Fitness Review Network

Rating:
Author: Tim Barnby
The only way to lose fat faster is to cut it out with a knife!

High Intensity Interval Training
The Secret Weapon for Ripped Abs

There are literally millions of Internet searches per day related to ripped abs. Marketing gurus have assaulted us with ad after ad showing people with a perfectly sculpted mid-section enjoying unbelievably successful lives. Promises of visible “abs” with only ten minutes per day of exercise fill the informercial space. People, somehow though, are still struggling to see the ends of their toes when they look down. There is a way of getting ripped to the bone. It doesn’t require ANY special equipment, although a stop watch is nice. It doesn’t require you to attach electrical devices to your abdominal area.. It doesn’t even require you to step into a gym, although, you will look better, and do this faster if you do. Most of all, it doesn’t require you to buy anything from me! I’m just going to share this with you. High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the most effective weapon available for your fat burning arsenal. When done correctly, HIIT will trim your mid section and rip your abs faster than any abdominal machine on the market today, any diet pill, or any other dietary supplement. What do I mean by “done correctly?” There are four elements to the proper execution of an HIIT workout:

• What HIIT is
• Intensity Rating
• Duration
• Frequency

To many, Six Pack Abs are the ultimate symbol of fitness. Your abs start to show when you’ve lost enough body fat for the separations to show through. For a man, that’s about 10% body fat, for a female, it’s about 15%. At these percentages, you should be able to see your FLEXED abs under the fat. Everyone’s different, so if you’re at 10% and they’re not showing, don’t worry. Abdominal exercises, such as crunches, don’t burn a lot of calories, so they’re not much help in getting rid of the fat that’s hiding those illusive muscles of the mid section. Enter our secret weapon.

HIIT is a very simple exercise routine to follow. You jog at a very slow and comfortable pace for an interval, then run all out, as hard as you can possibly push for an interval. Use the following example:

0:00-2:00 minutes: Easy jog
2:00-2:30 RUN HARD!
2:30-4:30inutes: Easy jog
4:30-5:00 RUN HARD!
5:00-7:00 minutes: Easy jog
7:00-7:30 RUN HARD!
7:30-8:00 minutes: Easy jog
8:00-8:30 RUN HARD!
8:30-9:00 minutes: Easy jog
9:00-9:30 RUN HARD!
You continue the above pattern for 20 minutes.

I mentioned earlier that this workout is simple. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. In fact, if you find it easy, you’re not doing it correctly. The high intensity portions of my HIIT sessions are intense enough o give me a metallic taste of ketones in my mouth. I don’t recommend you use this as your measurement of intensity, but it shows how intense this can be. Your low intensity intervals will be easy enough to carry on a “breathy” conversation. The high intensity portion are as high as you can possibly push, then add a notch! You need to push as hard as you would if you were running for your life. In fact, if you do this workout with enough intensity, you will be completely wiped out after 20 minutes.

Your intensity will determine the duration of HIIT. The maximum time you should spend is 20 minutes. You should not be able to do any more than that. If you can do longer than 20 minutes, you quite honestly did not push hard enough. At the end you should be absolutely spent.

These patterns of intensity and the duration cause your body to burn more calories for the next 24-48 hours. That’s the beauty of HIIT. You may only burn 400 calories during the 20 minutes, but you’ll continue to burn at an increased rate for the next day or so.

Any high intensity workout requires a recovery period. You can repeat this workout three times per week. Anything more than that will cause you to become over-trained and stifle your fat loss.

If you do nothing more than HIIT, you will burn plenty of fat. It should, however, be integrated into a complete fitness program.

For more information, please contact: No Nonsense Fitness

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Weight Loss Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.