Kick Your Ass and Kickstart your Metabolism in 20 Minutes
Intervals.
Learn to love them.
How many of your friends say they’re going to go for a run, and then step on a treadmill or go run outside for 45 minutes…kinda jog half-assed, barely break a sweat, and then come back and say they “worked out.” HUGE waste of time. Because I work two jobs, go to the gym, and try to find time to also have fun, I think wasting time sucks. If you can accomplish 50% more in 50% less time, why do more?
Let’s talk about intervals. To begin with, let’s think about nature. How many animals do you know that spend their time jogging a gradual pace for a consistent amount of time? NONE. By nature, we are designed for bursts of speed. Athletes that play basketball, baseball, football, hockey, etc know that spending hours running will not improve your quick speed. Go ask a cheetah if he likes distance running. Go ask an antelope. These animals spend all day sleeping and walking, and then turn on incredible bursts of speed for thirty seconds, catch their dinner (or try to NOT get caught), and then go back to resting.
When it comes to humans, other than marathon runners who are training to develop a body that can withstand hours of constant running, we are built to do the same thing. Look at our olympians. Would you rather look like a sprinter? Or a marathon runner. No offense to Marathon runners, but if you’re here at this site, you’re interested in getting into shape and looking better. Take your pick between looking like Christian Bale in Batman, or Christian Bale in the Machinist. Let’s go with Gotham.
Other than looks, why should you be doing intervals? You have to look at your heart like a muscle: if you keep it at a constant rate, never expanding it outside of its comfort zone, it will never grow. If you do 100 benchpresses with 10 pounds and don’t feel it, your chest will never develop. Same thing with your heart…if it’s not feeling the exertion, it doesn’t have to work harder, and nothing has changed. However, when you throw some intervals in there, your heart will have to work harder, pump more blood, and work harder to return to normal levels. Have a high stress job? Wouldn’t you rather have a heart that is used to rapid changes in blood pressure and needs? That’s the kind of heart I want.
So, now that we know WHY interval training is for you, lets show you the way:
Go sprint your ass off for 30 seconds…notice that you’re still breathing harder than normal, even though you’ve finished running. This is because you’ve exhausted your oxygen intake during the training, and have to work overtime to recover it during periods of rest. Well, in the same way, your muscles are breaking down the carbohydrate stores in your body while you exercise to keep you energized and going. After you’re done, your muscles need to be refilled with that energy, so they continue to extract the energy from the carbohydrates and lipids (fats) in your body to get you back to normal levels. If you don’t really push your body, your muscles never deplete their energy levels and won’t need your extra stored carbs and fats to reenergize after you finish running. Moral of the story – push yourself, kick your ass, and reap the benefits up to 48 hours later.
Let’s take you through a sample running guide for losing fat as quickly and efficiently as possible:
Three days a week of running is sufficient – if it’s done right, your body will need 48 hours to recover between exercises, and actually burn fat on your off days, when you’re sitting at your computer or playing videogames.
This will be your routine for three weeks:
- 5 minutes of warmup...light walking, bump the speed up a little bit to get your legs warmed up…then stretch. Don’t stretch until you’ve warmed up. Think of your muscles like rubber bands…you quickly pull a rubber band that hasn’t been used yet and it’ll snap. Warm it up, get it used to activity, then stretch it, and you’re golden.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (70% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (75% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (80% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (85% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (90% of maximum effort)… 2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 30 seconds of increased pace (100% of maximum effort)..2 minutes of decreased pace.
- 5 minutes afterwards of light jogging and stretching. When you stretch afterwards, your muscles expand, allowing the nutrients you’re about to eat to fill in the gaps that are now empty from exercise. Also, it keeps your muscles loose, so there’s a far less chance for injury.
Now, because this is your first time doing intervals…it might be tough to get through the routine. If it is, concentrate on doing the intervals as strongly as possible (really push yourself on those 30 seconds fast sections)…and if you can only get through 3 or 4 intervals, stop there. The next time, aim for 5 intervals, then 6, then 7.
The reason I don’t tell you how fast to run for either, is because it’s different for each person. If you’re really out of shape, your 90 seconds might be walking, and your 30 seconds might be jogging. If you are in shape, your 90 seconds might be jogging and your 30 seconds might be sprinting.
You should be close to death by the time you complete this cycle…okay maybe not that bad, but you should be dripping in sweat. If you’re not, then you were faking it, and you’re only screwing with yourself.
If you’re on a treadmill, running intervals becomes slightly more difficult. Most of them have an “interval setting.” If not, you’re going to want to aim to set the speed in your down time to something safe, and be CAREFUL on setting your top end speed. If it’s too quick, you’ll end up looking like Bam on Jackass shooting yourself off the thing into the wall. Make sure you have a camera on hand in case this happens.
If you’re on a exercise bike, even better. just try to really really push yourself on that 30 second segment, whether its with increased speed and/or resistance.
Now, this is only 15 minutes of heavy exercise, and when you think about it…it’s really only three minutes of HEAVY exercise. Add in another 5 minutes of cool down, walking/jogging slowly..so 25 minutes total. After two weeks at this routine, cut your “decreased effort” time down from 2 minutes to 90 seconds.
-Steve
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