Most people know that in order to have a healthy body and the weight loss results they desire, it is absolutely essential to work out on a regular basis. However, the way in which you choose to work out will have a direct effect on your results. Most people in the gym are performing low intensity, long duration cardio with the precise goal of burning off extra fat, but, when it comes to burning fat, intensity is so important. Now, imagine being able to burn more fat by performing less exercise. When you perform high intensity interval training your body is able to burn more calories in a much shorter period of time because you are exercising at a much higher intensity.
High Intensity Training is a type of physical activity that consists of alternated periods of high and low intensity exercise. It’s based upon the idea that your body will eventually start to get used to cardio exercise if it’s always done at the same speed. In order to get a more effective workout, you must up your intensity and really push yourself. One of the most appealing aspects of interval training is that because each workout session is performed at a much higher intensity, you’ll need to workout for a shorter period of time. Instead of spending an hour performing cardio, you will only need to spend 20-30 minutes (excluding the warm up and cool down).
Due to the intense nature of high intensity training it should only be performed 2-3 times per week. In addition, training sessions need to be spaced out more evenly. For example, perform high intensity interval training on Monday and Thursday or Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. These would be good choices because these schedules give your body an even amount of rest between workouts. It’s also extremely important for beginners to consult with their primary care practitioners and verify that they are in good enough shape to be able to handle workouts of an increased intensity. The take home message is that high intensity interval training will allow you to workout smarter, not longer.
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Now that you have decided to start an exercise routine that will leave you with the body of your dreams, extra energy, and the confidence you need to succeed in life, it’s time to get motivated about the things to come.
High Intensity - Resistance Training
You’re really excited about this decision and you’ve even got the new workout clothes to prove you mean business. But then the starting day rolls around, and after about thirty minutes on the treadmill, you notice that you’ve only burned fifty calories, and you start to get discouraged. You think that you’ll never achieve the weight loss that you want unless you live on the treadmill, and that sounds awful. As a personal trainer I can tell you that cardio by itself will never give you the results that you’re looking for, so discover resistance training.
In addition to cardio a workout program should always include resistance training, which helps to build strength in the body by increasing muscle tissue through certain types of exercises. Resistance training is effective for both men and women. However, I have found that women tend to shy away from resistance training in fear of looking bulky. This is one of the biggest myths surrounding fitness. Unless women are using performance enhancing drugs (steroids, etc.) or lifting extremely heavy weights they will not get those bulky muscles they are afraid of. In addition to losing body fat through resistance training, women can also expect to drop dress sizes because muscle takes up less space than fat.
The more muscle a particular person has is directly related to the rate at which their body can burn calories. For instance, for every five pounds of muscle that you add to your body, you will be able to burn up to 250 extra calories each day, no matter what type of exercise or physical activities you are engaged in. This is much smarter weight loss.
If you’re interested in exploring resistance training as a way to discover increased fat loss and a boosted metabolism that actually makes it easier to burn calories throughout your normal daily routine, talk to a certified personal trainer about formulating a plan for the appropriate workouts to your current exercise plan. Be sure to devise a plan that will let you work each major muscle group. In addition, the resistance training program will need to progressively become more challenging so that your body will become even more efficient and fit. You’ll feel your strength grow as well as your weight loss.
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Almost everyone has tried some sort of diet in their lifetime. Whether you tried to only eat grapefruits for a week,
Eating The Fruit of Health
or tried to cut carbohydrates out of your life completely and permanently, the odds are that you’ve tried to achieve weight loss by restricting what you eat. And the odds are that you probably got very frustrated, very hungry, and eventually gave up on the diet only to regain what little weight you may have lost. The problem with many diets is that they focus too much on eating less and not enough on eating smart.
If you are interested in learning more about the actual science of weight loss and how to burn fat and keep it off, you need to become familiar with something known as the Glycemic index. Food health experts use the Glycemic index as a system of ranking the benefits of the carbohydrates contained in a certain food by the positive or negative effect that it will have on a person’s blood glucose, or blood sugar. The scale is created by comparing a food’s ranking to pure glucose, which has an index of 100.
The reason that the Glycemic index is important to those that are interested in eating smarter to achieve greater weight loss is that when a person consumes many foods with high Glycemic rankings, a rapid increase of insulin is caused in the body. These spikes in insulin levels will prevent the body from using fat as an energy source. Instead of weight loss, people who consume a lot of foods that rank high up on the Glycemic index will find that the insulin helps to deposit energy directly into the fat cells, which usually causes weight gain.
If you are serious about achieving significant and sustained weight loss, it is important to be aware of foods that rank high on the Glycemic index. Adopting a low Glycemic approach will allow your body to burn fat throughout the day, and make the most out of your hard workouts in the gym. This does not mean that you can never eat a food with a high Glycemic index rating; in fact, combining high Glycemic foods that you enjoy with a quality protein will automatically counteract the insulin spike in your blood.
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