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Benefits of Morning Cardio

By Ed Downes

I want to talk about on of my favorite topics, morning cardio. Now, the jury is still out in some circles regarding the extra benefits of doing morning cardio, but I am a believer. Let’s take a look at what is going on in the body so that you can understand why morning cardio is a better choice.

When you eat, your body converts the food into a usable state to be absorbed b7y the body to sustain life. Protein builds tissue, fat and carbs are either burned for energy or stored as body fat. Your body uses glycogen and oxygen in the cells to make energy. Glycogen is made from converted glucose and glucose comes from the carbohydrates that we eat. It all sounds great but, we want to burn body fat don’t we?

Now to burn body fat, you need to pull body fat out of storage so that it can be processed and burned by the muscles. It is possible to create the “ideal environment” to accomplish this.

First of all, you will want to do your cardio first thing on an empty stomach. The reason for this is that first thing in the morning, you have fasted for many hours and depleted most of the glycogen that is in your muscles waiting to be utilized to produce energy. Now, by not ingesting carbohydrates before your morning cardio, you are not adding any new materials to be converted to glucose.

Second, when you start doing your cardio, you quickly burn any remaining glucose that is still in your muscles. At this point something interesting happens. You body needs energy, so what does it do? It pulls fat out of storage to be used to produces energy. Now that’s what I’m talking about!

You can further maximize your result from morning cardio in 4 ways.

First, consume a protein shake before you start. This will prevent your body from introducing cortisol which causes muscle breakdown.

Second, bring and drink water. If you stay hydrated, you will lose weight faster. Read my article called “Drink More Water”.

Third, drink a caffeine beverage before you start if you can and like caffeine. This gives you a little boost and caffeine has been shown to aid in the loss of body fat.

Fourth, longer is better. You are better off in my opinion, speed walking for 40 minutes than running for 20. This is for two reasons first, you allow your body to deplete the glycogen and the longer you for, the more fat calories you will burn. Second, I don’t like the wear and tear that an overweight person puts on their joints while running, enough said.

I hope you found this article helpful on learning about the benefits of morning cardio. Look for other articles that I have written for the Fitness Experts Network.

About the Author:

Ed Downes – AFPA - Certified Personal Trainer
Paradise Boot Camp
www.ParadiseBootCamp.com