Nov
27
Written by:
KiwiFit
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:26:47 GMT
Do you have a goal and a plan for your workout? Recently I was observing people in the gym and saw numerous people cycling leisurely whilst reading a magazine or walking slowly whilst chatting to a friend. All of these things are fine for passing the time, but if your plan is to lose weight and get fit you need to read on.
If you are very overweight or extremely unfit, many exercises such as running or jogging can be too intense. So starting out slowly and gently certainly has its place. However in order to lose weight and increase fitness, a key thing, is to keep overloading your body. To do this you have to keep increasing the amount of time that you exercise (not always possible) or by increasing the intensity or your workout. A common mistake people make when exercising is that they do the same thing everyday, week in and week out and then get frustrated because they are not seeing any results.
For real fitness and fat burning results, Interval Training is the way to go. Best of all, all it takes is at least 20 minutes per day, 3 times per week to begin seeing and feeling results!
Interval training is a fantastic way to boost your endurance quite quickly and burn more calories. This is achieved by working your body very hard for a short period, taking a brief rest interval to allow your body and heart rate to recover, and then repeating. By working your body very hard for a short time you overload the body, and this is where the progress is made. To obtain the benefits of Interval Training you need to be prepared to push yourself out of your comfort zone and really feel those muscles working.
An example workout may look something like this
Warm up for at least 5 minutes.
Sprint at maximum effort for 1 minute
Jog or walk 1 minute
Repeat the sprinting / jogging until 20 minutes is up.
Cool down with a slow walk for 5 minutes
Stretch
So how does this help you burn more calories? Well say hello to EPOC (Exercise Post-Oxygen Consumption) or after-burn as it is often known. By working so hard for short periods during Interval Training you maximize the amount of calories you burn both during exercise and afterwards. When you exercise hard, it places the body under stress and into a state of chaos – a good thing. Once your workout is complete, your body works very hard to bring itself back into a state of equilibrium and it uses up a lot of calories in the process. The calorie burning benefit of EPOC has been proven to last as long as 48 hours after exercising, even whilst sitting on the couch and watching TV. In low intensity exercise, those extra calories are only burned whilst actively engaged in the exercise and not afterwards.
So step outside your comfort zone and give Interval Training a try. You will find that your fitness will increase dramatically and together with a balanced eating plan you will shed extra weight too.
To find out more about different types of interval training or , contact bron@kiwifit.co.nz or claire@kiwifit.co.nz for some personal assistance.
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