Enjoyable Cardio: The 3 Primal Secrets to Burning Fat

One of the biggest goals people have when doing cardio is to burn off and get rid of that jiggly fat, chest fat, belly fat, that unwanted fat that keeps you from being your confident self. Getting toned and becoming more lean is the goal of most cardio goers!

The problem is that most of us are taught that in order to get a “good” workout in, you have to go longer and harder. You most likely have the mindset ingrained in you that if you don’t feel “the burn” or feel depleted after you cardio session, then you didn’t go hard enough.

If you have the mindset that every cardio session needs to be designed around beating your previous time, burning more calories than your partner, or striving for a better mile time, then this information is for you. If you want to start turning your cardio workouts into fat burning workouts, instead of just energy burning workouts, then let’s get to it!

Before we get into the 3 secrets, I need you to be aware of the Top 3 Ingredients Keeping You Fat and Sluggish. I have an awesome free guide (Get it here), that breaks down the what, why, and how these 3 ingredients are putting the breaks on all of your fat burning efforts and creating all sorts of destruction. If you can start downplaying these 3 ingredients, the fat burning secrets I’m about to teach you will create results even easier and faster!

Primal Fat Burning Secret #1: Heartrate

First of all, I want you to entertain the idea that our hunter-gatherer ancestors have been pegged as being healthy, strong, lean, robust, and very versatile. Analysis of ancient bones has determined that as long as our hunter-gatherer ancestors were not starving or in danger from predators, they most likely lived illness and disease free enjoying a lean and versatile body. Learn more by reading Mark Sisson’s awesome book, The Primal Blueprint.

When it comes to exerting energy, it would not have been very smart to go at high intensities very often. From what we know now about heartrate and how it plays into our energy delivery system, high heartrates will cause us to derive energy from mainly carbohydrate/glucose (not what we want when trying to burn fat).

We only have a certain amount of energy storage that can come from carbs/glucose. When that storage is depleted, we will feel the “bonk” and our body will tell us to slow down or stop until we fill those energy storages back up again. I’m sure you’ve experienced this feeling at some point.

In ancient times, going at a high intensity was most likely only important when running away from danger, or running towards food. Other than that, the majority of movements were most likely at a lower level, as not to deplete that emergency energy storage (from stored carbs/glucose).

It just so happens that Dr. Phil Maffetone has discovered a fairly accurate way to determine when our body is about to switch over from high fat burning, to high carb/glucose burning. Just for the record, if you’re wanting to rid your body of excess fat, then start using that excess fat for you main energy source with this heartrate formula.

As your heartrate increases from resting, to exercising at high intensity, your energy will come from an increase in fat burning and carbs/glucose burning. There is a point where your body maximizes fat burning for energy, this is the intensity you want to spend the majority of your time in so that you can burn your excess fat for energy, without depleting your emergency storage of carbs/glucose causing excessive hunger.

This point is referred to as your maximum aerobic function (MAF), which occurs somewhere around 180-Age. So, for example, if you are 40 years old, your MAF will occur around 180-40, so around 140 beats per minute. So, as you start to walk, jog, bike, climb stairs, or some other type of exercise, as you approach 140 beats per minute in heartrate, you will be maximizing fat burning for your main energy source. If you exceed 140 per minute in heartrate, you will start turning off fat burning for energy and begin maximizing carbs/glucose for your main energy source (not what we want here).

At the end of my 5.26 mile jog (this was a long day, not the normal), I spent almost 56 minutes at an average heartrate of 132 beats per minute, which is just 7 beats below my MAF. So I was burning maximum fat, for almost an hour, and barely broke a sweat. Granted it was a beautiful October day out with a temperature of around 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are more benefits to staying at or below your MAF zone other than just burning more fat. You get to enjoy your workout by strengthening your bones, joints, and connective tissues all while minimizing your risk to fatigue, burnout, and injury. You won’t be pushing your body to fail at a weakest link scenario, like a sore hamstring, weak ankle, or pulled back muscle.

So, start maximizing burning fat for energy when you do your cardio by checking in with your heartrate by striving to stay at, or just below your own personal MAF zone. I use my Garmin Instinct 2 Solar to keep an eye on my heartrate when I’m exercising.

Primal Fat Burning Secret #2: Nose Diaphragmatic Breathing

Again, thinking back to our hunter-gatherer ancestors, let’s entertain the idea that breathing through our noses was vital to surviving. Let’s imagine how important it was to breathe through our nose so that we could have gathered as much information about scent as possible. It makes sense that breathing through our mouth was most likely only utilized for emergencies. Our mouth was meant mainly for talking and eating.

Modern science has verified that nasal diaphragmatic breathing is beneficial in many ways. Drawing your breath from you diaphragm (lower belly area) and then letting your breath come up to your lungs by expanding your sides and back is the essence of this type of breathing. Try to reduce your activation of the upper chest and focus on utilizing your belly to draw up your breath from lower (belly) to higher (lungs). Let your belly expand outward as you draw your breath in, then let your belly deflate as you let your breath out.

Breathing through your mouth creates more upper/chest breathing, which is more stressful to your body. Again, the belief is that your body recognizes this type of breathing as emergency breathing, being more stressful.

Since you were probably taught at a young age that exercise should be depleting in order to get a good workout, more than likely you are breathing through your mouth the majority of the time as well, especially if a good portion of your cardio is being conducted above you MAF heartrate zone.

Breathing through your nose helps to improve the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. In order for your body to burn fat for energy, it needs to have plenty of oxygen (aerobic zone/with oxygen/below MAF as opposed to anaerobic zone/without oxygen/above MAF). As you breathe through your nose more, you will teach your nasal passages to expand and be able to absorb even more oxygen. This will continue to benefit your ability to burn fat more efficiently for energy.

As you breathe more through your nose while exercising, you will be improving your ability to produce nitric oxide, known to positively influence the function of nearly every organ and cell in your body.

Nasal breathing is also a good way to stay at, or below your MAF zone. If you feel the need to breathe out of your mouth, there’s a good chance you are working above your MAF heartrate zone. If you need to breathe through your mouth, do so, but recognize this and slow down your intensity so you can get back into nasal breathing.

The primal fitness arena suggests that you strive to breathe as minimally as possible, through your nose only, for the rest of your life. This means that even when not exercising (sitting, standing, gardening, sleeping), try to breathe through your nose with a rhythmic, non stressful cadence, as much as possible.

Primal Fat Burning Secret #3: Enjoyment

If you can nail down the first two secrets (heartrate and nasal breathing), you will most likely realize that cardio and other types of exercise become more enjoyable. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors most likely did not take part in a lot of energy depleting activities. I can imagine that even though life might have been hard at times, most activities were conducted at enjoyable levels of intensity (at or below MAF zone).

My cardio seems to fluctuate between a few different types as the seasons change. In the warmer months, I enjoy jogging at, or just below my MAF zone. It’s easy to breathe from my nose when staying around my MAF zone. If I notice the need to breathe from my mouth when climbing a hill or maybe jogging too fast, I just slow down and sometimes walk a bit until my heartrate falls to just below my MAF.

In the winter, I enjoy splitting wood for our woodstove. I can keep my heartrate right around my MAF zone by splitting, bending over, and moving wood to a pile. I will also jog a little in the winter, especially on nice days.

I also have a bike that I will use here and there. Between keeping a good pace on the road and climbing steep hills, the bike will allow me to keep my heartrate around my MAF zone as well.

There many forms of cardio that you can do, surely you can find a few that you enjoy. Here are a few just off the top of my head:

• Treadmill
• Stair climber
• Assault bike
• Rowing machine
• One of my favorites is to make up your own cardio with a combination of high knees, toes touches, and shadow boxing (you can do this in your own living room).
• I’ve even been known to jog around my living room/kitchen area in order to get a quick 10 minute MAF cardio session in.

Summary

Try to get 2-3 hours of movement in every week at, or just below your MAF heartrate zone (you might call this cardio). That’s about 20 minutes a day (7 day week), or you could do about 15 minutes a day Monday-Friday and then and hour long session on a Saturday. There’s multiple ways to get you MAF movement in, be creative.

Pay attention to your heartrate and nose breathing. Remember, you are wanting to burn fat so that you can get rid of that chest, belly, and jiggly fat. In order to burn fat and not just energy, you want to maximize oxygen consumption (nasal breathing), and conduct as much exercise as possible in your ideal maximum fat burning intensity zone (your MAF zone). Find activities that you enjoy doing where you can reach your MAF zone.

Also, don’t forget to start downplaying those 3 ingredients that are keeping you fat and sluggish! In order to maximize all of your fat burning efforts, downplaying, or even eliminating these 3 ingredients will super charge all of your fat burning cardio efforts. Learn about these 3 ingredients Here and get your free guide.

Get to chiseling out your best body!

Live long and strong!