I am Steve Turano. Welcome to this episode of the Body Performance. Let me ask you a question, is heart weight alone? The determining factor as to whether I am burning fat or not, that is a question. I will separate the men from the boys, the answer is no.
Now we have all heard that heart rate is so critical but let me post another question here. If I sit here and hold my breath I can double my heart rate, am I burning fat? Am I aerobic? Not really. Let me explain this a little bit further and this has to do with talking about aerobic exercises that are not that effective. See when I sit here and hold my breath my heart rate goes up because my body is demanding oxygen. My toes, my brain, my heart, my liver and everything but I am not consuming calories because I am not moving. My muscles are not utilizing any energy.
Now the same holds true for those who aerobic exercises that are not that effective. Jumping rope, swimming, even aerobic sits in your local gym and some so on so forth. Why is this? Because they do not utilize the legs, it is better than you do that than nothing, no doubt. But we want exercises, aerobic exercises that utilize the lower half of your body, your legs and utilize them completely through a full range of motion. This means they are consuming lots of calories. So when you are swimming, you are doing aerobics, you are jumping rope you are not utilizing the lower part of your body completely.
Now your heart is raising, sure. But again, we are talking about calorie consumption and not just oxygen delivery. So again while I am sitting here holding my breath my heart is beating and raising but I am not consuming lots of calories. When you are doing aerobics, when you are jumping rope, when you are swimming your heart is raising and you are consuming some calories. But we are out time crunch, we got kids, wives, work, shopping, housework, we want the best bank for our buck. That is what is say walking, jogging, running, rowing, cross-country skiing this are the bigger road of exercises that utilize the legs completely.
Love your body. I will see you next time.
