What is Interval Training?

Can it really melt your body­fat like a blow­torch as so many fit­ness pros claim? Yes, and no.

Back in the day we used to call inter­val train­ing “catch­ing your breath.”

But seri­ously, inter­val train­ing is good stuff, it just not as good as most fit­ness mags think it is.

So what is inter­val train­ing? Check Out This Page, it goes into far more detail.

In short, inter­val train­ing involves push­ing very hard (usu­ally dur­ing a cardio-style work­out) for a given amount of time. This is then fol­lowed by a lower inten­sity level for a given amount of time. Then you repeat the cycle.

For instance, on a tread­mill this may look like:

* 5 min­utes warm-up
* 5 min­utes at 85% max heart rate
* 2 min­utes at 60% max heart rate
* 3 min­utes at 90% max heart rate
* 5 min­utes at 60% max heart rate (repeat)
* 5 min­utes cool-down

Is this effec­tive? Yes, and no.

Yes in the sense that you will burn off more body­fat train­ing this way as opposed to steady-state car­dio (unless you do steady-state after a period of fast­ing, then I’d go with that.)

No in the sense that there’s a far more effi­cient (and shorter) way to get the job done.

Why do car­dio when you can inter­val train with resis­tance (bands or weights) and shape your body/melt body­fat at the same time?

Silly ques­tion if you ask me.

Car­dio is good for the heart and almost worth­less for shap­ing your body, and Resis­tance train­ing is excel­lent for “both”.

So, my pro­to­col goes like this:

* 7MM-Style Resis­tance Train­ing (in-home or gym)
* 7–14 min­utes GXP Car­dio: 9–12 minutes

Done.

Now you’ve done your entire work­out (resis­tance AND car­dio) in less time than car­dio ALONE would take you.

And you’ll triple your results or more. And I know this because of three facts:

1. Mus­cle is needed for shape and mus­cle is built dur­ing short, intense bouts of exer­cise more quickly and efficiently;

2. Build­ing mus­cle while train­ing 7MM-Style puts your body into a fat-burning car­dio state rather quickly;

3. GXP ‘after’ this ses­sion cranks the fat-burning even higher while work­ing the heart sufficiently.

The rest is nutri­tion. Nutri­tion is king; exer­cise is queen. Exer­cise will do very lit­tle by itself with­out the King of Nutri­tion to gov­ern the show.

To dis­cover more about this method of train­ing? Go Here to find out more.

Remem­ber: Don’t Quit. Get Fit!