Interval Training

Does Tabata Training Really Help?

November 30, 2009 • No Comments

With Tabata training rising in popularity, many of us who are hoping to shed a few pounds wonder if this is the best method to burn calories and fat. As more studies are being done on this high intensity training, it appears that the results are positive.

This method of training is highly intensive and shouldn’t be done daily. Because the body needs time to recover from each session, it’s best to do Tabata training every other day, or every three days. In the days in between, it’s suggested to incorporate a strength training routine which will allow you to strengthen and build lean muscle mass.

This training works by doing the most repetitions of whatever exercise you choose for your ‘intervals’. If you choose to sprint, then you would sprint as hard and as fast as you could for the 10 to 20 seconds (depending on what the particular time is for your session) and then rest for either 5 or 10 seconds. This process would begin again until the work out is complete.

It may sound simple enough, but this is no easy training session! If done effectively, you’ll be exhausted at the end of the session and maybe even asking yourself how you got through it. This training method is most effective when combined with a healthy diet rich in complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, fruits, vegetables and healthy fats. Within a short amount of time, you’ll find that you feel better, look better and have more energy.

Using Anaerobic exercise to supercharge your fitness

July 31, 2008 • No Comments

Anaerobic exercise is where the body is exercising at such a rate that the blood stream cannot supply oxygen to muscles fast enough.

Anaerobic exercise is essentially exercise without oxygen. This happens during high intensity and cannot be held for long periods of time. A product of your muscle exercising in an oxygen deprived environment is large amounts of lactic Acid. Lactic acid begins building up inside the muscle at a rate faster than it can be cleared creating muscle failure.

Anaerobic muscle respiration, which is a part of respiration, is what anaerobic exercise refers to. During anaerobic exercise, the muscle receives some oxygen, but not enough of a supply to meet the demands that are being placed on it. The anaerobic capacity of a particular muscle or muscle group is also referred to as its anaerobic or lactate threshold. Although these terms sound very technical, the definition is simple. It refers to the point in anaerobic exercise when the lactic acid starts to build up faster than the body can remove it. This is considered to be a great indicator of an athletes performance.

In the past, an athlete with a higher VO2Max was considered more fit; however, we now know that an athlete with a lower VO2Max and a higher anaerobic threshold has the potential to go further and faster without experiencing muscle failure than an athlete with a high VO2Max and a low anaerobic threshold. Training can increase your anaerobic threshold. Types of anaerobic sports include soccer, hockey, rugby, football and basketball. Essentially, any sport which requires spurts of intense physical activity would be considered to be an anaerobic sport. Weight lifting and interval training are examples of anaerobic workouts.

Your anaerobic threshold can be improved with training but this requires an exercise which allows you to spend an extended period of time above your anaerobic threshold. An exercise routine that can achieve this is High Intensity Interval training (HIIT). HIIT allows you to spend a long cumulative time in an anaerobic state by alternating high intensity activities with periods of rest and recovery.

HIIT Training Keys - Maximising your fat burning

May 22, 2008 • No Comments

One of the people who has strongly affected my outlook on fat burning exercise was a guy by the name of Pareto. He’s probably best known for his 80/20 rule, the pareto effect.

HIIT Training is a great example of the pareto effect, a small amount of time, huge benefits. It is however very tough, imagine you weren’t getting the most benefit you could out of your HIIT Training routine. That would be such a waste.

One of the problems with exercise and fat burning is that the devil is in the details. If I could give you a tip that would guarantee more bang for your buck while doing HIIT Training you would be interested, right?

I don’t lose fat easily, I can work hard lifting barbells, sticking to a healthy diet and doing intervals through the cane fields for weeks on end without any change in weight.

So does this mean it doesn’t work? Course not. I have found that small tweaks in the details of my programs make the biggest changes to my weight loss. One small change and my weight loss starts galloping at a rate and my trips to the scale end up being a pleasure. It’s during these times I can see the fat burning when I look in the mirror

So what’s one of these supercharge changes that’s going to accelerate fat burning. Well, the secret is in the choice of muscles that you use to do your HIIT Training.

If you know the basics of why HIIT Training works, then you will know about a little process called Epoc. It’s the process of your body replacing the energy stored in your muscles that get used up during intense exercise. This store is an emergency reserve for your body and when it gets used up the body rushes around in a bit of a panic trying to replace it.

If you are on a sensible nutrition plan the only place the body can find energy is to start shoveling out those fat stores. Bigger muscles have bigger stores of energy that need to be replaced. The more energy needed to be replaced, the more fat will be required for energy.

Just think about it this way, what would use more energy, intensely exercising your legs or going balls to the wall on your bicep. So weight loss tip one is use bigger muscles for bigger fat burning.