Metabolic Training

What is Metabolic Training?

An approach to working out in which exercises are performed to improve the efficiency of your metabolism by accessing the three energy systems, the ATP-CP pathway, the glycolytic pathway, and the oxidative pathway.

Here is how it works:

For movement to occur, your muscles must contract, which requires energy. The energy is supplied by the food you eat—carbohydrates, fat and proteins—when it is converted into adenosine triphosphate or ATP. Think of ATP as a usable form of energy released during the metabolic process and made available to your muscle cells for movement. Depending on the intensity of your exercise, you can access the best energy pathway to most efficiently burn fat and improve your conditioning.

The ATP-CP pathway is the most immediate source of ATP for muscular contraction. It supplies energy in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic), providing your muscles with about 10 seconds worth of energy. When you train using the ATP-CP pathway, you do activities of very high intensity and short duration, such as high intensity intervals lasting 6 to 10 seconds.

The glycolytic pathway supplies energy through the partial breakdown of glucose, and like the ATP-CP pathway, does this without the use of oxygen, or anaerobically. This pathway provides a greater amount of energy for short, intense bursts of activity (HIIT) that can last for up to a couple of minutes.

The oxydative pathway is different than the other two pathways in that it uses oxygen (aerobic) to make ATP. This pathway is slow to produce ATP, taking about two minutes, because it requires the circulatory system to transport oxygen to the working muscles before ATP can be produced. This pathway is used primarily during aerobic exercise, which is less intense and can continue for long periods of time, sometimes hours. Think running, biking, hiking, skating and other traditional aerobic, low-intensity activities.

What is the best approach to fat loss?

One of Australia’s top fat loss researchers, Steve Boutcher, put 45 overweight women through a 15 week study where one group did High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for 20 minutes. That group of women sprinted on a stationary bike for 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds of light cycling. The other group of women did aerobic exercise at a continuous pace for 40 minutes—the more traditional approach to fat loss. Both groups exercised three times a week and had their dietary intake closely monitored. The results were that the interval group lost three times as much fat doing half as much exercise!

Why does HIIT work better to burn fat?

Because HIIT causes a phenomenon called EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. After you perform high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting on a stationary bike, your body continues to need oxygen, leaving your metabolism elevated for hours after your workout before it returns to normal. Originally referred to as “oxygen debt,” EPOC is the term researchers now use to describe the events that occur as the body returns to homeostasis.

Research suggests that high-intensity training, whether you are running sprints or performing resistance circuits, “disturbs” the body’s homeostasis, throwing the body off its normal balance. This results in a larger energy requirement after exercise to restore the body’s systems back to normal. This energy expenditure causes a significant increase in fat loss which makes high-intensity interval training (HIIT) the most effective method for fat loss.

Is HIIT congruent with our DNA?

Our ancestors performed activities of varying intensities, but their ability to perform high intensity movements kept them in the evolutionary race. A caveman’s fate could be decided in an instant by his ability to sprint from a predator or fight his way to safety. Cave women who could leap up onto a ledge to avoid flash floods or lava flows from volcanic eruptions lived longer.