Fitness

 Weight Loss and Weight Maintenance is 80% Diet and 20% Exercise

This does not give us a free pass to skip the exercise

As a certified personal trainer and fitness instructor, my favorite exercise technique involves intervals. Intervals are short bursts of high energy and intensity followed by a brief period of rest. Most popular workout videos and routines are based on this alone. I enjoy intervals not only for the results, such as speed, agility, and strength, but also because they are efficient, can be short and sweet, and they enable time to fly!

If you're at a loss and don't really know how to implement intervals into your workout, here are some simple ways you can tweak your boring routine:

     TREADMILL AND ELLIPTICAL INTERVALS

Note: These are basic and simple changes you can apply to any activity. Make them more complex and creative as you go!  I will use a treadmill and elliptical in my example.

• Hop on: Hit Start. Warm up for about 2 mins. just to loosen things up.
• Amp up the speed and /or resistance (Go 30 seconds) Really push it!
• Slow it down for 30 seconds. This is your recovery time
• Repeat the above five times.. adjust it accordingly so you are really working during that 30 second push.
• Play with the cross ramp. Take it up a "hill". You should be really warm by now. Lets go for 1 minute really pushing yourself.
• Slow it down for 30 seconds to a minute...if you need more time, take it...Recover to the point that you are ready to go hard again. Repeat the above 1 minute drills five times
• Last but not least, take your speed, resistance, and cross ramp and give it all you've got. Stay nice and steady for about 2 minutes, push it for 30 seconds, steady for two minutes, push for 30.

I promise this 20-30 minute workout will burn more calories and keep your body burning even more throughout the day, than if you had gone at the same old pace your used to.

MUSIC CAN MAKE OR BREAK A WORKOUT

If the timer watching is too much for you, as it is for me, adjust the intervals to your music. I choose songs 6-10 maybe for a playlist that vary in beat and pace, an roll with it as they come.

 Music Examples:

• Songs like Thanks for the Memories by Fall Out Boy or The Pretender by The Foo Fighters will pick up in beat and volume 3 (maybe 4) times enabling you to really push yourself for three to four speed intervals.
• Songs like Hells Bells by AC/DC, Uprising by Muse, and Whatcha Say by Jason Derulo are great for higher resistance or hills which in turn force you to move slow but work hard.

More workouts to come....