Saturday, October 30, 2010

Finding Time to Exercise

Many of my YouTube viewers, as well as my blogspot readers, often write me because they are frustrated that they are not exercising enough. Many would like to, but feel they just don't have the time to fit it into their already very busy schedule. Well, I have a great suggestion for you that will help you get the maximum health benefits of exercise in the least amount of time. I hope you will give it a try. It's called interval training and it works! When my children were very small, I did not have a lot of time for exercise, as most new moms will find, so I had to maximize the little bit of time I did have. I still do them when I am pressed for time, as we all often are, and I love them. Because you know they are going to be short and work great, you are more inclined to be psyched to do them. The feeling of getting it over with quickly helps motivate you to do it. Now, interval training can be done with any exercise that you want to do whether it be biking, jogging, walking, treadmill, elliptical machine, or stair master. Here's how it works:

1. Start with a 3 minute warm-up where you keep the level lower and stable.

2. Next, you do ten 60-second intervals (10 minutes) where you alternate 30 seconds of fast pace with 30 seconds of normal pace.

3. Then, you do eight 30-second intervals (4 minutes) where you alternate 15 seconds at and even faster pace (the highest intensity you can safely do) with 15 seconds of normal pace.

4. Finally, you have your 3-minute cool down.

That cardio workout was a total of 20 minutes.

If you have a bit more time to spend or would like to do a 30-minute interval workout for more challenge, you would just add a bit more time to the workout as follows:

1. Start with a 3 minute warm-up where you keep the pace lower and stable.

2. Next, you do seventeen 60-second intervals (17 minutes) where you alternate 30 seconds of fast pace with 30 seconds of normal pace.

3. Then, you do fourteen 30-second intervals (7 minutes) where you alternate 15 seconds at and even faster pace (the highest intensity you can safely do) with 15 seconds of normal pace.

4. Finally, you have your 3-minute cool down at a slower pace.

Interval training is excellent for burning more fat and calories than steady-speed exercising and takes less time.

See you on YouTube!
-YouTips4U

1 comment:

  1. Hi,

    How many calories would a 20 minute HIIT mentioned above burn?

    Also - how many times a week is it recommended if we are clubbing it with 15 minutes of Resistance training also ?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete