Good news and bad news… The good news is research tells us that you can see greater calorie burn and more significant increases in metabolic rate by spending LESS time exercising. Amazing right?
The bad news is, you have to work a lot harder in the shorter amount of time.
But on my worst day I’d rather work out hard for 20-30 minutes than spend forever moving slowly. So if you’ve hit a plateau or just want to see some quick results try interval training. You can apply this to any activity you already do. Walk/ jog, walk/ race walk, walk/run whatever. You can use hill for intervals, you can ride a bike, hell- you can do jumping jacks and jog in place. Whatever you do, just exert a high level of energy for a short time adding on a short recovery period.
You can play with the numbers. If you are just starting a fitness program I would recommend 1 minute difficult intervals with 2-3 minutes at a recovery pace. This should be difficult only during the “fast” interval and your heart rate should come back down during recovery.
If you are in shape Try 20 seconds hard, 10 seconds recovery for 4 minutes.
Wait, FOUR minutes? Yes. Add a warm up and a cool down and that’s one heck of a workout. Do it again if you want with a longer recovery between sets. Less time, more sweat, more results.
But remember to always listen to your body and never push yourself too hard. You have to shock your body in order to get dramatic results, but you should do so wisely. If you’re just getting off the sitting on the couch exercise program, don’t go sprinting. Walking is shock enough.
Need a customized workout plan. Hit me up and I can design one for you to follow on your own at home. Fitmamatraining@gmail.com
Happy intervals! -Erin
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