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High Intensity Interval Training
Take Your Fitness and Fat Loss to the Next Level
– By Dean Anderson, Fitness & Behavior Expert
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If I told you that there was a way to burn more calories, lose more fat, and improve your cardiovascular fitness level while spending less time doing cardio, you’d probably reach for your phone to report me to the consumer fraud hotline, right?

Well, this is one of those rare times when your natural it’s-too-good-to-be-true reaction could be mistaken. If you want to take your fitness and fat loss to the next level—without spending more time in the gym—then high intensity interval training (also known as HIIT) could be exactly what you’re looking for.

Before getting into the details, notice that I didn’t say HIIT would be easier, just that it would take less of your time. In fact, the HIIT approach to cardio exercise is very physically demanding and isn’t for everyone. If you have any cardiovascular problems or other health concerns that limit your ability to exercise at very intense levels, or if you are relatively new to aerobic exercise or not already in good shape, HIIT is not for you—at least for now. If you have any doubts or concerns about whether it might be safe for you, check in with your medical professional before trying HIIT.

What It Is and How It Works
HIIT is a specialized form of interval training that involves short intervals of maximum intensity exercise separated by longer intervals of low to moderate intensity exercise. Because it involves briefly pushing yourself beyond the upper end of your aerobic exercise zone, it offers you several advantages that traditional steady-state exercise (where you keep your heart rate within your aerobic zone) can’t provide:

* HIIT trains and conditions both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems. You train your anaerobic system with brief, all-out efforts, like when you have to push to make it up a hill, sprint the last few hundred yards of a distance race, or run and hide from your spouse after saying the wrong thing.
* HIIT increases the amount of calories you burn during your exercise session and afterward because it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each exercise session.
* HIIT causes metabolic adaptations that enable you to use more fat as fuel under a variety of conditions. This will improve your athletic endurance as well as your fat-burning potential.
* HIIT appears to limit muscle loss that can occur with weight loss, in comparison to traditional steady-state cardio exercise of longer duration.
* To get the benefits HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals.

The key element of HIIT that makes it different from other forms of interval training is that the high intensity intervals involve maximum effort, not simply a higher heart rate. There are many different approaches to HIIT, each involving different numbers of high and low intensity intervals, different levels of intensity during the low intensity intervals, different lengths of time for each interval, and different numbers of training sessions per week. If you want to use HIIT to improve performance for a particular sport or activity, you’ll need to tailor your training program to the specific needs and demands of your activity.

General HIIT Guidelines

* HIIT is designed for people whose primary concerns are boosting overall cardiovascular fitness, endurance, and fat loss, without losing the muscle mass they already have.
* Before starting any HIIT program, you should be able to exercise for at least 20-30 minutes at 70-85% of your estimated maximum heart rate, without exhausting yourself or having problems.
* Because HIIT is physically demanding, it’s important to gradually build up your training program so that you don’t overdo it. (The sample training schedule below will safely introduce you to HIIT over a period of eight weeks.)
* Always warm up and cool down for at least five minutes before and after each HIIT session.
* Work as hard as you can during the high intensity intervals, until you feel the burning sensation in your muscles indicating that you have entered your anaerobic zone. Elite athletes can usually sustain maximum intensity exercise for three to five minutes before they have to slow down and recover, so don’t expect to work longer than that.
* Full recovery takes about four minutes for everyone, but you can shorten the recovery intervals if your high intensity intervals are also shorter and don’t completely exhaust your anaerobic energy system.
* If you experience any chest pain or breathing difficulties during your HIIT workout, cool down immediately. (Don’t just stop or else blood can pool in your extremities and lightheadedness or faintness can occur.)
* If your heart rate does not drop back down to about 70% of your max during recovery intervals, you may need to shorten your work intervals and/or lengthen your recovery intervals.
* HIIT (including the sample program below) is not for beginner exercisers or people with cardiovascular problems or risk factors. If you have cardiovascular problems or risk factors should NOT attempt HIIT unless your doctor has specifically cleared you for this kind of exercise.

A Sample Progressive HIIT Program
Please adhere to the general HIIT guidelines above for this program. To maximize fat loss, maintain an intensity level of 60-70% of your maximum heart rate (RPE of 5-6 on the 10-point scale) during warm up, cool down and recovery intervals.

(visit: http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=621, for this example)
After completing this eight-week program, you can continue working to increase the number of work intervals per session, the duration of work intervals, or both.

You can adjust this training plan to accommodate your particular needs and goals. If you find that this schedule is either too difficult or too easy for your current fitness level, you can make adjustments to the duration and/or number of high intensity intervals as necessary. For example, if you want to train yourself for very short, frequent bursts of maximum intensity activity, your program could involve sprinting for 20 seconds and jogging/walking for 60 seconds, and repeating that 15-20 times per session.

You don’t need to swap all of your aerobic exercise for HIIT to gain the benefits. A good balance, for example, might be two sessions of HIIT per week, along with 1-2 sessions of steady-state aerobic exercise. As usual, moderation is the key to long-term success, so challenge yourself—but don’t drive yourself into the ground. Get ready to see major changes in your body and your fitness level!

.There are two distinct methods to increase calorie consumption through exercise. The one method that is known by most people is to engage in long duration repetitive motion work. The other method is to increase muscle metabolism. A pound of muscle can metabolize an average of about 55 calories per 24 hours but it will not do that unless stimulated to do so. The muscles can be stimulated to metabolize by stretching them under resistance. The larger the range of motion of the exercise, the larger the amount of muscle cells stimulated. That is exactly what happens during Yoga or Pilates exercise, stretching under resistance through long ranges of motion. People who practice yoga on a regular basis will always be lean. If you find a fat person who professes to do yoga on a regular basis, you found a liar who is talking yoga and who does not practice it. Most yoga practitioners are also vegetarians, but that is not the reason why they are lean. There are many fat vegetarians, but those fat vegetarians do not practice yoga. Practicing yoga or Pilates requires many hours per week and therefore it is as impractical for the average public as 30 to 90 minute exercise routines. The ROM is the 4 minute solution to stretch all your muscles through long ranges of motion and in addition it increases muscle strength and it yields significant cardio benefits. Below is a comparison of calories burned during and after exercise from a 60 minute treadmill workout and from a 4 minute ROM workout:

It’s a statistical fact that 93% of people quit going to the gym or quit using their home equipment in the first 90 days because of time and results is a very close follower.

At Quick Gym 90.4% rate Quick Gym’s no wait exercise as important/very important. What’s also important is 90% are Satisfied or Very Satisfied with their results. Especially when compared to the primitive gym (all other gyms) programs.

What does that mean. While 93% quit using other gyms and home equipment because of time over 90% are not throwing money away on a membership they are not using.

So while other gyms may be charging as little as $10 a month or $50 a year, if your membership is not being used regularly, it’s not making you any healthier tithing to the “fitness gods”

After exercise, you need whey proteins to build muscle, but you also need carbs for energy…..Here is a great way to get them both in one delicious shake!

TROPICAL BLAST
Ready in 5 mins. Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS:
1 frozen banana, cut into chunks
1/2 cup pineapple, cubed
1 cup low-fat milk (or low-fat soy milk)
1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
**(RECOMMENDED OPTIMUM HEALTH NUTRITION WHEY PROTEIN POWDERS)**

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Serve immediately.

NUTRITION PER SERVING:
Calories 165, Total Fat 1g, Saturated Fat 0g, Trans Fat 0g, Cholesterol 7mg, Sodium 50 mg, Total Carbs 27g, Dietary Fiber 3g, Sugars 20g, Protein 25g, Iron 2g

BENEFITS:
SORENESS BUSTER- Pineapple is loaded with Bromelain and Papin, enzymes that help minimize post workout inflammation.

PROTEIN PUSHERS- A ripe banana and blueberries will cause an insulin spike, which quickly shuttles amino acids to your depleted muscle cells.

LEAN POWDER- Whey protein contains leucine, an amino acid that research shows can help your body preserve lean muscle tissues.

The Low-Down on Cholesterol:
Why You Need It — and the Real Methods to Get Your Levels Right

Click on the link and read the special report and do your own research to decide why doctors continue to prescribe the harmful statin drugs such as Lipator.

http://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/Cholesterol_SpecialReport.pdf

It totally blows my mind the research that has been out for years on High
Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). It’s noted as early as the 30’s two
german trainers use HIIT to lean out their athletes and started
breaking record after record. Roger Bannister used HIIT and was the
first man to break the 4 minute mile. While it’s new to most, HIIT is old hat to top performers. Quick Gym only uses HIIT Programs because HIIT provides 100% better results than long duration cardio when it comes to heart health.

Read More at…

Exercise for Your Heart and Lungs

Source: www.thestretchinghandbook.com

An Introduction to Anti-Aging for Your Heart and Lungs.

This is an article from a Jacksonville paper. Even when the experts say it can’t work, it works

Four Minute Workout

Created: 11/14/2007 7:16:38 AM Updated: 11/14/2007 2:36:36 PM

JACKSONVILLE, FL — A four minute workout sounds too good to be true. But the makers of the ROM (Range of Motion) machine say it is possible.

The machine is made up of two parts. The upper body workout resembles a rowing machine but with resistance in both directions. The lower body workout looks like a stair stepper but you stretch much more than on a typical machine.

The big question is how can you get a good workout in 4 minutes? The company’s web site says the time required for an effective cardio-vascular exercise depends on the degree of oxygen consumption during the workout.

Fitness experts at Jacksonville’s Hit Center say there is some science behind that statement.

“Every liter of oxygen you use for exercise is five calories burned,” says Aaron Marston, Executive Director of Jacksonville’s Hit Center. “So regardless of what exercise, it all comes down to the amount of oxygen you use.”

The makers of the ROM claim users work so hard that they use as much oxygen in four minutes that people use working out in a normal 30 to 45 minute workout.

But Marston says that isn’t likely. “Even an elite athlete with a high amount of lean muscle weight is only going to be able to burn 80 to 100 calories in that time.”

(Insert from Quick Gym. True. It’s the results after the workout not during the workout that makes this possible).

However, the ROM does appeal to people who are extremely busy. Galen Bauer often works 80 hours a week as a lawyer. And his busy day doesn’t stop there.

“I have a wife and a baby at home and a house to take care of, so when you get home there’s lots of other stuff to do,” says Bauer. “That doesn’t leave time for working out.”

So Bauer decided to try a friend’s ROM and do the four minute exercise everyday for two weeks.

After trying the machine he says the workout is ten times harder than any exercise he had done before.

“There’s resistance in both directions,” says Bauer. That resistance really starts to wear a person down in the four minutes on the machine. “You really have to push down hard on the pedals to get them to move,” says Bauer.

He felt the impact immediately after getting off the machine. “It feels right now like I got more than a normal workout because it’s hard to breathe,” said Bauer. “My legs hurt already and I’m sweating in only 4 minutes.”

But Galen says he had some concerns about the workout too. “For the next hour after the workout you feel your body is trying to catch up,” says Bauer. “And I wonder if that is healthy.”

By Julia Crowley First Coast News

He also says you can not go right back to work after the exercise. “If you’ve done the workout with an honest effort then you are sweating,” says Bauer. “Then it takes time to cool down and catch your breathe. You can’t just answer the phone four minutes later.”

(Insert from Quick Gym. Our fitness club is cool enough that no matter how hard you work, once you get accustomed to the workout, a week or two, 98% of our members do go right to work. Try that after being on a tread mill lolly gaging as most people do).

BUT HE DID GET RESULTS WITH THE ROM. In two weeks he worked a total of 56 minutes in all. And he lost 8 pounds in that time.

(Insert from Quick Gym. In 3 weeks we have members take up their belts as much as 6 inches).

The machine does come with a hefty price tag. New 14,615.00. People who have used the machine told First Coast News that it is worth the money.

(Insert here from Quick Gym. Just consider the money you will save on medical bills because of the health benefits of exercise and the price is cheap. At Quick Gym we get used one and are able to save purchasers as much as 6k sometimes.)

But Bauer says it’s a big commitment. “That is a big investment and I don’t know if I would stay committed to the workout long enough to pay off the investment.,” says Bauer.

(Insert here from Quick Gym. Commitment is required. You have to use it to get results but with only 4 minutes a day statistics show that 95% of people stay committed to exercising, while 93% of people stop going to the primitive gyms or stop using the premitive home equipment in the first 90 days).

Prevention magazine reports that just 3 minutes of exercise can yield significant health benefits according to a recent Scottish study. Adults who did two 3 minute rounds of hard exercise (with 3-4 minutes rest between sets) improved their body’s ability to metabolize blood sugar by nearly 25% after just six sessions. That is enough to lower the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

According to Prevention Magazine, a workout before you head to the office or during your lunch break can improve your job performance say researchers at England’s University of Bristol. 79% of respondents in the study reported improved mental performance and better relationships with colleagues; 74% said they managed their workloads better; 21% reported higher concentration and productivity levels and 25% made it through the day without unscheduled breaks. Quick Gym of Colorado Springs provides just the venue!