The Best Indoor Cardio Exercise Combo for Maximum Fat Loss

For many, exercising indoors is not a luxury but a necessity. Inclement weather, the time of day and other factors make indoor exercise a priority. Fortunately you can get just as intense a workout indoors as you can outdoors and lose maximum amounts of fat while engaged in vigorous activity. The American Council on Exercise recommends high-intensity interval training for indoor exercise as a method for reaching performance goals, enhancing fitness, improving well-being and maximizing weight loss.

  1. How Does HIIT Work?

    • High-intensity interval training is cardiovascular exercise or training that incorporates brief speed and recovery sessions performed at maximum intervals throughout your training. Often traditional exercise incorporates moderate-intensity workouts. This can improve fitness and stimulate weight and fat loss, but does so over longer periods of time. HIIT training requires a much higher exertion level performed over shorter intervals, causing fat to burn much faster. HIIT requires an exertion level of 7 or higher sustained for 30 seconds or more, up to three to five minutes. Each training session is performed at 80 to 95 percent of maximum aerobic capacity.

    Fat-Burning Benefits

    • The primary benefit of HIIT training is reduced fat, especially fat in the stubborn abdominal region and fat in the subcutaneous area, or region just beneath the skin. In addition to aerobic fitness, HIIT training improves anaerobic (without oxygen) fitness levels. With HIIT training, you don’t have to work out for long stretches. That means no more spending 45 minutes or more on a treadmill, making this form of exercise ideal for busy people on the go.

    Personal HIIT Fat-Burning Plan

    • Develop a personal HIIT plan to burn fat fast. Select an aerobic exercise activity possible to perform in intervals. Good examples include swimming, running or cycling. To begin, exercise hard, up to 85 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate, for the first minute, then exercise lightly for a minute, and repeat up to 10 times. You can perform HIIT training three times each week for 20 to 30 minutes each session. This burns as much fat as and provides as many health benefits as exercising at a moderate intensity for 150 minutes per week, the physical activity level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to maintain fitness and health.

    Burn Fat With Strength Training HIIT

    • You can also apply HIIT principles to a power lifting or strength-training workout. To do this, select a set of six to eight exercises that will work several muscle groups. Examples may include burpees, pushups, hamstring curls, deadlifts, leg press and bench press. Perform each exercise for 30 seconds, and then allow 30 seconds of recovery time. Once you have completed all of the exercises, rest for one minute, and then perform the circuit for one to two more repetitions.