In 1994 Angelo Tremblay and some colleagues at the Physical Activities Science Laboratory at Laval University in Canada, tested the long held belief amongst most exercise and medical professionals that long slow low intensity cardio was superior for fat loss. In fact, they compared the impact of moderate/low intensity to high intensity interval training in hopes of finding what was superior for fat loss.

In the experiment, one group did twenty weeks of endurance training, while the other group did fifteen weeks of high intensity interval training. The cost of total energy expenditure was much more in the endurance training group than the interval group! Additionally, Tremblay and his associates found that the endurance group burned nearly double the amount of calories during training than the interval group. Low and behold, skin fold measurements showed the interval training group lost more body fat than the endurance training group. This may not seem to make sense at first but the team found, “when the difference in the total energy cost of the program was taken into account..., the subcutaneous fat loss was nine fold greater in the HIIT (interval training) program than in the ET (endurance training) program.”

In layman’s terms, interval training is superior for fat loss and takes less time. Here are some practical examples.

John Combs Performs Barbell Complex

John Combs Stone Conditioning Circuit

John Combs Farmer Squats

John Combs Talks About Interval Conditioning

Pain and pleasure are the guides you use to make decisions in your daily life. So says self-help, motivational guru Tony Robbins. How true is this for you and your goals in performance, strength, and/or body composition? I would venture to say it is very true.

When you are dieting, what do you envision? What do you think about? For some they view their diets as complete self-deprivation and torture. This is all they think about. Diet is associated with pain and suffering. In the paradigm of pain and pleasure, as I call it, these people view their diets within the spectrum of pain. Unless you are some sort of masochist, this is a quick path to failure. If the path to your goals is seen in a painful light, more often than not, it will utterly fail.

What about people that succeed in dieting? Usually these people envision great benefits that will come from the diet. For a bodybuilder it maybe walking up to get the first place trophy at a contest, for a college student it might be having the best body at spring break in Panama City, and for a fat guy he may just envision himself talking to pretty girls with confidence. These things all operate within the pleasure paradigm. All these are examples of people who choose to focus on the positive results of their desired outcomes, instead of the painful part of the process of getting there. It is on you, where is your focus? If you want to succeed, it is clear to see how your focus should be directed.