This is a guest post by Dr. Ron Fritzke.
Some of us sun-loving people who live in an area of the country that gets four distinct seasons are getting a little edgy about now. Fall is in the air and there’s no denying what comes next.
The short days and cold winds of winter will be here before we know it.
For me that means not being able to get outside to do the types of exercise I prefer, and therefore a lot more exercise indoors on my bicycle stationary trainer. Even more disturbing…winter holidays get me started eating too many sweets.
All of this results in regaining some of the body fat I worked so hard to shed over the summer.
A Tool In The Arsenal…HIIT
There’s been quite a buzz in the fitness world lately about a type of exercise called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT for short). This concept of exercising in a ‘hard-easy-hard-easy’ pattern isn’t new. It’s just been appreciated lately by those outside of the hardcore track and field, swimming, and cycling worlds.
Interval training was essential to getting into peak conditioning as far back as the 1950′s.
Now you can use these same concepts to more effectively utilize exercise in your efforts to keep the weight off during the winter.
A Personal Story, Intervals, and Shedding Weight
After my last race in 1984, I hung up my racing shoes and restricted my fitness running to cardio workouts. That’s the type of exercise that can be sustained for long periods of time without going into ‘oxygen debt’. For me, it was a series of runs between 5 and 10 miles, done approximately 5 times weekly.
Sounds like something that should be adequate to combat weight loss, doesn’t it?
But over the years my weight was inching upward, and it wasn’t until my kids got old enough to start running competitively that I rediscovered a secret weapon of the fitness world. I began running intervals with them.
Then I noticed a few things.
First off, my heart rate remained relatively elevated for hours after the workout. Of course it wasn’t beating as hard as during the workout. But it was certainly tapping along at 15 to 20 beats above my normal resting heart rate.
And that was when I was sitting on the couch…sitting on the couch burning off fat while I watched the 49ers get whipped by any number of better football teams.
How do you like that…free fat burning time!
Which brings me to my second observation…you guessed it, my weight started to drop.
Serving Up A Couple Of Interval Workouts
Have you ever noticed the little disclaimers advising you to check with your doctor before initiating a new exercise protocol? Well, in the case of interval training the disclaimer is even more appropriate since this form of exercise can be very strenuous.
Without further ado, here’s a couple of interval workouts I do on my Kurt Kinetic Road Machine trainer.
This first example is a classic HIIT workout (very short and very intense on the hard parts):
- 5 minute warm-up.
- 10 minutes alternating ten seconds of ‘all out’ pedaling with easy pedaling.
- 5 minute warm-down.
This second interval workout is the type that would be done by an athlete getting ready to optimize conditioning for their sport:
- 10 minute warm-up.
- 2 minutes hard, followed by one minute easy pedaling.
- 3 minutes hard, followed by one and a half minutes easy pedaling.
- 4 minutes hard, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.
- 5 minutes hard, followed by two and a half minutes easy pedaling.
- 6 minutes hard, followed by three minutes easy pedaling.
- 5 minutes hard, followed by two and a half minutes easy pedaling.
- 4 minutes hard, followed by two minutes easy pedaling.
- 3 minutes hard, followed by one and a half minutes easy pedaling.
- 2 minutes hard.
- 10 minute warm-down.
This second workout is most likely not appropriate for a ‘casual’ fitness buff, but I’ve included it as an insight into the kinds of interval training that professional- and Olympic-level athletes have been doing for years.
Give Interval Training A Try
There’s nothing very magical about the formulas of interval training. If your intention is to restrict yourself to HIIT, there are some guidelines outlined in this Wikipedia article.
But if you’d like to lose some weight using a looser form of interval training, just throw in a series of efforts that you can’t sustain for more than a few minutes…follow them up with a ‘rest’ interval…and repeat the cycle.
Whatever style of intervals you choose, they’ll add variety to your workouts…and no doubt allow you to drop those few stubborn pounds.
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