Burn more fat with these interval workouts

The saying goes that slow and steady wins the race. Not so with fat burning. You need intervals to keep your body burning calories long after you’re finished with your workout.

When you do aerobic exercise, such as light jogging, your body burns oxygen. When you kick it up to a run, your body doesn’t have enough oxygen to burn and starts using anaerobic metabolism, which produces energy when oxygen is missing. That’s how you burn fat.

Intervals alternate high-intensity and low-intensity workouts all in one. You might sprint for one minute and walk the next minute. Intervals can work with any exercise, whether it’s running, cycling, swimming, on machines at the gym and even walking, just as long as you alternate speeds.

Another option is to vary your intensity in different combinations. You might do 30 seconds of high intensity and 30 seconds of low intensity. Then increase your intervals by 10 seconds until you reach one minute for each. Then bring it back down to 30-second intervals.


Here are three interval options that can help you speed up your fat burning and take you to the next level. Best of all, when these intervals start to get easy, you can either turn up the intensity or the time so your body continues to burn fat. Just make sure you spend as much time exerting as you do recovering. These are also great workouts to do when you can’t make it to boot camp.

Option A: Cardio Machine Intervals


You can do this workout on any machine at the gym, or running or walking.
1. 3 to 5 minutes warmup (light jog, low intensity, gradually increasing at the end of the warmup period)
2. 1 minute moderate or high intensity followed by 1 minute low intensity (repeat 6 to 8 times)
3. 3 to 5 minutes cool down (light jog, low intensity, gradually decreasing by the end of the cool-down period)

Option B: Stair Run


Do this version on a set of stairs or stadium bleachers. You’ll need 40 to 50 stairs to do this properly.
1. 3 to 5 minutes warmup (light jog, low intensity, gradually increasing at the end of the warmup period)
2. Run up the stairs and walk back down (repeat 6 to 8 times)
3. 3 to 5 minutes cool down (light jog, low intensity, gradually decreasing by the end of the cool down period)

Option C: The Commercial Break Workout
While you’re watching television, you can squeeze in some workouts. For each superset, do the first exercise for 20 seconds followed by 20 seconds of the second exercise and then 20 seconds of rest. Repeat as many times as possible up to three times for each superset.

Commercial break 1 – Superset 1
1A. Mountain Climbers
1B. Jumping Jacks
Commercial Break 2 – Superset 2
2A. Burpees
2B. Plank Hold
Commercial Break 3 –Superset 3
3A. Speed Squats
3B. Squat Hold

Mountain Climbers

Begin in a pushup position on your hands and toes. Bring your right knee in toward your chest, resting your foot on the floor. Jump up and switch feet in the air, bringing your left foot in and your right foot back. Continue alternating your feet as fast as you safely can.

Jumping Jacks

Begin by standing with your feet together and arms at your sides. Tighten your abdominal muscles to pull your pelvis forward and take the curve out of your lower back. Bend your knees and jump, moving your feet apart until they are wider than your shoulders. At the same time, raise your arms over your head. Your weight should be on the balls of your feet. Keep your knees bent while you jump again, bringing your feet together and your arms back to your sides.

Burpees

Begin standing, then squat down to a place your hands on the floor. Then kick your feet back to a pushup position. Immediately return your feet to the squat position. Then stand back up from the squat position.

Plank Hold

Lying face down on the floor, tuck your toes into the ground and place your elbows or hands on the ground to the side of your body. Keeping a tight stomach, raise your body up off the ground and hold this position. Don’t let your midsection sag.

Speed Squats

As quickly as you can, do a set of squats. Keep your back flat and press your hips back behind you as you sit as deep as possible. As you descend, keep the majority of your weight back on your heels while still applying pressure through the balls of your feet.

Wall Squat

With feet shoulder-width apart, lean against a wall and gently slide down into a sitting position. Keep your hands off the wall and your legs for maximum burn.

Head outdoors for a great cross-training workout

The best thing about being a kid is that you never need to step on a cardio machines to stay in shape. You could spend your time as a kid playing sports, or as a teenager in organized sports. The same can be true for adults. It doesn’t feel like work when you’re having fun.


When I was a kid, I loved to play sports. Even as an adult, I play flag football and burn a ton of calories without stepping foot inside a gym. The British Journal of Sports Medicine even found that playing recreational soccer improved oxygen intake and helped burn fat. In the study, 36 men were divided into two groups, a control group that just ran for exercise and a second group that trained for one hour two to three times a week for 12 weeks.

The soccer group improved maximal oxygen uptake (a measure of aerobic fitness) 62 percent more than the running group. The soccer group also lost an average of 50 percent more fat than the running group (6 pounds vs 4 pounds).


The researchers concluded that participation in recreational soccer training has significant beneficial effects on health profile and physical capacity and in some aspects it is superior to frequent moderate-intensity running.


What does this tell us?

Well, think about soccer. The difference is more than adding a ball while running. Soccer is essentially a form of interval training. It involves moving in multiple directions while jumping, running, head-butting, sprinting and kicking.

In other words cross-training. By incorporating several types of training styles, you can condition different muscle groups, improve skills in a variety of activities and limit your boredom by varying the exercise routines. Because of the variety it allows your body will be better prepared and perform better whether you decide go swimming, skating or dancing.



You can add cross-training to your workouts too. Try exercises you enjoy that keep you motivated. Some ideas for cardiovascular conditioning include:

• Biking
• Swimming
• Running
• Jumping rope
• Speed and agility drills
• Skating
• Tennis and other racket sports
• Calisthenics (jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers)
• Outdoor planks and yoga poses

The Truth about HIIT, Slow Cardio and Fat Loss

If you want to burn a ton of calories in a short period of time you need to be doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). HIIT is short bursts of high-intensity exercise followed by a brief rest period. HIIT speeds up your metabolism and forces your body to burn more fat in the following hours, something regular cardio doesn't do which results in faster fat loss.






When I was in high school I accidentally figured this out but didn’t fully understand it at the time. I played football in the fall, so every summer I would try to bulk up by lifting heavy weights and eating as much as I could. I would put on weight eating more food and lifting heavier weights but avoided cardio conditioning until six weeks before the season because I wanted to keep my weight up as high as I could. I figured when I started running I would start to lose weight, which was counterintuitive to my size goals, but I needed speed for the sport. I was naturally lean but didn’t have shredded muscles. When I started sprinting at near maximum speeds for 5 to 60 seconds per sprint, I began getting much leaner with these brief workouts. I started to notice my six-pack would pop out more even though I wasn’t adding additional abdominal exercises or doing anything different with my diet.



As you can see I never worked in the fat burning zone, yet I was able to attain a lean toned body with interval style training and heavy weight lifting. When you start exercising at a higher level you’ll start burning more total calories and your body will respond as mine did.

Another great example is the comparison of the muscle definition of a long distance runner and a sprinter. The long distance runner runs at a lower intensity and the sprinter runs at maximum speed for very short distances. Yes they both carry low body fat but who has more muscle definition? It’s the sprinter every time; and it’s attained by working at intensities much higher than the fat burning zone.

Here's the proof

In 2007 researchers looked the effects of long-term aerobic training for fat loss. The subjects were all sedentary men and women aged 40-75 years old. They all did moderate to vigorous aerobic activity for 60 minutes six days a week for 12 months.

The results were shocking. After 360 minutes of exercise for an entire year the average weight loss was 3.5lbs...after a year! That's only 0.3 pounds per month.

So if you think all those calories you add up every treadmill session is doing something for fat loss, think again.

Reference:
Obesity, June 2007. 15:1496-1512. Exercise Effect on Weight and Body Fat in Men and Women.

Yet another research study looked at the impact of fat loss on endurance training for 20 weeks versus interval training for 15 weeks.

What they found was the endurance training group burned 28,661 total calories and the interval training group burned 13,614 total calories (less than half), but the interval group showed a NINE TIMES greater fat loss than the endurance group.

Reference:
Metabolism, July 1994. 43, 814-818. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism.

The moral of the story is simple if you want to burn fat start doing HIIT and stop looking at the calories the machine says you're burning because it doesn't take into consideration the extra calories burned after the workout you get from HIIT.

How to do HIIT

Option A: 40 yard sprint. Mark off 40 yards and after a brief warm up sprint hard from start to finish, walk back to the start for recovery and repeat six to eight times.

Option B: Stair run. Find a staircase or stadium bleachers with 40 to 50 stairs. Run up and walk down. Repeat six to eight times.

Option C: Cardio Strength Training. This is one of my favorites. Perform 8 rounds of kettlebell or dumbell swings. For each round do swings for 20 seconds and rest for 20seconds.


Each of the workouts beats the slow traditional cardio training for fat loss and take less than 20 minutes including your warm up and cool down.

Why Slow Cardio Sucks for Fat Loss

Hey I hope you’re doing great and still working hard at your goals as this year wraps up.

Last week I was talking to a new client about fat loss and toning up. She told me she was doing lots of cardio and now looking to start working with weights. Apparently, many people are still stuck doing long duration, low-intensity cardiovascular exercise.


I explained that metabolic resistance training is the fastest way to fat loss and the easiest way I could describe it was “cardio strength training”.

Here’s the deal: if you’re looking to achieve maximal benefit from the time you put into your workouts, long duration “slow-go” cardio is okay if you’re a distance athlete, but NOT the way to go, if you are looking to lose weight.
Here’s why:

1. Not enough calories burned — 45 minutes on the treadmill may burn 300 calories if you’re lucky, which is ONE TENTH of a pound of fat. Exercise ten hours a week and you might just lose a pound! Not good.
Which brings me to my next point:

2. Too much time invested — if you’re like most, you don’t have ten hours a week to put into working out each week. The good news is you only need a few hours tops for fat loss. I’ll get to that later.


3. Slow Cardio is just plain BORING — sitting on an exercise bike staring at the back of some sweating guy in front of you for 45-60 minutes everyday? I don’t think so.


4. No prolonged metabolic benefit — Did you know that with higher intensity exercise it is possible to continue to burn calories for up to 48 hours post workout? It’s true (see Burn Fat Fast). But you know what else is true? Long duration, low intensity cardio provides virtually NO prolonged elevation in metabolism. In fact, with slow-go cardio, metabolism returns to baseline almost IMMEDIATELY following the exercise session.

And finally:

5. Minimal fat loss — Fewer calories burned per minute and virtually no additional calories burned afterward = minimal, if any fat loss results. And what’s the point to doing cardio if not for the results.

So if long slow cardio isn’t the solution, what is?

Short duration, high-intensity exercise. Less time, faster results!


The beauty of “high intensity” is anyone can do it because it’s relative to you. I don’t care if you’re already in great shape or if you’re 50 lbs overweight, you can exercise with increased intensity.

It might be a sprint or a walk up hill but somehow you need to increase the intensity.

Stop doing what doesn’t work and embrace what does work.

If you want the end result, I urge you to add metabolic training to your training. For a sample program try the backyard strength workout.

A New Spin on Interval Training for Weight Loss

It’s no secret diet and exercise are two essential ingredients to natural weight loss. The problem for many is they don’t have a plan to reach that goal? If you run a mile you’ll burn approximately 100 calories. The problem with running a mile is it’s like doing 1000 to 1500 reps of impact double your body weight. That’s a lot of stress on your joints.

If you weight 200 lbs you’re doing 200 lbs x 2 or 400 lbs each rep; and remember you’re doing 1000 to 1500 reps. That’s a lot of forces put on your joints which can put you at high risk for injury.

Switching to the bike can take the stress off but you’re still doing a ton of reps to burn a measly 100 calories.

If you’ve read a few of my blog posts you probably know I believe interval training beats traditional steady state cardio for fat loss. If you’ve tried it you probably agree too. Switching to intervals doesn’t necessarily mean using a bike or treadmill though. Try a circuit using dumbbells, kettle bells or even body weight to burn the calories and keep the stress off the joint.

For a quick and effective body interval workout try the Backyard Cardio Circuit.

Short on Time and Need and Effective Workout

Q: I need to start building muscle and getting back in shape. Can you give me a daily routine of exercise that takes a half an hour?

A: Try full body strength circuit to build muscle, save time and boost your metabolism to keep you burning calories all day. Follow this up with a quick cardio circuit to burn even more calories in a short period of time. This program can be done with just your body weight so you can do it anywhere. Just make sure to keep the intensity high to ensure you're getting the most from your time.

Strength Circuit: watch video

Squats
Squat Jumps
Reverse Lunge Left Leg
Reverse Lunge Right Leg
Close Grip Push up
Dynamic Plank
Single Leg deadlift Left Leg
Single Leg deadlift Right Leg

Do each exercise for 30 seconds each; repeat 3 times with little or no rest between exercises.

Cardio Circuit: watch video

Jumping Jacks
Hi Knee Jog in place
Burpees
Mountain Climbers

Do each exercise for 30 seconds each; repeat 3 times with little or no rest between exercises.

If you like this, make sure you check out this Time Crunch workout.

Don’t be a Treadmill Idiot

As a kid nothing seemed to bother me, EVER, but now it seems people are ticking me off left and right. Maybe I’m getting old and crotchety, but it seems at least once a week in the gym I’m guaranteed to see something that just ticks me right off.

You know what ticks me off? When I’m in the gym and I see people doing things they have no business doing. For example, last week I saw a woman walking on the treadmill at a 15% incline doing something like 5 or 6 mph and holding on for dear life. Every time she took a step her entire body would jerk because she was holding on so damn tight and going way too fast.

Why in the heck do you need to be going that fast at that elevation when you can’t do it properly? I’m trying to figure this one out because honestly I have just don’t know why people do this. I’m not picking on this poor woman; I see all kinds of people doing this. For some reason this is a common thing to do in gyms. My guess is they think the faster they go and the higher the elevation; the more calories they burn. Okay that’s true, but the only if you actually do the work. The machine thinks you’re busting your tail doing the work, not halfway doing it and halfway getting pulled along. So all those calories it says you’re burning; you are not.

A quick remedy to this problem: Lower the grade and take the speed down. It’s that simple. Let go of the hand rail and stand straight up while walking or running. If you can’t perform the exercise without holding on or standing straight up, you need to slow down or bring the incline down until you can. If you want to burn those extra calories then add short intervals every two to three minutes; where you increase the speed or the incline for only 30 seconds or so at a time. This will add more intensity to the workout and allow you to keep proper form so you actually burn those extra calories.

Now go out and have a great workout, but don’t let me catch you being a fool on the treadmill.

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Check Your Exercising Intensity

If you want to lose weight, you've gotta do the right things for weight loss. It seems like every time I'm in the gym I see people kind of half way working out. They'll be walking on the treadmill aimlessly or lifting the little pink dumbbells that are way too easy for them. Now I've got to give these people credit for even coming to the gym because they could be sitting at home with a remote in one hand and a Krispy Kreme in the other. I think they could do better though.

When you're in the gym why not get the best return on your time investment possible? Forget about all that fat burning zone stuff; there are several studies showing that low intensity aerobic work does almost nothing for fat loss. The harder you work the better results you can expect. Do you ever wonder if you're exercising hard enough to get the results you want?

Check out this video:



The next time you workout use the Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale below to gauge your intensity while exercising.

Level 1: Very, very, light (this is so light; you probably are sitting on the couch with a remote in hand)
Level 2: Very light, Can maintain this pace all day long
Level 3: Light, but breathing a bit harder
Level 4: Starting to sweat a little, can carry on a conversation effortlessly (this may be your warm up)
Level 5: Just above comfortable, sweating more and can still talk easily
Level 6: Can still talk, but slightly breathless
Level 7: Can still talk, but I don't really want to, sweating more
Level 8: harder, can only keep this pace for a short time period (great for interval training)
Level 9: Very hard, want to stop
Level 10: very, very hard. An all out effort that requires every bit of energy you have. (you can only do this a few seconds then you have to stop and catch your breath)

Here’s a quick interval program that if done right will have you sweating and feeling like you actually did something and give you a better ROI on time spent in the gym.

You can do this workout on any cardio machine. Each day use a different machine or do sprints in the pool or at the park. Choosing your favorite activities will increase adherence.

5 minute warm up – gradually build up from level 3 to 5
1 minute level 9
2 minutes level 6-7
Repeat 3 times (four sets total)
5 minute cool down – gradually from level 5 to 3
Total time 22 minutes

I'd love to hear your comments below.

Backyard Cardio Workout

I hope you're doing great! I made a quick video for you that you can do anytime and anywhere! If you're short on time you can do this quick cardio workout to get your heart rate up fast; or add it to the end of your main workout for a cardio boost.

The best part about it is that you don't need any equipment and can finish it in under 10 minutes. Since it's a quick workout work as hard as you can from start to finish.

I hope you like the video.



Video Recap

Jumping Jacks
Hi Knee Jog in place
Burpees
Mountain Climbers

Do each exercise for 30 seconds each; repeat 3 times with little or no rest between exercises.

To make the workout more challenging do each exercise for 45 or 60 seconds each. You'll still be done it 9 to 12 minutes!

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Time Crunch

Q: I’ve been missing workouts because I don’t have time due to my new work schedule. Can I still get good results working out only two times a week?

A: If you’re only working out twice a week that may be enough to maintain, but if you’re still looking to improve shoot for at least three days a week. Make a serious effort to make your health and fitness a priority in your life. Do your best to get in and stay in the habit of doing all your workouts. When you get in the habit of skipping a workout here and there it becomes all too easy to let a week or two go by without working out.

Even if you can’t complete your full workout do your best to work hard for 15 minutes. This may not seem like much but it keeps you in the routine of being consistent and not skipping your workouts. Since you only have 15 minutes some days you need to make it count. Spend as much of your time working and rest as short as possible. Here’s an example of a lower body workout:

1 minute Squats
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats right leg
1 minute Bulgarian Split Squats left leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Right Leg
1 minute SL Deadlift Left Leg

Repeat 3 times

This workout also has a cardio component because the circuit doesn’t allow for rest, so your heart rate will remain elevated giving you a 15 minute cardio workout as well. However if you need rest take it when needed, but keep it to a minimum as your goal is to do as much work as you can in a short period of time.

Cardio or Weights?

A few days ago I saw a man and a woman enter the gym together and he asked her, “Do you want to do cardio or weights today?” I didn’t even listen to the answer because two things immediately ran through my mind:

1. If you have to ask you’re probably not following any type of program

2. Do you really have to choose?

If you are following a program you should know what you’re going to do before you step foot in the gym. If you aren’t you’re probably going to waist time figuring out what to do, and I don’t know about you but as much as I enjoy working out I don’t like wasting time. My other issue is when you follow a plan you have progression, meaning it gradually gets harder so you get stronger, faster, more endurance, greater fat loss, ect. And when you don’t have a plan you have no progression because you're making it up on the fly which leads to poor results.

Even if there was not benefit to having a progression, you still don’t need to choose. Why not do both? Again, stop wasting time and do both weights and cardio to get the benefits of both in less time. Start with your weights and add cardio intervals between your sets instead of resting so you can build muscle and burn more calories in less time leading to greater fat loss.

Not Seeing Results with Cardio Workouts?

Do you do the same cardio workout day after day and week after week? If so, you may have noticed a decline in your progress. In a previous blog I wrote about progressive overload with resistance training, the same principle holds true with cardiovascular workouts. That is your workouts must gradually get harder over time in order for you to see improvement.

Because you body adapts to the workout after a few weeks you need to be doing something harder than you’re used to in order to continue to improve. Your body becomes more efficient as it adapts. Let’s say you go out and run a mile and you burn 138 calories running at 5.0 miles per hour and it takes you 12 minutes. We’ll if this were your first run in a while you’d be sweating pretty good, you’d be huffing and puffing and your heart rate would be up pretty high. Now if you did this every other day for a month straight your body would adapt and if you continued to run at the same speed; still doing 5.0 miles per hour and finishing in 12 minutes your body would be more efficient and you’d sweat less, you wouldn’t be huffing and puffing and your heart rate would not be as high. This all equates to a lower caloric burn.

What this all means is you need to gradually make the workout harder if you want to continue to burn more calories. You can go faster, longer, or add hills or harder intervals. I prefer to add intervals because although your body still adapts to them they provide a raised metabolism for hours after the workout resulting in the greatest caloric burn. To see more on that click here.

Here’s one quick and easy way to make this work for you while doing intervals:

Month 1 - Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat two times. Total 9 minutes

Month 2 – Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat three times; Total 12 minutes

Month 3 – Run hard for 1 minute and jog light for 2 minutes; repeat four times; Total 15 minutes

As you can see each moth you run a little bit more. That’s how easy it is to avoid reaching a plateau in your weight loss.

I know you may be thinking how am I going to burn lots of calories in only 15 minutes? First off this example may not suit your specific needs, but the principle does; and that is increase time, distance, intensity or shorten rest intervals. Just remember it’s the high intensity that helps get your metabolism revved up for hours later. And if you’re not really sweating during the hard run your intensity is too low.

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Is 15 Minutes of Cardio Enough?

Question: I can only get 15 minutes of cardio work in, is it worth my time?

Answer: Definitely. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association recommend healthy adults do 30 minutes five days per week at a moderate pace or 20 minutes of vigorously intense cardio a day three days per week to maintain health and reduce the risk for chronic disease. Even 15 minutes produces positive benefits.

There are a couple of ways to get a great cardio workout done in 15 minutes. The first is doing interval training. Although it’s a bit more challenging, you burn more calories and improve your endurance faster than when you workout at a moderate intensity. To do it, work at intensity higher than your regular pace for one minute then slow down for one minute of recovery. Repeat the pattern for 15 minutes. This can work whether you are jogging, cycling, rowing, stair climbing or to name a few.

The second option is adding cardio cycles into your resistance training workouts. Instead of sitting there for 30 to 60 seconds between your sets, try jumping rope, doing mountain climbers or squat thrusts between your sets to keep your heart rate up and burn more calories. Cardiovascular workouts don’t have to be done on a machine in their own workout; it simply means to work your heart and lungs. This type of workout is guaranteed to give your cardiovascular system a great workout and doesn’t take any more time than you’re already working out.

Jump Rope

Now more than ever there are more pieces of fitness equipment available to you online, on infomercials and at your local sporting goods store. Prices can range anywhere from a few dollars to well over a thousand dollars. One of my favorites has to be one of the simplest and cheapest, the jump rope.

Jumping rope is a great cardiovascular exercise that can be done almost anywhere, whatever your fitness level. It can burn over 700 calories per hour making it a very effective fat burning exercise. A jump rope is one of the cheapest and most portable pieces of exercise equipment available. At around ten dollars you can purchase a quality rope and slip it in your gym bag, backpack, suitcase or purse; taking your workout with you to the park, the gym or traveling out of town.

When choosing a rope check out a few different types so you can see which is more comfortable for you and best suits your needs. You can choose between leather, nylon or plastic. Some ropes are weighted for a more strenuous workout. Heavier ropes also called speed ropes are designed for speed. They turn faster, so not only do they improve your footwork and stamina but they also offer a higher intensity workout. When picking the length of a rope, use one foot to step in the center of the rope and pull the handles tight. The handles should come up to the middle of your chest.

Make sure to have appropriate footwear to avoid injury or discomfort from jumping. A good pair of cross training shoes should provide cushioning on the balls of your feet. Because jumping rope is an impact sport, use caution in regard to your ankles and knees. Avoid jumping on concrete; instead stick with an exercise mat, wooden gym floors, or carpet.

Just like most exercises you can vary the difficulty and intensity of jumping rope. Lower intensity jumps include double or alternate foot jumps. For moderate level jumping pick up the pace and try a running step (a slight jog while skipping over the rope) or a high knee jump (a moderate run with high knee lift). For high intensity you can try an alternating side to side double or single leg jump.

Remember getting a great workout is not about having the latest gadgets and gizmos. For ten dollars you can get an excellent workout from a jump rope, so think twice before you purchase a large piece of equipment. Some take up too much space and end up as coat racks. While treadmills and elliptical trainers are great pieces of equipment you can’t deny the easy of portability of a jump rope.

Burn Fat Fast

Your time is precious, and it’s important you get the most out of it. If you want to burn fat fast stop exercising longer than you have to? Instead of getting on a cardio machine for 30 to 60 minutes, performing steady state cardio (keeping the intensity the same the entire time), try a higher intensity program designed to maximize your time, giving you better results under 30 minutes, including warm up and cool downs.

Stop getting caught up on how many calories you burn during a workout. What’s more important is the amount of calories you burn after the workout is over. The extra calories you expend above your resting metabolism after a workout, is referred to as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC. Because the intensity in a cardio workout has the greatest impact on EPOC, as exercise intensity increases, the magnitude and duration of EPOC increases as well. Therefore, when your perform high intensity workouts you will continue to burn more fat in the following hours than you will at a steady state low intensity program resulting in faster fat loss.

Use the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale to gauge your intensity while exercising

Level 1: Very, very, light

Level 2: Very light, Can maintain this pace all day long

Level 3: Light, but breathing a bit harder

Level 4: Starting to sweat a little, can carry on a conversation effortlessly

Level 5: Just above comfortable, sweating more and can still talk easily

Level 6: Can still talk, but slightly breathless

Level 7: Can still talk, but I don't really want to, sweating more

Level 8: harder, can only keep this pace for a short time period

Level 9: Very hard, want to stop

Level 10: very, very hard. An all out effort that requires every bit of energy you have.

This program can be done using any cardio machine. Each day can be done on a different machine. Choosing your favorite activities will increase adherence.

5 minute warm up – gradually build up from level 3 to 5

1 minute level 9

2 minutes level 6-7

Repeat 3 times (four sets total)

5 minute cool down – gradually from level 5 to 3

Total time 22 minutes

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Push Yourself to Achieve Better Results

If you want to see results with your exercise program you need to put in the effort to get the end result you are looking for. Don't just go thru the motions and hope something good will come of it. If you're currently exercising on cardio machines at a snails pace with no interest what so ever in your workout then seeing improvement can be a slow process. Furthermore if you do resistance training half heartedly with far too little intensity trying not to break a sweat or feel the burn a simple change can make all the difference. Yes going through the motions is better than doing nothing, but it may be just enough to maintain or improve very slowly.

Check your intensity. A quick and easy way to gauge your intensity level is to use a one to ten scale, where one represents little to no intensity (think laying on the couch) and ten is an all out effort. Aim to do most of your exercising in at levels 7 or above. When resistance training if you are to do 3 sets of 12 reps make sure 12 reps takes you to fatigue. If you are working with a weight you can do 15 times it's time to start using a heavier weight, the last three reps should be somewhat difficult, especially on your final set.

To start seeing results more rapidly push yourself beyond your comfort zone. This means doing more this week than last week. If last week you ran for 20 minutes at 6.0 miles per hour with no incline, this week try to increase your time to 22 minutes, your speed to 6.2 miles per hour or add an incline of 2-3%. In addition if you currently using 15 pound dumbbells for 3 sets of 10 reps try pushing out a couple of extra reps, progressing to 3 sets of 12 with the same weight or increasing your weight to 20 pounds and do 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps. You will feel the added intensity but it is so small it won't be overwhelming, just enough to push yourself past your comfort zone. Over a period of three months you can expect to see some major improvement with small increases like this.

Which is the Best Cardio Machine to Do?

This is a question I tend to get a lot, but I cannot fully answer it without first asking for more information. First what is your goal? Do you compete in triathlons, recreational soccer, flag football or are you looking to reduce your waistline for your class reunion? Do you have bad knees or back? Do you find one machine more enjoyable than another? These things all determine which machine is best for you.

The more specific your exercise is to what you are preparing your body for, the better you’ll be prepared. For example your body gets better at running by running not getting on an elliptical or rowing machine so opt for the treadmill more often than not. If of course you are looking to drop a few pounds any form of movement is beneficial so mix it up to avoid boredom.

If you have bad knees or you are overweight and are looking for a cardio machine a stationary bike or elliptical machine work well because they keep the stress off your knees. Walking on a treadmill may be okay, but running puts more stress on the knees and may cause you pain, so limit time spent running. If your problem area is your back, the recumbent bike is a great choice because it gives you support for your back while you ride.

After you’ve addressed your specific goals and problem areas if any, it all comes down to doing something you enjoy. If you absolutely can’t stand the rowing machine, stay away from it. Don’t force yourself to do something that you don’t like because you’re less likely to stick with it. For some there is no best machine so take your exercise outdoors.

Cross Train to Avoid Burnout

Do you find yourself doing the same exercises week after week for months on end? Do you always run for your cardio workouts and stick to free weights for strength training? Your body adapts to the stimulus you give it, so you are training your body to be good at the things you do the most. If you want to be a better runner the best exercise is running. If you are a tennis player then playing tennis and performing tennis related drills are the best ways to improve your skills on the court. Just because it is the best way to improve at a single sport, doesn’t make it the most effective way to train.

If you typically run 3-5 miles a day I’m sure you have no problem running a 5k, but let’s say some friends invite you to go mountain biking or water skiing, or full court basketball. You’ll be fine because you’re in shape right? Wrong! You’ve trained your body to do one thing, run. Your legs may not be as efficient when it comes to biking, your core muscles may not be strong enough for water skiing and your cardiovascular system, glutes, hamstrings and knees may not be ready for the sprinting and jumping of full court basketball.

Cross training is a way of training that incorporates several types of training styles. It is an excellent way to train because it conditions different muscle groups, improves skills in a variety of activities, and limits boredom by varying the exercise routines. Because of the variety it allows your body will be better prepared and perform better whether you decide go swimming, skating, or dancing.

Now, if you are a one sport athlete cross training is beneficial for you as well. It is a great way to reduce overuse injuries from repetitive motions. Think of tennis elbow, jumper knee or pitchers shoulder. These injuries all develop from repeatedly doing the same motion. Because one exercise requires different muscles and movements from the next exercise you can improve your cardiovascular conditioning and limit the stress placed on a single joint by running one day, jumping rope the next and swimming in the following workout.

Cross training also allows you to continue to workout if you become injured. If you’re an avid runner and twist an ankle you may need to stop running for a while. However to preserve your current level of conditioning you can switch to swimming or biking until the ankle heals.

There are countless options when it comes to cross training. Try exercises you enjoy to keep you motivated. Some ideas for cardiovascular conditioning are included below:

• Biking
• Swimming
• Running
• Jumping rope
• Speed and agility drills
• Skating
• Tennis and other racket sports
• Group fitness classes
• Boxing or martial arts conditioning
• Calisthenics (jumping jacks, burpees, mountain climbers)
  

In your resistance training workouts you can cross train by including:

• Body weight exercises (pull ups, push ups, dips)
• Free weights (dumbbells and barbells)
• Machines
• Cables and tubing
• Circuit training