Interval training for fat loss

Everyone knows the importance of aerobic/cardio vascular exercise for fat loss and general health. Aerobic exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate continuously for a minimum of 15 minutes.

For help with fat loss and general health 3 times per week for 20-30 minutes is recommended. Any type of exercise is ok as long as you enjoy it and it’s safe for you. For example do not run outdoors or on a treadmill if you have knee problems.

Choose a rower or cross training device instead. While this traditional aerobic exercise is effective it can be made far more effective by using Interval Training.
 

Interval training is a method where you alternate periods of higher intensity work (work intervals) with periods of lower intensity work (rest intervals).

This is a very effective way of building endurance for sports and is used by sportsmen of all levels. It is also very effective for burning fat. It is more effective than traditional aerobic exercise described above.

What is a sample interval training workout? It can look like this. If you are using a treadmill to exercise and your normal workout involves walking at a brisk pace for 20 minutes you can turn it into an interval workout by jogging or running for 1 minute (work interval) and then walking for 2 minutes (rest interval).

You can continue this for 20 minutes by which time you will 6-7 work intervals. When your fitness level increases you may increase the length of the workout and the number of intervals. The same principle applies if you are riding an exercise bike-cycle fast for one minute and then at a lower pace for 2 or more minutes.

Guidelines for Interval training

Important-Interval training is NOT for beginners or anyone with heart disease or high blood pressure. It is important to have basic level of fitness before you try a program of interval training. If you are a beginner spend 2-3 months of regular training before trying interval training.

When beginning interval training it is important to understand work: rest ratio. If you are starting out interval training use 1:3 work: rest ratio. That means the rest interval is 3 times that of the work interval.

So you exercise fast as you can for 1 minute and then go easy for 3 minutes and repeat the process. Similarly if you exercise hard for 30 seconds then go easy for 90 seconds. A workout like this can last for 20-30 minutes.

Work: rest ratios -

* Beginner - 1:3 for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week

* Intermediate - 1:2 for 25-30 minutes 3 times per week

* Advanced - 1:1 30 + minutes 3 or more times per week

Advantages of interval training

Interval training has many benefits but from a fat loss point of view the main advantage is burning more calories in less time. For example a 30 minute walk on the treadmill may burn 300 calories. An interval workout of the same period can burn 500 or more. This is significant and over time can lead to greater fat loss.

The other advantage is interval training increases endurance (stamina) much better than regular exercise.

I hope this article helps you to incorporate interval training in to your program. Once again the exercise mode is up to you-use a bike, rower, treadmill, cross trainer or outdoor running.

Make sure to start out slowly and every 2 weeks or so make the workouts a little more demanding by adding intervals and/or increasing the length of the workout. I’m confident that you will get much better results.

Good luck.

- Ananda (The writer is Instructor, St. Peter’s College Gyminasium)