Today is your last day of exercise before you begin Phase Two of my 8-Week Fat-loss Figure Trainer.

You already know the drill on abs from my previous comments—choose at least two moves that work your abs in different ways. I think it’s important to have one exercise that activates from the lower body (such as hanging leg raises), and another that activates from the upper body (such as kneeling cable crunches). But you can switch up your abs moves as you need.

I’d like to add a few comments about cardio, and why I recommend including 20 minutes of steady-state cardio 5 days a week. As you know, I believe that this type of cardio helps you recover more quickly from the intense training—especially leg work—that you’re doing on my 8-Week Fat-loss Figure Trainer.

Steady-state cardio also supports metabolism. That’s especially true if you perform it at a different time of day than immediately before or after your weight-training workouts. Nevertheless, it’s valuable at any time of day because it also burns calories. When you’re dieting, you may think that you’re doing all you need to control calories, but—trust me—you’re finding a few little sneaky ways to get in just a few more calories than you think you’re consuming. Steady-state cardio also helps take care of this problem.

There’s a lot of hoopla about the better benefits of performing high-intensity interval training (HIIT) as compared to steady-state cardio. With HIIT, you perform a short burst of very intense cardio for somewhere between 1-2 minutes. Then you back off and recover. During a cardio session you perform somewhere between 3-5 HIIT sessions.

This technique is very successful for burning body fat. In fact, research shows that HIIT burns more calories than steady-state cardio when performed for the same length of time. But I believe that HIIT cardio is much better used when you are not dieting. Remember that you are already in a calorie deficit, and your primary goal with your cardio is not to amp up the intensity of your cardio training.

HIIT cardio encourages your body to burn muscle mass when you’re in a calorie deficit, and it also amps up cortisol release, making it harder to burn off body fat. I recommend that you save HIIT cardio for when you’re in the offseason, trying to grow. It’s a great strategy for supporting muscle growth without adding more body fat when you’re consuming plenty of calories to feed your muscles for growth and recovery.

CYDNEY SAYS: I want you to really emphasize recovery as you take a short break before you begin Phase Two of my 8-Week Fat-loss Figure Trainer. You’re already halfway home! We’re going to make some changes to the daily workouts in Phase Two, and I want you to feel rested and ready to go as you begin the next part of my 8-Week Fat-loss Figure Trainer.

CLEAN BURN® You’ll also take Clean Burn just before whole-food meals to help support fat burning. Clean Burn contains a powerful combination of ingredients that work to attack fat loss through multiple physiological processes. These include mobilizing fat from storage, boosting metabolism, and increasing thermogenesis. Ingredients include green tea extract, capsicum fruit, Gymnema sylvestre extract, and chromium complex. For best results, you should take 3 doses of 2 capsules every day while following my nutrition program to help maximize fat loss while maintaining lean muscle. CYDNEY SAYS: Be as rigorous with your weight-loss supplements as you are with your training and nutrition. They all work together to help you get the most from your 8-week Fat-loss Figure Trainer.