a treadmill, elliptical machine, stair climber, etc. for 3-5 times per week.

They’ll probably also tell you that more is better…4 times per week would be better than 3, and 5 times per week would be even better.

People will tell you this because that’s been and continues to be the mainstream recommendation for fat burning by many fitness professionals.  Get in a certain target heart rate and stay at that heart rate for 30 minutes or so, several times per week.  I am here to tell you there is a better way.

Sure, you’ll burn some calories while you’re running to nowhere on a treadmill, but you won’t make a complete physique transformation with this type of exercise alone.

In fact, this type of exercise can actually be counterproductive to burning fat.  Here are just a couple of reasons:

Long duration, lower intensity aerobics calls upon your stored body fat for energy during the sessions.  While this may sound good, this can actually cause your body to create more body fat in reserve after the workout is over to have ready for your next workout.  Yikes!

What’s worse, this type of exercise when done frequently as typically suggested, trains your cardiovascular system to be efficient.  Again, while this sounds good, your heart and lungs can actually reduce their capacity for work as they are getting more efficient at doing easy work (your long duration, low intensity aerobic workouts), which reduces their ability to handle stress.

This can lead to a host of other problems including higher change of heart attack.  You are only working within your current aerobic capacity because you’re never challenging it to go beyond what it’s capable of.   And anything that is easy will not yield results even close to what’s challenging for the body to accomplish.

Instead, you should be challenging the body to increase its capacity, so that it is stronger and able to deal with stress more easily.  How is this done?

The fastest and most efficient way to rev up your metabolism, burn fat faster, and develop lifelong health and fitness is to add lean muscle to your body through resistance training – period. You want life changing results in the quickest possible time? Get stronger and build some muscle. When you add lean muscle to your body you’ll be literally turning your body into a fat burning machine!

Let’s say that you were eating the amount of calories that allow you to maintain your current bodyweight, but began to add lean muscle to your body through proper resistance training…you’ll need to use some of those calories you’re eating to feed the new muscle, creating a calorie deficit in your body.

In addition, when you stimulate your body with proper resistance training like I teach my students, the repair and growth process will call upon your stored body fat for energy.  This calorie deficit combined with the repair and growth process will allow you to burn fat all day long, every day.  You’ll even get these fat burning effects when you’re sitting around doing nothing at all.

Also, properly conducted resistance training actually increases your heart and lung’s capacity for work.  By placing intense demands on your body, it is forced into being ready for anything you throw at it.  This makes you more resistant to cardiovascular health problems that plague most people…even those that exercise with aerobics frequently.

And the beauty is I’ve discovered that you don’t have to spend much time working out to get the fat loss effects, and strength and muscle gains that will create this environment…you can actually get it done with 2 or 3 weekly workouts that last between 20 and 30 minutes, and even less time at an advanced level.

And it’s easy to make this type of exercise part of your life because of its efficiency…and it will help keep you lean and healthy for the rest of it…muscle is the stuff that fat burning furnaces are made of!  That I can promise you.