Interval Training For Accelerated Fat Loss - What It Is, Who Can Do It, And How To Do It

Interval Training, also known as HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is a very popular method to help increase fat loss. In this article Craig reveals what interval training is, who can do it, and how to do it properly for maximal fat loss. In this article my guest and I are going to be talking about something that is very popular right now and that is interval training. What is interval training, how can you do it, and who can do it? Craig, fill us in and give us some answers on those who, what, when, and where's about interval training for fat loss.

Kyle Battis: Hello, this is Kyle Battis and once again I am joined by Craig Ballantyne, fat loss and fitness expert. Craig is going to be talking about something that is very popular right now and that is interval training. What is interval training, how can you do it, and who can do it? Craig, fill us in and give us some answers on those who, what, when, where about interval training.

Craig Ballantyne: That's a good point you make that it's really becoming quite popular these days and I was using it way back in the late '90s when I was just getting involved in the industry and what I was doing was using it with athletes and you don't have to be an athlete to do interval training.

A beginner can do interval training because all interval training means is that you're going to do (blank part of tape) for interval and then you're going to bring the exercise intensity down to lower than normal intensity, recovery intensity for a very short period as well. I like to use this example, a beginner who regularly walks on a treadmill at say 3.5 miles per hour, they would do their interval training at a short, hard interval of maybe 30 to 60 seconds at 3.8 miles per hour and then they'd drop all the way down to 3.0 miles per hour for a minute recovery.

So a minute hard, a minute off and that's interval training for a beginning. It's still safe and it's still going to be effective in increasing more what I call life specific fitness because really anytime we do activity in life, it's generally not a Sunday stroll. We're either climbing stairs or maybe we're walking faster, trying to run and catch the bus, but we're not just going at a slow steady pace most of the time. That's why I say interval training is more leg specific in terms of its fitness benefits.

Also, research shows that interval training does work better than slow cardio for fat loss. For a more advanced interval training session, it can be done on any type of equipment - obviously, beginners can as well - or you can do it outside, you can do hill walking or hill sprinting or running around the track or you can do mountain biking or you have do biking inside on a stationary bike or elliptical. You can do anything you pretty much want here that can be done in short bursts and then recovery.

You do your warm-up, your regular warm-up; you make sure you're really nice and ready to go, especially if you're doing running because running at high speeds can lead to injury. That's why I like actually people do interval training on the bike because you can't fall off it unless you're really uncoordinated and you really aren't going to get hurt because sprinting at high velocities of movement can lead to injury a lot more than just biking against resistance. I like the bike, but you do your warm-up for 5 minutes or so and then you would go into your first interval and I'd like to say exercise at an 8 out of 10 intensity level where a 8 - or a 6 out of 10 would be regular cardio, so you're doing it a couple notches higher than cardio and then go for about a minute and then take anywhere from a minute to a minute and a half down to a very low recovery pace.

That's a big key here is a lot of people with the cardio mentality think they have to keep their heart rate up high and they work too hard in the recovery period, but if you were running on the treadmill at say 7 miles per hour for your work interval, I'd like you to drop down to a 3.0 miles per hour walk or if you're biking and it's Level 10 on a stationary Life Cycle, then take your intensity all the way down to a Level 3 out of 10 for your recovery.

Go very easy, it should be as easy as possible during your recovery period so that you work very hard during the work intervals. That's all we care about. It's not how high your heart rate stays constantly elevated, but that you work hard recover, work hard recover, and then you only need to do about six of those intervals, then do a cool down, stretch any tight muscle groups, and that's it for the interval training. It really should take about half the time of a normal cardio workout and you're going to get more fat-burning results.

Kyle Battis: Yeah, it totally is a life activity. If you look at the way our energy systems work in most life activities even if something like carrying in the groceries from your car, it is more of an interval-type activity than it is a long, slow endurance-type thing. If you look at most of the activities in life, totally it's all interval training, so this actually fits with improving your life in an overall basis, so it's great stuff. Cool, man, well great tips for today. Thank you very much, Craig.

if you want to learn more about Craig and his Turbulence Training program, which definitely has interval training as a big part of it, go check out http://www.TurbulentFatLoss.com and you'll get all the details. Thanks again, Craig, thanks for being here and, folks, we'll be coming at you again very soon with more fat loss lunch break tips.

Want more fat loss tips from Craig Ballantyne and other fat loss experts? Go to http://www.FatLossLunchBreak.com