women & fitness
Burn Better
May 15, 2006
You’ve probably heard that long duration cardio done at a lower intensity burns the greatest percentage of fat. But you may not know that there is an alternative method to burning calories and shedding fat. Simply add interval training to your cardio routine to burn an even greater number of total calories. Throughout your workout, increase and decrease your intensity multiple times. At some points the work will be extremely difficult but then the less intense intervals will allow for recovery. Start with 30 to 60 second high intensity intervals followed by a 90 second lower intensity interval. This can apply to most of your cardio activities. With your running regimen you would want to alternate faster running intervals with jogging intervals or on the elliptical alternate fast paced movement at a higher resistance level with slower sessions at a lower resistance level. As your body adapts you can increase the length of your high intervals and shorten your recovery time.