After Burn

There is a new buzz word out there, after burn.  OK, maybe it is only new-ish to me.

The clinical term for after burn is excess post exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC.  The EPOC level is represented by the oxygen consumption or the energy expenditure that is above the pre-exercise level after an exercise bout.  In English, after burn is the additional energy that is required by your body to restore itself to pre-exercise levels.  Your body has to restore its oxygen stores, remove lactate and return ventilation, circulation and body temperature all back to pre-exercise levels.  In the last article, we learned that energy is burned in the form of calories.  So, another way of describing after burn is the increased level of your metabolism (calorie burn) following exercise.  That's what exercise is all about, right?

Studies have shown the the magnitude and duration of after burn depends on the intensity and the duration of the exercise session.  Fitness level and gender will also influence the magnitude and duration of the after burn.  Generally it takes 15 minutes to 48 hours for the body to recover to it's resting state. This explains where the recommendation to allow 48 hours of rest between strength training a particular muscle group was derived.

According to this article by Dr. Len Kravitz, aerobic or cardiovascular exercise has the greatest impact on EPOC.  Multiple studies have shown that the higher intensity of your cardio workout, the greater the after burn or the greater the caloric expenditure after exercise.  Additionally, research has also shown a direct relationship between duration of exercise and EPOC.  The longer the duration of your cardiovascular session, the higher the after burn.  Studies have also show that cardiovascular intervals elicit a greater EPOC response when compared to continuous exercise.  After burn is directly influenced by resistance or strength training.  It has been difficult to say if resistance or cardiovascular exercise is more influential on EPOC because of the challenge to equalize resistance training and aerobic exercise.

The take home applications for all this new information is as follows:

• Make your focus to develop your cardiovascular exercise so that you can perform higher intensity exercise for 30 minutes or more. 
• Regularly incorporate interval training into your workouts.  This is a fantastic way to increase your capacity for higher intensity exercise. 
• Perform strength training at least 2-3 times per week. 

I typically do really well with the cardiovascular exercise.  The strength training part, I am incredibly inconsistent with.  My goal is to get those 2 days per week completed! 

Milli