Most athletes today still rely on moderate-paced, long-duration aerobic exercise as their primary fat-burning routine. But there are several reasons why this is a bad move, as it can actually prevent you from burning fat and reduce your ability to handle stress. But there are a couple of other reasons why you should think twice or thrice before stepping on a treadmill again.

A few years ago, I spent a lot of time doing aerobic exercise on an elliptical machine, trying to burn fat fast. He was doing the usual 30-45 minutes a session about 3 times a week. I was improving my cardiovascular fitness, or so I thought, but I didn’t notice any difference in my physique. So I followed the “more is better” thinking that surrounds this type of exercise and added a fourth day.

After a few weeks I added a fifth day as I still didn’t see the results I wanted. I was also watching my diet so I figured that was the only thing I would do. Well, it wasn’t long before I started to get tired. This may seem obvious, but I was so focused on my goals of burning maximum fat that I didn’t want that to get in my way, so I kept going. Not many more days passed and I caught a cold. Later I realized that my immune system was so worn out that I was very susceptible to catching a virus, and I did.

Guess what? i didn’t stop. I continued with my sessions and ended up with horrible sinusitis that sidelined me for about a week and a half. I was miserable and I can tell you that I hadn’t burned much fat either. I had to take several days off work to recover. However, I learned an important lesson; one you should never have to do: listen to your body. If you feel exhausted, take a day or two off until you really feel ready to do it again. I also learned that aerobic exercise just isn’t enough when it comes to transforming your body for the better or burning fat fast. If 5 days a week didn’t work, I certainly don’t think 6 or 7 days would. And even if it did, would it be worth it for you to spend so much time in the gym?

I eventually found out that aerobics was training my body to store body fat and have it available for the next workout…ouch! And I also discovered that I was actually reducing my body’s ability to handle work and stress. It was getting more efficient and I handled the work easy, but it made me pant like a racehorse when I tried anything a little more intense… even something like walking up a long flight of stairs. And I wasn’t burning fat either.

The other concern I have with aerobic exercise is overuse injuries and muscle imbalances. These are common in competitive athletes who perform the same monotonous movement over and over again. The muscles primarily involved in these activities also get most of the work while the rest of your body is neglected. This can be true for any of the aerobic movements recommended by many fitness professionals for burning fat because it is a repetitive movement that is continued for long periods of time several times a week, targeting the same muscle groups.

Runners are a good example. The shocks this activity delivers to the associated joints (knees, etc.) can lead to overuse injuries to that area. And because your lower body gets most of the work, you’re creating serious imbalances with other areas of your body. You’ll need to add more exercise to compensate for this, and before you know it, you’ll be spending too much time on workouts that were supposed to burn fat fast.

The good news is that you can avoid these problems altogether and spend an average of 15-20 minutes, 2-3 days a week doing properly performed intense resistance training to burn fat the way you want it to. Students of my Fat Burning Furnace system know this and simultaneously burn fat, build muscle, strength, and lasting health with their efforts. So get off the treadmill and get intense with resistance training… your body will show you the difference in your fat-burning success, and it will thank you in the future.

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