CONTEXTO INSTITUCIONAL: SISTEMA UNIVERSITARIO UNIMINUTO

This is for people who have been consistently training for at least 3 months, or who have already gone through the Beginner's Cycle. This cycle will quickly get you lean. Depending upon how much weight you have to lose, you may need to repeat it 2-3 times. If you only have 5-10 pounds to lose, this should get the job done your very first time through.

The HIIT workouts will be more intense than the Beginner's Cycle.

Although the average intensity level will still be lower than the lactate threshold intervals...the intense portion of the HIIT intervals will be pretty darn intense. The reason for this is that you are going to need to develop a little bit of anaerobic power.

Why more anaerobic power?

Your muscles are going to need to be strong enough to push hard as your LT increases. If your muscles are too weak, you won't have the ability to burn calories and glycogen at a rapid rate.

Note: This shouldn't build size in your legs. If you are concerned with this,

then simply avoid the exercise bike when doing this type of interval. Also...you will only be doing this type of interval later in the week, when glycogen levels are so low, that it shouldn't build a pump in the muscle at all.

Every visit to the gym will start with a weigh-in.

You will weigh the most on Monday morning and the lowest on Friday morning. Wednesday's weight should match the low point of the previous week. New lows will be reached Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Important: Get out a calculator and fill in all the fields in your Visual Impact Cardio Journal. This will help you get systematically leaner week-

by-week.

Here is a conversion table for you, in case you don't have a calculator handy.

70% 80% 90% 95% 100% 105% 110% 115% 120% LT=7 5 5.5 6.5 6.5 7 7.5 8 8 8.5 LT=8 5.5 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 LT=9 6.5 7 8 9 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 LT=10 7 8 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 LT=11 7.5 8.5 10 10.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 LT=12 8.5 9.5 11 11.5 12 12.5 13 13.5 14.5 LT=13 9 10.5 11.5 12 13 13.5 14 15 15.5 LT=14 10 11 12.5 13 14 14.5 15.5 16 17 LT=15 10.5 12 13.5 14 15 15.5 16.5 17 18 LT=16 11 13 14.5 15 16 17 18 18.5 19 LT=17 12 13.5 15 16 17 18 19 19.5 20.5

Note: The beginner's cycle only went up to 105% of LT. This one will go to

Week 1

This week is just a break in period. This workout should feel pretty easy to you. Remember, it makes sense to gradually increase intensity. If you jump right into the most intense stuff, you will reach a sticking point. If you systematically increase intensity your body cooperates by adapting and improving each week.

 Monday: 30 minutes @ 90% of LT  Tuesday: 30 minutes @ 90% of LT  Wednesday: OFF

 Thursday: 40 minutes @ 75% of LT  Friday: 45 minutes @ 75% of LT

As the intensity drops later in the week, time is added to the workout. This is a common strategy used throughout this program. The reason for this is that intense exercise will burn glycogen quickly, but it also can lead to

overtraining.

You can burn the same amount of calories, by simply training at a lower intensity for a longer period of time. So as the week progresses it makes sense to use this approach.

Week 2

On Monday you will be training at an average intensity level of 93% of your LT for the lactate threshold interval. The following day is steady state at 95% of your LT.

 Monday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 80% LT + 2 min @ 100% LT)  Tuesday: 30 minutes @ 95% of LT

 Wednesday: OFF

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (90 sec @ 75% LT + 30 sec @ 110% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

Wednesday will be a rest day, because Thursday will work shorter more intense intervals for the first time.

After the intense interval, you will follow up with low level cardio for 20 minutes. Feel free to increase the time to 30 minutes if you have the time. Friday will be low level cardio that just targets body fat. We could do the HIIT + low level cardio like Thursday, but that is probably too instense for this stage in the cycle. We will save that for week 5.

Week 3

This week, the average intensity level of your LT interval will be 100% of your LT. On Tuesday you will train using steady state cardio at 100% of your LT. You should work up a sweat here, but still nothing too crazy.

 Monday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 2 min @ 105% LT)  Tuesday: 30 minutes @ 100% of LT

 Wednesday: Optional Day

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (90 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 115% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 45 minutes @ 80% of LT

Thursday's HIIT session has an average intensity level of 87% of your LT. So it is less taxing than Monday and Tuesday's workout...but works the

anaerobic system harder.

have a lot of energy. If you are worn out either skip today or do a lower intensity workout similar to Friday's workout.

Week 4

This week your average intensity level will be 103% of your LT. This is hard to do with steady state training so both Monday and Tuesday will be LT intervals. Wednesday, we will focus on further glycogen depletion and calorie burning but at a lower intensity level.

 Monday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 2 min @ 110% LT)  Tuesday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 2 min @ 110% LT)  Wednesday: 30 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (90 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 115% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 45 minutes @ 75% of LT

Since Monday and Tuesday were somewhat intense this week, you will do the same workouts on Thursday and Friday of last week.

Week 5

This time you will keep the LT intervals at an average intensity level of 103% of your LT, like last week, but increase the intensity of the workouts at the end of the week.

 Monday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 2 min @ 110% LT)  Tuesday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 2 min @ 110% LT)  Wednesday: 30 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (90 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 15 min HIIT (90 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

The HIIT intervals are now done on both Thursday and Friday at an average intensity level of 90% of your LT.

Week 6

Time to push your LT intervals to an average intensity level of 105%. These are going to be pretty tough. You are actually going to take Wednesday off this week, just to ensure that you don't get overtrained.

 Monday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Tuesday: 30 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Wednesday: OFF

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (60 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 15 min HIIT (60 sec @ 80% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

Thursday and Friday's HIIT session uses the same recovery and work speeds as last week, but the recovery time is reduced from 90 seconds down to 60 seconds. This increases the average intensity level from 90% to 93% LT.

Week 7

Just two more weeks to go. You are probably going to be a little worn down this week. Remember, this is the tough final stretch of the cycle. You won't increase the intensity of the LT intervals this week, but will be doing them for 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes.

 Monday: 45 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Tuesday: 45 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Wednesday: 15 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT)

Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Thursday: 15 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 15 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 20 minutes @ 85% of LT

HIIT at an average intensity level of 102% for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Followed by 20 minutes of steady cardio.

Week 8

For this final week, you will attempt to do the LT intervals for 60 minutes on Monday and Tuesday. Also Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's HIIT session will be pushed to 20 minutes, followed by 30 minutes of cardio instead of 20. ...yes this is excessive. You wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for long, but you only need to do this for one week. This is the final week, so push

yourself to complete this rough schedule!

 Monday: 60 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Tuesday: 60 min LT Interval (1 min @ 90% LT + 3 min @ 110% LT)  Wednesday: 20 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT)

Followed by 30 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Thursday: 20 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 30 minutes @ 80% of LT

 Friday: 20 min HIIT (30 sec @ 85% LT + 30 sec @ 120% LT) Followed by 30 minutes @ 85% of LT

Congratulations!

This one was probably a little bit rough. It is hard to push past your lactate threshold, but doing so burns calories at a fast rate.. No doubt your VO2 max has improved, your heart has a better stroke volume, and you are noticeably leaner.

What if you still have weight to lose?

You can simply repeat this cycle if you have more weight to lose. When you do it again, you will most likely have a higher lactate threshold. So test to see what your new baseline LT level is.

Who is the Advanced Cycle for? You can get as lean as you desire with the

Intermediate Cycle. The Advanced Cycle is for people who want to push the limits of fat loss. It requires quite a bit more time and effort than the

intermediate cycle. If you are up to it, then move on to the next page :)

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