Core Envy

CORE ENVY
CARDIO
workouts

HIGH-INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING is the fastest, most efficient type of workout for incinerating abdominal fat. For this reason, the cardio protocol of my Core Envy program is centered around HIIT workouts. The other two types of cardio workouts you will see are Aerobic Interval Workouts and Low-Intensity Steady-State Workouts. If you do a mix of all three types of workout every week, your body will better adapt to the work you are putting in. Your cardio workouts can consist of any activity you enjoy: running, walking, biking, rowing, or dancing. Anything that gets your body working up to the designated rate of perceived exertion (RPE) is acceptable.

RULES FOR CARDIO WORKOUTS

If you have to skip a cardio day during the week, make sure it’s not a HIIT workout. These should be your highest priority! Conversely, don’t be tempted to make all of your cardio work high intensity. The physiological effects of overtraining are just as harmful as those of not training enough (see “Effects of Overtraining” for details).

With all the cardio and sculpting options presented here, it might seem overwhelming to figure out how to put them together into an effective, efficient schedule. Don't worry! I've done it for you. Try to stick to the weekly schedule of cardio workouts that I have laid out in the Core Envy programs. If you end up having to make some adjustments, use these guidelines to maintain the effectiveness of the program.

Don’t eat for at least two hours before a HIIT workout. High-intensity efforts will raise your heart rate to over 70 percent of its maximum, which will decrease your rate of gastric emptying. In other words, you might end up with an upset tummy if you eat beforehand. I always do these workouts first thing in the morning on an empty stomach.

Don’t do HIIT workouts on successive days. Your body needs at least 48 hours between workouts to fully recover. Pushing your heart rate into its anaerobic zone is an excellent way to burn calories and improve fitness, but it also puts stress on the body. Keep the hard workouts hard and the easy workouts easy. Working out should make your body feel empowered, not overly taxed.

Choose the level you want. I have designed the cardio programs to be completely flexible, meaning that you can perform a Level 1 workout on Monday and then step up to a Level 2 workout on Wednesday if you feel ready. Likewise, you may move down a level at any point if you feel the demands of the workout you’ve been following are too much. In general, the duration and intensity of the Level 1 workouts are less than those of Level 2, which are less than those of Level 3. If you’re still not sure where to start, always err on the side of choosing a lower level, knowing that you can move up whenever you choose.

Do your sculpting routine before your cardio workout. This gets your body into a fat-burning mode by the time you begin the cardio. If you’re scheduled to do both on the same day, do the sculpting immediately before the cardio, if possible. If you need to break up the workouts in two time slots, then do your sculpting in the morning and your cardio later in the day (keeping in mind that your HIIT workouts should be done on a fairly empty stomach). If you absolutely must do your cardio routine first, don’t worry—you’ll still reap the benefits of moving your body and burning calories. Doing your core sculpting first, however, not only will burn through your readily available glycogen so that you have to rely more on fat stores during your cardio routine but also will allow you to be fresh for all of those challenging core exercises!

WORKOUT GUIDE

You will need to learn the lingo and logic of cardio workouts. Below is a quick guide to the terminology used on the following pages.

Warm-up. Increasing the core temperature of your body slowly and steadily is an important aspect of cardio workouts, especially if you’re going to be working into high heart rates. Race cars are made to go from 0 to 100 mph in a very short period of time, but the human body is not. I’ve seen people get bored or impatient with a workout and skip the warm-up; this is dangerous because their muscles will not have enough blood rushing to them to perform the high-intensity intervals. Rev up your engine slowly so that you can perform at your best during the main set of the workout. Your warm-up doesn’t have to be a different activity than your main set; it just needs to be performed at a slower pace and a lower heart rate. For example, begin with a brisk 5-minute walk or an easy jog, then move into a faster walk or run for your main set.

Main set. This is where the work starts—the portion of the workout that requires you to work the hardest and get your heart rate the highest. Below the main set intervals there are instructions that tell you whether you need to repeat the set and if there is additional rest between sets. Workouts 3 and 7 are the most complicated because they are Tabata-style workouts, and they require lots of repeats without rest. A true Tabata workout is 8 intervals of 20 seconds with a 10-second rest between each one, which is 4 minutes total. In Levels 1 and 2, you only do half of a Tabata set before you get a longer break, but in Level 3 you get the real deal! Look for more specific instructions below these workouts to help guide you through the set.

RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION

RPE. Rate of perceived exertion is measured on a scale of 1 to 10. The beauty and the potential detriment of RPE is that the number is completely subjective; you get to decide if you feel like you’re working at a level 6 or a level 9. As the name implies, it is truly perceived exertion, and your perception might change from day to day. If you didn’t sleep well or you’re coming down with a cold, you might find that what felt like a 5 the day before now feels like an 8. Listen to your body and honor the feedback you’re getting, but also make a commitment to being honest about how hard you’re working. Most people tend to hang out between RPE 5 and 7 in almost every workout, but the real benefits of high-intensity workouts are seen in the RPE 8–9 area. Stay true to the description of RPE and make sure that your 8s are very hard and your 9s are extremely hard. You will reap great rewards from these short bursts of intensity, so make sure you aren’t leaving anything on the table!

Cool-down. Very few people enjoy the cool-down portion of a workout. Much like broccoli, I know it’s good for me, but I just don’t like it! However, a short cool-down not only allows your body to safely return to a lower heart rate but also greatly increases the rate at which your body clears lactic acid from the bloodstream.1 In order to reap the physiological benefits, a cool-down needs to be performed at about 35 percent of VO₂max, which equates to a 3–4 on the RPE scale.

WHAT ABOUT STRETCHING?

Entire books have been written on the topic of stretching, but here’s the quick-and-dirty summary: Studies consistently show that static stretching should be performed only after a workout because it actually decreases muscular power, endurance, and balance. In other words, if you reach down for your toes and hold that static position for 15–30 seconds in order to stretch your hamstrings, you’re actually decreasing the muscular power in that area.² This is why you should avoid static stretching before a workout. Save your static stretches for after your workout, when it’s okay for the muscles to experience decreased power and endurance. While static stretches won’t necessarily help your performance during a workout, they can increase the pain tolerance in lengthening your muscles and can also result in a slightly increased range of motion.³

Before you happily write off stretching as the evil plot you always suspected it to be, you should know that there are different types of stretching and that not all of them carry the negative side effects of static stretching. Specifically, dynamic stretching has been shown to have positive benefits on both performance and range of motion in the muscles. Dynamic stretching is defined as movement that requires the muscles to be in constant motion and to slowly and steadily move to the endpoint of their range of motion. A slow and controlled set of walking lunges would be a good example, or gentle “toy soldier” kicks that help wake up the hamstrings. You might already be engaging in dynamic stretches throughout the day without even realizing it—if you find yourself rocking your hips from side to side or twisting your torso back and forth in your chair, that’s a form of dynamic stretching.

If you have a few dynamic stretching movements that you like to do before a workout, please keep doing them. But in order to maximize your power, endurance, and balance, do static stretches only after you’ve completed your workout.

HIGH-INTENSITY CARDIO

AEROBIC CARDIO

LOW-INTENSITY CARDIO