Who wants to burn more fat? Okay, everybody's hand went up, so forget those low-intensity, hour-long cardio sessions!
Other than the fact that slow-go cardio is flat out boring, there are countless other reasons to convert to HIIT (brief periods of maximal exertion followed by a brief, active rest period) for your cardio needs.
Much research (documented research in journals such as Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and Metabolism) has shown that HIIT burns up to 50 percent more calories than continuous exercise!
If you thought that was nice, listen to this! HIIT will elevate the rate that your body burns calories the hour after you exercise up to 142% more than low-intensity, continuous exercise! You burn more calories by just sitting there!
Hey, I don't know about you, but I have more important things to do then mindlessly stare at a wall while repetitively putting one foot in front of the other. Sure, you're gonna have to bust your butt for 10-15 minutes, but when its over, its over! And now your free to do whatever you want, while enjoying the reality that your body is continuing to burn calories for the next hour as if you were still running on that darn treadmill!
But that's not it! Metabolism has documented that this "post-exercise burn" may continue for up to 48 hours! HIIT also elevates your overall level of fitness by increasing your maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 MAX)! And get this, the closer you come to your VO2 MAX during your workout, the more fat you will burn after you're finished!
I think its pretty safe to say that HIIT is the way to go if you want to burn more fat, and increase your fitness level in a relatively short amount of time. Time is of the essence; and with shorter workouts and quicker results, you get more time to do what you really want to do. Another nice thing about HIIT is that there are so many options. Below are a couple of sample workouts to get you started, but feel free to come up with a creative, intense sprinting program of your own.
Example 1
Minutes 1-4 Warm-up @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minutes 5-8 20 seconds of sprinting @ 90-95% of maximal effort, followed by 10 seconds of very slow jogging
Minutes 9-12 Cool-down @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Duration of Workout 12 minutes
Total time of discomfort 4 minutes
Example 2
Minutes 1-4 Warm up @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minutes 5-10 30 seconds of sprinting @ 90% of maximal effort, followed by 30 seconds of very slow jogging
Minutes 11-13 Cool-down @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minute 14 Walk
Duration of Workout 14 minutes
Total time of discomfort 6 minutes
Other than the fact that slow-go cardio is flat out boring, there are countless other reasons to convert to HIIT (brief periods of maximal exertion followed by a brief, active rest period) for your cardio needs.
Much research (documented research in journals such as Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise and Metabolism) has shown that HIIT burns up to 50 percent more calories than continuous exercise!
If you thought that was nice, listen to this! HIIT will elevate the rate that your body burns calories the hour after you exercise up to 142% more than low-intensity, continuous exercise! You burn more calories by just sitting there!
Hey, I don't know about you, but I have more important things to do then mindlessly stare at a wall while repetitively putting one foot in front of the other. Sure, you're gonna have to bust your butt for 10-15 minutes, but when its over, its over! And now your free to do whatever you want, while enjoying the reality that your body is continuing to burn calories for the next hour as if you were still running on that darn treadmill!
But that's not it! Metabolism has documented that this "post-exercise burn" may continue for up to 48 hours! HIIT also elevates your overall level of fitness by increasing your maximum oxygen consumption (VO2 MAX)! And get this, the closer you come to your VO2 MAX during your workout, the more fat you will burn after you're finished!
I think its pretty safe to say that HIIT is the way to go if you want to burn more fat, and increase your fitness level in a relatively short amount of time. Time is of the essence; and with shorter workouts and quicker results, you get more time to do what you really want to do. Another nice thing about HIIT is that there are so many options. Below are a couple of sample workouts to get you started, but feel free to come up with a creative, intense sprinting program of your own.
Example 1
Minutes 1-4 Warm-up @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minutes 5-8 20 seconds of sprinting @ 90-95% of maximal effort, followed by 10 seconds of very slow jogging
Minutes 9-12 Cool-down @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Duration of Workout 12 minutes
Total time of discomfort 4 minutes
Example 2
Minutes 1-4 Warm up @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minutes 5-10 30 seconds of sprinting @ 90% of maximal effort, followed by 30 seconds of very slow jogging
Minutes 11-13 Cool-down @ 50% of perceived maximal effort
Minute 14 Walk
Duration of Workout 14 minutes
Total time of discomfort 6 minutes
