Excessive oxygen consumption after exercise (COPD, informally called afterburn) is a greatly increased rate of oxygen intake after strenuous activity intended to clear the “oxygen deficit” from the body. In fact, the term “oxygen debt” is still widely used to this day. In recovery, oxygen (EPOC) is used in the processes that return the body to a state of rest and adapt it to the exercise that has just been carried out. Another use of EPOC is to boost the body’s increased metabolism from the increase in body temperature that occurs during exercise. COPD is accompanied by high fuel consumption. THAT FUEL IS GREASE!
The EPOC effect is greatest shortly after exercise is completed and decreases to a lower level over time. Anaerobic exercise in the form of high intensity interval training was also found in one study to result in greater loss of subcutaneous fat, although the subjects expended less than half of their calories during exercise! In a 1992 Purdue study, results showed that high intensity anaerobic-type exercise resulted in a significantly higher magnitude of COPD than aerobic exercise of equal work performance.
All right, Clint! Enough of the exercise jargon! What does that mean for me?!?! It means that if your workouts are short and intense, you will continue to burn fat through EPOC for up to 38 hours after finishing. If you do LSD (steady state exercise on a treadmill, outdoors, elliptical, etc.), EPOC ends very soon after you finish!
Okay, fitness boy ?! How the heck do I do that ?! The easiest way to achieve and maintain intensity is interval training (fast / rest). Interval is the best of cardio and Tabata (20 seconds of hard exercise / 10 seconds of rest) is the King intervals!
By the way, there is also a way to get the EPOC effect on your resistance training (lifting). Weightlifting using compound lifts, which means multi-joint weightlifting exercises that perform a weightlifting circuit alternating between upper and lower body exercises, will result in a higher demand for adenosine triphosphate in the muscles. muscles involved, or ATP for short. ATP is a high-energy molecule found in all cells. Its job is to store and supply the cell with the necessary energy. The increased demand for anaerobic ATP also places a greater demand on the aerobic system to replenish the muscles with ATP during periods of rest and during recovery from exercise.
So what does this all mean? It means that intensity is more important than duration. Exercise sessions should be short, fast, and hard. Cardiovascular exercises should be high-intensity intervals, whether it’s bodyweight circuits, sprinting, or some type of machine like elliptical or treadmill. The lift should favor compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench presses, over isolation exercises such as curls or leg extensions. Cardio sessions alone will give you the EPOC effect for up to 36 hours after the workout ends!
