If you are the type who thinks spend hours running at the same speed in the tape is the best way to lose weight, it’s time for you to rethink your training. There is one (but also much more intense) way more practical to use less time training and more effective. We present interval training.
Can you really routine 20 minutes as effective as one 45? Yes, and it all depends on the intensity with which you work. If you do fast routines in which you make a big effort short and followed by a few seconds of rest, yes, you’re already doing interval training. Why does this type of training and how?
What is interval training?
As its name suggests, interval training is going interspersed with high intensity intervals (high intensity) with others cool down. If we reach a certain value (80% of VO2 max, which can translate into very high heart rate, for all to understand, and depend on the physical condition of each person) at intervals of work we can talk about HIIT or high intensity interval training.
This type of training is very intense and lasts a short time: due to the great effort of will not be able to keep it for more than 20 or 30 minutes. But it is as effective as or more than a cardio workout at a relaxed pace of 45 minutes. Let’s see why.
Why interval training work?
Interval training works making us burn calories, lose fat and maintain our muscle mass due to an effect known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) or high consumption of post-exercise oxygen. This effect makes once we have finished our interval training, our body still needs a lot of energy to recover from the effort: thus, our metabolism stays higher than usual (demanding calories) to 48 or even 72 hours later.
Compared to a cardio workout at a constant speed we can say that with the conventional cardio burn calories just while we’re training (once we finished, our body does not need to cover that excess oxygen consumption because we have done an aerobic activity), while with interval training our body continues to burn energy (calories) many hours later, although we are not doing any physical activity (need to cover the oxygen debt we have generated through an anaerobic activity).
How is an interval workout ago?
There are different ways to perform interval training high intensity in different patterns. Perhaps the best known is the Tabata method: it is very intense workouts 4 minute divided into 20 second intervals to stop working and 10 seconds recovery, repeated eight times.
You may also like to read another article on CarolineJoyBlog: 5 Exercises to work your glutes and legs without leaving home
To reach the high intensity required for these workouts is best to use exercises that involve many muscle groups and get our pulses rise quickly. These exercises can include career sprints, jump squats, the scissors jump, burpees, box jumps, climbers or mountain climbers … These exercises can combine well with each other, or dedicate a Tabata entirely to them.
Does interval training for me?
Now, interval training high intensity for everyone? There are a few reservations: is not suitable if you are a novice in training in general because it requires a good physical condition, not if you are overweight or obese or if you have cardiovascular problems. In these cases it is best to consult with a professional to supervise our physical activity and can guide us as to what is what we need.
One option more light may be performing high intensity intervals at a slightly lower level, without actually train the maximum effort intervals. Obviously, the effect will be less, but it is a good way to get used to our body to sue a little more.
Of course, this type of training (and any other) will help us lose weight as long as is done in the context of a reduced calorie diet where we create a calorie deficit adequate to allow us to lose kilos while maintaining a healthy diet.
Have you tried interval training? What results has given you?
