Justin’s Treadmill Review

Stop Pointlessly Pounding that Treadmill Like a Rat for Hours

Common fat-loss programs call for long periods of low intensity cardio – spending an hour on a treadmill or bike at a leisurely pace. Walk into any 24-Hour Fitness and you will see people that spend over an hour on cardio machines. This just isn’t necessary – it is inefficient and frankly a waste of time. Now, to clarify – if you enjoy this type of cardio exercise and have no desire to change to more efficient, shorter, workouts – this article isn’t for you. Stick to watching Oprah and limping along on your elliptical. Doing that is certainly better than sitting on the couch at home.

What is HIIT?

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an exercise strategy that is intended to improve performance with short training sessions. HIIT is a form of cardio which is beneficial to burning fat in a short and intense workout. The HIIT strategy can be used with any form of cardio by alternating an easy pace followed by a sprint, or maximum speed  you can obtain. HIIT is commonly used with running (both treadmill or outdoors), stationary/real bikes, elliptical, rowing machines, etc. HIIT has even been incorporated into fast-paced circuit training with weights (barbells/dumbbells).

Benefits of HIIT

-A very fast, efficient workout that won’t take more than 10 minutes. Some programs are as short as 4 minutes long.

-Increases your metabolism for up to 24 hours after the workout.

-Improves your maximum oxygen consumption more effectively than doing long endurance type workouts.

-Burns fat more efficiently than endurance type workouts.

-Can improve insulin action and may represent a viable method of preventing diabetes.

-Its practical – real-life emergency situations that involve you running will take place with you running at 100% – a sprint. When it comes time to run away from an attacker or a burning building, or to chase after that purse snatcher, you will be better prepared with this training. If you never push yourself to really run like your life depended on it, you will be ill-prepared when the time comes.

HIIT Programs

Here is the beauty of HIIT – it’s incredibly simple. There is no 300 page PDF or book, here it is: take your favorite cardio activity, whether it be running or canoeing.

1. Short warm-up of not more than a few minutes

2. Sprint like your life depended on it for 30 seconds straight. This is a 100% run – the run you would do if someone was chasing you with an axe for example. If you feel like you may vomit or pass out, then you are doing it correctly. In fact vomiting with HIIT is common.

3. Walk for 60 seconds. Then sprint again for 30 seconds. Repeat.

Do this as many cycles as you can. At first it may just be one. That’s fine – just work on doing more each week. If you start with 1 cycle, shoot for 2 the next time and so on. DO NOT get frustrated and just walk aimlessly for 30 minutes because this is hard. Oh, and it is HARD. That is the point.

Alternative Programs

I mention this because once you start HIIT and research HIIT this popular program may come up, and it may be something you want to try. If you want a 4 minute ultra-intense workout that just plain kicks your butt, give this a try:

Tabata Method

A similar program to the HIIT described above, but with this variation:

20 seconds of intense exercise, followed by just 10 seconds of rest for 4 minutes straight.