EPOC, or ‘Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption’ refers to the prolonged benefits that can be derived from exercise at intensity.
Tradition long slow cardiovascular exercise elicits a decent benefit during exercise, but then the benefits drop of markedly when you stop.
Research tells us that after completing an hour long run, our body is operating at a higher metabolic rate for approximately 30 minutes. 30 minutes of free energy expenditure – passive energy burn. Free energy expenditure. But what if we could maximise ‘EPOC’?
Exercise at a heightened intensity does just that. Ramp up the intensity. Scale back the duration and the increase the length of time that the body’s metabolic rate is heightened.
So given that lower intensity exercise gives 30 mins of heightened energy burn, what difference does intensity mak? Ramp up the intensity and research tells us that you can stretch this out to a massive 38 hours. From less than 20 minutes of exercise. There are 168 hours in a week. Just four short sessions, performed at high intensity will give you heightened energy burn for almost every single waking or sleeping hour of the week. This truly is an example of passive energy expenditure – buy shares in your body by completing resistance and interval based exercise at high intensity, and receive the dividends long after you’ve stopped.
