Can you think of anything more torturous than spending an
hour pedaling away on a bike or plodding along on the
treadmill? You're not alone. Most exercise enthusiasts
dread conventional cardio - why?
Because it's b-o-r-i-n-g.
So why do it at all? The goal of a cardio workout is to
lose the unwanted inches and to develop the efficiency of
your heart and lungs. But new studies are out that show our
slow-go cardio sessions may not be as effective for burning
off that holiday bulge as we thought.
When you plod along on the treadmill at an even pace, your
body enters what is called a steady state. This means that
your body has adjusted to the pace and is now trying to
conserve energy.
Conserve energy? But I thought the point was to burn energy?
And so your dilemma goes: You can't stand the monotony of
traditional cardio and it leaves you with less than
satisfactory results. So what should you do?
The answer is HIIT, a new training technique that blasts
both boredom and fat.
"In research, HIIT has been shown to burn adipose (fat)
tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise - up to
50% more efficiently."
"HIIT speeds up your metabolism and keeps it revved up for
some time after your workout. The bottom line is that HIIT
training burns a greater number of total calories than
low-intensity training, and more calories burned equals
less fat on your body."
What is HIIT?
High-Intensity Interval Training: is an exercise strategy
that improves performance with short training sessions.
These sessions involve a warm up period, several short,
maximum-intensity efforts that are separated by moderate
recovery intervals, and a cool down period.
In other words, your 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio is
replaced with more effective, High Intensity Interval
Training for as little as 15 minutes. The addition of
explosions of speed into your comfortable pace will
increase your power, muscle tone, speed, strength,
endurance and best of all will melt the inches off.
Here is an example of a HIIT program - this can be done on
any form of cardio equipment or even jogging outside or
swimming laps:
* Start with an easy 4 minute warm up, casually increasing
your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your
workout.
* Once you are sufficiently warm, sky rocket your intensity
for 30 seconds.
* Return to your normal pace for the next 30 seconds and
then sky rocket again.
* Repeat this 30-30 interval for 6 minutes and then
gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling
off pace.
After your HIIT session you can expect to burn more
calories due to an increase in your metabolism - sounds
good, right? If you aren't ready to jump into a
full-fledged HIIT session, try on of the following modified
HIIT workouts:
Modified HIIT 1:
* Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually
increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain
for your workout.
* Once you are sufficiently warm, increase your intensity
for a full minute.
* Return to your normal pace and remain here until you have
recovered enough to go again.
* Repeat this 1 minute interval with full recovery time
between each one for the full extent of your workout and
then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a
cooling off pace.
Modified HIIT 2:
* Start with at least a 5 minute warm up, casually
increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain
for your workout.
* Once you are sufficiently warm, change your speed and
intensity for 2 minutes.
* Return to your normal pace for 2 minutes and then change
your intensity and speed again. The key is to keep your
body guessing - you aren't doing full intensity work, but
you also aren't staying at the same pace for the entire
length of the workout.
* Repeat this 2 minute interval for the full extent of your
workout and then gradually decrease your intensity as you
enter a cooling off pace.
There you have it - all you need to take your cardio
workout to the next level.
----------------------------------------------------
Machelle Lee owns and operates The Invisible Gym in Santa
Cruz, CA. Her mission is to inspire people to become
physically active and enjoy the benefits of a balanced,
healthy lifestyle. For more information and questions you
can visit her website.
No comments:
Post a Comment