Wanna lose 20 pounds in 20 minutes?

What if I told you, you can lose 20 pounds in 20 minutes and you only had to do 20 minutes of cardio. Would you be interested?

Read on...

For the longest time individuals on the quest for the fit physique, the healthy heart, the tight tush...have been told to do and have been doing hours and hours of steady state cardio.

In more recent years (10yrs there abouts) High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has been touted as the holy grail of cardio.

What is HIIT?

HIIT is a form of interval training, a cardiovascular exercise strategy alternating short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with less intense recovery periods. It is the concept where one performs a short burst of high-intensity (or max-intensity) exercise followed by a brief low-intensity activity, repeatedly, until exhausted. Though there is no universal HIIT session duration, these intense workouts typically last about 15-20 minutes, with times varying based on a participant's current fitness level or schedule.

Benefit:

Challenging – HIIT workouts offer seasoned workouts a new challenge and beginners a quicker way to see results. You are constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone therefore you can never get bored with your workout!

Good for heart health – They say that extreme training helps build extreme results. It’s hard for most people to push themselves to an anaerobic zone where you lose your breath and feel your heart pounding faster and faster. With interval training it’s easier to push yourself to that level because of the rest interval that comes right after you reach that point. This helps keep a healthy heart and helps blood flow effectively throughout your whole body.

Boosts metabolism – The American College of Sports and Medicine said that High Intensity Interval Training helps you consume more oxygen than a non-interval workout routine. The excess amount of oxygen consumed helps increase your rate of metabolism from about 90 minutes to 144 minutes after a session of interval training. Thus the increased metabolism helps burn more calories at a faster rate.

Burn fat hours - When participating in such high intensity workouts your body’s repair cycle goes into hyper drive. This means in 24 hours after a HIIT workout your body is still burning fat.

Here are a few quick start tips:

Duration:

The typical time frame for a HIIT cardio session is less than 30 minutes.

Intensity levels:

During a HIIT workout, you should alternate between high intensity and low intensity phase.

High intensity phase should last about half the time you spend in the low intensity phase. (example: walk for 2 minutes. Run for 1 minute) this phase of your workout should be as hard, fast and challenging as you can bare.
Low intensity phase should be performed at a level that can be maintained for as long as you'd like.

Frequency:

Due to the nature of the HIIT, you can do it 2-4 days per week.

I recommend doing it every other day.

Example:

One of my favorite HIIT cardio workout is the "urban assault"

I find a multiple floor parking garage. I walk to or around the garage (5 minutes)

Sprint up each ramp then walk around the parking level. Then repeat until I reach the top. I then walk down the stairs and star over.

After 20 minutes I'm done.