This year, your exercise and weight loss program should be about working better not harder. Unless you like spending hours at the gym, you want your exercise routine to be as efficient as possible.
Did you know that ramping up the intensity of your workout – not increasing how much time you exercise – increases fitness, helps with weight loss, and elevates your metabolism? It’s something to think about when you find that you’re no longer losing weight or inches even though you’re working out regularly and eating right.
Canadian researchers found that just two weeks of interval training boosted women’s ability to burn fat during exercise by 36 percent. British researchers found that sprinting on a stationary bike increased levels of human growth hormone, which helps build muscle and burn fat.
Interval sessions burn more calories than less intensive workouts. Plus, intense workouts get you fitter in less time because they target more of your muscles.
How to Do an Interval Workout
My stationary bike comes with an interval workout as do many exercise machines. But if you swim, walk or run, you can do an interval workout, too. An exercise session like this should take 20 to 25 minutes.
- Warm up for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Start your first 30-second interval by running or increasing the treadmill to 3 to 6 percent. You should speed up enough to feel that you’re working hard. On a scale of 1 to 10, the effort should feel like an 8 to 10.
- After 30 seconds, recover at a casual exercising pace for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
- Repeat 8 times.
- Do a 2 to 3 minute cool down.
Do interval workouts according to your fitness level. You should be challenging yourself, but not so hard that you feel dizzy or like you’re going to throw up. If you want to do more, go for it! If you can’t do as many reps, do as much as you can then add a little more each week.
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Interval workouts are fantastic. The great thing about them is you can change them up and keep surprising yourself. They sound easy, but by the end of the session, you’ll be dripping in sweat.
My problem has been that I have difficulty sweating. The only thing that I found that works lately is the HeathRider.
However, I prefer to get out and hike because I get bored. Any bright ideas about that?
Like your blog!
I love doing HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)! This type of workout is efficient, fun, and too short to get boring.
The great thing is, interval training can be done with any type of exercise. In fact, I wrote this post about circuit training, which is just interval training with weights.
Low intensity exercise may actually burn more calories than an interval workout. The advantage that the interval workout has, especially if you remember to eat something right after you finish, is that your body can continue to burn calories for hours on end which leads to many more calories being burned than you get with the low-intensity workout.
When I hit the treadmills, I always do interval training like this. Nice post
Yes, it’s true. Interval training beats long slow cardio. Lots of people do tons of aerobics but don’t lose weight. Weight training plus interval training is a real winning combo. Thanks for spreading the word!
I started doing interval training without even thinking about it. I was just trying to mimic what I do when I play hockey. In hockey you usually have a 60 second burst where you skate hard then you rest for about 2 minutes then do it again.
In my training I decided to run hard (10mph on the treadmill) for 1 minute then walk (4mph) for two minutes. Almost the same thing you recommend in this article.