One of my specialities as a personal trainer in Milton Keynes is working with endurance athletes. I have a vast knowledge on how to prepare the body for endurance sports and also using the same training philosophy on all my clients where I train the metabolism to influence the body to use fat as a source of fuel.
Training athletes from different sports including professional footballers, elite cyclists, rowers and runners and myself to achieve a world record in cycling I have to understand how to get the best out of the human body. So in this blog I have tried to make it simple and explain the importance of low intensity training to encourage the body to use fat as a fuel, even when we are pushing hard. This energy system is known as the Aerobic System.
Aerobic endurance is the energy system that your body uses to endure a long run, bike ride or any other fitness activity that requires oxygen as a fuel source over long periods. When you are working the aerobic system your body will use as mentioned oxygen as a fuel but also body fat.
So if you take part in endurance sports this read will be particularly useful to you. Endurance sports could just as easily and more accurately be termed as Aerobic Sports. No matter the frequency of our anaerobic efforts nor the relative contribution of the anaerobic system any activities over a couple of minutes long are predominantly aerobically fuelled. So aerobic power is king. Some of you may have heard of the term Vo2 or FTP which are supported by your aerobic capabilities. The higher these stats are the greater the underlying aerobic conditioning or aerobic base.
Aerobic Power comes from the energy produced when we break down food or stored energy (Body fat) in the presence of oxygen… that is the gist of it and probably enough for most people. However, this is a more detailed explanation for those that want to geek out:
Aerobic respiration is far more efficient than its anaerobic counterpart. This means more energy is released for the fuel metabolised… let that sink in as it is important. Every bit of glycogen stored in our muscles and liver produces more energy namely ATP when metabolised aerobically.
(Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), energy-carrying molecule found in the cells of all living things. ATP captures chemical energy obtained from the breakdown of food molecules and releases it to fuel other cellular processes.)
The same goes for sugar that we ingest during a workout, especially when training anaerobically. Fat is ONLY broken down aerobically. Therefore, the more aerobically adapted we become the more efficiently we produce energy and therefore become more efficient at utilising stored body fat which is essentially an unlimited fuel source.
So for those who take part in endurance sports you would be pleased to know that if you are packing more body fat than you would like or you’re exceptionally lean with no apparent excess fat we are all carrying a large amount of potential energy in the form of fat stored in a number of deposits around the body. Regardless of where we pull it from, which we have no say… fat is our densest source of fuel sporting over twice the amount of calories as sugar. So this makes sense that an endurance athlete would want to increase their capability to access these energy dense stores.
So by increasing our aerobic capacity by working on training the aerobic system and building a strong solid base, especially during the winter non-competitive months we can train our bodies to use fat at higher efforts when parameters such as Vo2, FTP increase which enable us to run faster, to cycle harder, to swim further while using fat to fuel us.
Tempo work, working at the high end of aerobic endurance is a way to spur the adaptations that lead to increased aerobic capacity. At this level of intensity and muscular stress the level of anaerobic contribution is probably going to be on the low side, meaning sugar usage is relatively low and the use of fat is high. So at a tempo workout around 70%MHR or FTP 75 – 80% the muscle stress is pretty low and manageable. The demand on your more limited fuel stores such as glycogen stays pretty low. This means you can do a lot more work without completely wasting yourself for the next workout or even the rest of the day. The training stimulus achieved over the course of many, continuous minutes of moderate muscle stress is significant, potentially very beneficial to your performance assuming you approach your nutrition, hydration and other aspects of your recovery adequately.
Whilst we are on this subject it is a good time to mention that working at a modest pace where the intention is to focus on increasing lipolytic capabilities (the ability to metabolise fat) means that a high intake of carbohydrates probably is not necessary during these sessions. Then when more intense workout is completed with a solid base the body will require less glycogen. Faster for longer….
So during lower intensity workouts where the aim is to improve the aerobic engine to metabolise fat as a fuel you need to refrain from consuming too much sugar. Every time you introduce sugar into your system you effectively turn off or vastly reduce any fat metabolism that was taking place.
Low intensity long session = improved aerobic power to help with more intense sessions where anaerobic power is used in durations (more fat burned). Low intensity sessions help raise your anaerobic level.
High intensity sessions = More fat used as fuel from training the aerobic system. However, sugar will also be used so an intake of gels etc. during training would be required if the session is over an hour, otherwise glycogen will become too low leading to low blood sugars.
It's not about going to the gym and training the same way every single time. The body will stagnate… Training different energy systems help the body to respond better. Through using my training principles which are closely followed to that of professional athletes. I use different training techniques from my private personal training fitness studio in Milton Keynes and setting home training plans for clients to complete to get the most out of their sessions. Turning the body into a machine….
Thanks for reading
Andy Cross Personal Trainer Milton Keynes.
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