Burn calories while sitting on the sofa

You are going to love this post. I am going to tell you how you can burn calories while you sit with your feet up watching TV. Sounds awesome, right?

You may or may not have heard EPOC or ‘after burn’ said in the gym or floating about on social media sites a few times….

I am going to explain what EPOC is and how you can benefit greatly from it!

EPOC = Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption

Understanding this important response to exercise can make a massive difference when trying to reduce body fat. Let’s take a look in more detail……

What is EPOC?
EPOC refers to the calories that we ‘burn’ after exercise. This represents the oxygen consumption above resting levels that the body utilizes to return itself back to it normal state.
Several studies have found that the significance and duration of EPOC depends on the intensity and duration of the exercise performed. The higher the intensity of the exercise, the greater the EPOC response, which will result in more calories ‘burned’ after exercise.
It generally takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours for your body to fully recover to a resting state, however EPOC is at its greatest straight after exercise and reduces to lower levels over time.

EPOC and Cardio Exercise
When it comes to Cardio and EPOC, HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training is the answer.
HIIT has became so popular  over the past few years when looking to reduce body fat due to the EPOC response it provides. It has been proven time and time again to give greater EPOC response than steady state cardio. The EPOC response from HIIT allows you to train for shorter periods and still burn more calories than your would doing your traditional steady state cardio.
Example of HIIT would be sprints and an example of steady state would be jogging.

EPOC and Resistance Training
Further studies have also found that Resistance/Weight training has a valuable EPOC response for fat loss.
High intensity resistance training has a much better EPOC response than low intensity resistance training. To take advantage of EPOC and to start burning some serious fat when weight training. Reduce your rest periods, this will keep your heart rate elevated throughout the entire workout.
Shortening rest period increases the cardiovascular demand and increases the need for cellular/muscle repair and protein synthesis post workout, making high intensity resistance training an effective method of increasing EPOC.

HOW to structure your training to benefit from increased EPOC?
EPOC contributes significantly to long term fat loss and is definitely something you should consider if fat loss if one of your goals.
Increased intensity whether through resistance (weight) training or cardio has the greatest effect on EPOC.
When training really push yourself, you should feel out of breath and fatigued weight loss pills. Also keep rest periods short, 30 seconds to 1 minute when possible.
Incorporate HIIT training to your cardio routine. Aim for 2/3 HIIT sessions per week
Incorporate ‘Super Sets’ into your resistance workouts, read more on Super Sets here – https://clearfitnessuk.com/the-new-thing-for-2014/
Incorporate ‘Finishers’ at the end of your Resistance/Strength training workouts. Timed Tabata’s and Complexes are great finishers.

FINAL MESSAGE – Take care of your body. In order for your body to exercise at intensity your body needs to be well nourished and well rested. Be intelligent with your pre and post workout nutrition and get your head down and get some shut eye at night!

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EPOC – Get your body burning calories while you chill out.

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Twitter or Facebook. Thank You!

—Chris ‘EPOC’ Morris

P.S I am always opened to idea’s for new blog post’s. I write these to help people so if you have anything you would like me to write about which would help you please just email –  info@clearfitnessuk.com