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Top Heart Rate Means Nothing for Weight Loss Resources
by Craig Ballantyne

A lot of people are confused about why strength and interval training works for weight loss. Despite what most people think, the success of a strength and an interval cardio workout does not depend on how high your heart rate is during the workout.

Now don't get me wrong, if you do interval exercise according to the guidelines, your heart rate is going to be up there. However, it is an effect of the workout, not a cause of the results.

Heart rate means nothing to the results that you will get from the workouts. It never has, and I hope that none of my articles ever suggested that.

The truth is the strength and interval cardio workouts have strategically scheduled rest intervals in the lifting and interval portions that are used to bring your heart rate DOWN so that your workout intensity will remain high. If you focus on keeping your heart rate high, you might actually LOSE some of the benefits of the workout (because it could cause you to reduce the intensity).

Too many people believe that the reason why we use supersets with little to no rest is to keep your heart rate up. It is a common belief that a high heart rate is essential to lose fat. But that's not true - and really that is just another misconception based on the whole "aerobic training is mandatory for fat loss" thinking that is common in magazines and in the general fitness world. (And don't forget that the "fat-burning zone" is one the biggest fitness myths ever.)

The quicker you lose the "high heart rate equals the best workout" mentality, the quicker you will start to change your body.

The real reason the strength and interval workouts use supersets and short rest periods isn't because of some magical fat loss secret. In truth, the reason to use supersets and short rest intervals is simply to get the workout finished faster. That way, you can train more of your body in a short time and put it in the most "turbulence" for fat loss.

Supersets are perfect for getting more work done in less time. Supesets allow you to work at a high-intensity for two exercises while cutting time off your workout.

If you tried to do straight sets (i.e. 3 sets of the same exercise in a row), your intensity would suffer. But when you perform a "non-competing superset" (i.e. presses and rows), you work one movement (presses) while the other (rowss) rests.

So the bottom line:

Don't worry about your heart rate during exercise (unless you just like to keep track for interest sake). Instead, make sure that you are working at a high-intensity during each lifting and interval session.

For example, if the superset calls for 3 sets of 8 for the DB row paired with DB presses, that means you should be choosing a weight you can do for 9 reps for each exercise, and you should aim to complete 3 sets of 8 repetitions for each before moving to the next superset (although in reality, you might only get 6 or 7 reps in sets 2 & 3).