A question I get asked a lot is what type of cardio is more effective for burning fat and maintaining muscle mass. Coming from a track and field background, I know that a sprinter’s body is different from a long-distance runner’s physique; each is built by the training regimen these athletes adopt.
Sprinters are more muscular and explosive—for example sprint superstar Usain Bolt—while long-distance athletes are wirier and lack the musculature—like long-distance ace Mo Farah. Despite their differences, at the world class level both long distance athletes and sprinters are equally conditioned and have low levels of body fat.
But their approach to training varies by the use of fast (Bolt) and slow (Farah) twitched muscles.
So when it comes to cardio, the