Day 4: FIT Interval Training

Indoor Cycling (Spinning) is a great example of Interval Training

Day 4 of our FIT Belly Blaster Tipes is Interval Training

I am an endurance runner and although running started as a way for me to begin a healthy lifestyle and lose weight, running for hours on end really isn't the way to lose belly fat.

We have always associated weight loss with the need of hours and hours of cardio, but I want you to change your mind set.  Running, cycling, rowing, etc for miles and miles is great and has a lot of benefits, but if you are looking to lose weight, especially belly fat, that's not the way to go.  I won't go into the details about endurance on this post because I want to focus on the topic at hand.

I'm not saying you don't have to do cardio. I'm just saying we must change our mindset about what an effective cardio workout looks like for fat loss.  You may have heard of Interval or HITT training.  That's what we need.  So your workout may be shorter, but more intense.  Great news for busy people, like you and me.

HIIT workouts are a version of cardiovascular training that uses alternating periods of high intensity work with maximum effort followed by lower intense periods of lower intensity work.  For my running friends, this can be compared to efforts during a speed training session.

A study in Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism revealed that “High-intensity aerobic interval training increases fat and carbohydrate metabolic capacities in human skeletal muscle." They found that interval training will help the body oxidize fats and carbohydrates meaning you’ll have some awesome rapid fat loss results.

There's another benefit to HIIT (Interval) Training aside from weight loss.  We spend a shorter amount of time performing the actual workout.  While most people who are trying to lose fat by jogging on the treadmill for 45 minutes you can be done in 20 minutes and burn a ton more fat than them too...and this I can attest to by personal experience.

I will be posting a video in the next few days of an interval workout you can perform on the treadmill, but for now, I will provide you a written sample.  Also, keep in mind that most cardio equipment at the gym has built in interval workout settings you can use.  Just make sure to adjust it to your fitness level.

Don't have access to cardio equipment?  No problem.  You can perform this outdoor.  Run one block, jog/walk the next or use trees, building, etc as target points to alternate between intense and recovery.

Here is a sample treadmill interval workout:

Warm-up for 2-5 minutes,
Run for one minute at 5.0* mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Run for one minute at 5.5 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Run for one minute at 6.0 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph
Run for one minute at 6.5 mph
Recover for one minute at 3.5 mph

Continue to increase the speed at each interval and repeat this pattern for 10 to 20 minutes.

 *Adjust the speed based on your current fitness level

Please feel free to leave me questions in the comments section or contact me at www.andidornelas.com

Your Personal Trainer,
Coach Andi