| Vary Your Pace to Speed Weight Loss |
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| by Diet Detective Editorial Staff | |
| Tuesday, 04 July 2006 | |
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Interval training gives you a better workout in the same amount of time. Here’s how you can use it to help you slim down. Slow and steady may win the race, but if you're running to lose-weight, that is-high-intensity interval training may be the way to go. "Interval training allows you to burn more calories than does steady-state running," says Joe Signorile, Ph.D., of the Human Performance Laboratory at the University of Miami. Interval training refers to interspersing bouts of higher intensity exercise with periods of lower intensity work. For example, let's say your current workout is a steady 30-minute run in which you're working at about 65 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate. If you introduce short bursts of higher intensity sprints (at 75 to 90 percent of your max) into the half-hour run, you pack a better workout into the same amount of time. Initially, during the recovery periods following the sprints, you'll probably run at a pace slower than your normal steady speed. However, you'll still achieve a higher intensity workout overall, since ideal recovery rate following a high intensity interval is somewhere between 50 and 70 percent of your working max, which is only about 15 percent below your exertion level on a steady run, says Signorile. Even if you're not quite ready for high-intensity workouts, intervals can still be beneficial by allowing you to gradually increase the intensity of your exercise without sacrificing duration. "If you start running fast the first day out, you're going to poop out," says Susan Kalish, former executive director of the American Running Association. "But if you can walk for an hour, do that and eventually add intervals of jogging." You'll rev up your metabolism and ultimately be getting a better return on your workout time investment. Expending more energy during a workout certainly will help you lose weight faster, but the benefits of interval running extend far beyond the actual 30 to 60 minutes you're actually exercising. According to Signorile, several studies have shown that, for the 24 hours following a run, those individuals who incorporated intervals had basal metabolic rates 5 to 10 percent higher than those who did the same amount of work at steady low intensities. People who dispute the benefits of interval training cite research that shows lower-intensity workouts utilize higher proportions of fat to sugar than do higher intensity workouts. The problem is that those results occur only during actual exercise. In the hours following a workout, whether high or low intensity, the utilization of fat and sugar appears to return to normal levels. But how meaningful is burning more fat only during that tiny bout of low-intensity exercise compared to the increased metabolic rate that you experience after an interval workout? "By pure accounting, you're going to lose more weight with interval training," says Signorile. Bookmark:            Trackback(0)
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