High-Intensity Fat-Burning Workout

High-intensity, fat-burning workouts incinerate stored body fat in a short amount of time compared to steady-state, long-duration exercises. If you are very busy or store most of your body fat around your gut, highly intense workouts are not only time savers, but they also enhance your body’s use of fat during exercise more effectively than steady-state routines.

  1. Benefits

    • High intensity training increases the production of growth hormone. This hormone enhances the rate of protein synthesis thus stimulating the development of muscle tissue better than lower intensity aerobic exercises. This is a better type of exercise than long-duration exercises. Furthermore, high-intensity training helps prevent the onset of cardiovascular disease more effectively than low to moderately intense exercise by increasing the strength of your heart’s contractions, improving your blood pressure and augmenting the function of your blood vessel walls.

    Short Interval Routine

    • Short-interval, high-intensity workouts utilize 30 to 90 seconds of very strenuous exercise with a recovery bout of five times the work interval. For instance, if you sprint all-out for 30 seconds then you must walk and catch your breath for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. During a short interval routine, you are exercising at an intensity that is greater than your body's ability to transport and utilize oxygen, or your VO2 max. Hence, you are unable to maintain the same intensity for more than about 90 seconds. It is best to use a cardio machine to perform short-interval, high-intensity fat-burning workout because you have a timer right in front of you. Exercise very hard for 30 seconds then exercise at a low intensity for two minutes and 30 seconds for a total of 12 repetitions.

    Long Interval Routine

    • The intensity for long-interval, high-intensity fat-burning workouts brings you just under your VO2 max. The work and recovery intervals for this type of exercise last from three to five minutes; if you exercise pretty hard for three minutes then you must recover for three minutes as well. An excellent place to do long-interval training is on a running track or a one-mile, measured course. Complete a trial run to see if you can do one-quarter to one-half of a mile in three to five minutes. If it takes you 3 minutes and 30 seconds to run one-quarter of a mile, walk for 3 minutes and 30 seconds. For your subsequent quarter-mile runs, try to complete the distance in 3 minutes and 15 seconds; walk for 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Repeat this long-interval, high-intensity fat-burning workout for a total of eight times.

    Tempo Training

    • Tempo training, or cruise intervals, is another high-intensity fat-burning workout. The intensity for this type of exercise is harder than a steady-state workout but not as hard as long and short-interval routines. Tempo training alternates between periods of a somewhat hard pace and periods of a moderately challenging pace. Because tempo workouts are more difficult than steady-state routines, these workouts last between 20 and 30 minutes compared to a steady-state session that may go as long as two hours. To get a baseline measure of your pace, consider running 3.1 miles on a treadmill or on a track. Run this distance as fast as you can then divide your time by three. This will give you your pace for one-mile. Run two-tenths of a mile slower than your race pace then run one-tenth of a mile at your race pace. Continue these intervals for 20 to 30 minutes.