A Guide To High Intensity Interval Training

By Author: Laxmi Keshav
Total Articles: 61
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Cardio for fat loss is a conroversial topic - steady state versus intervals, fed versus fasted, long and easy versus short and intense, and so on. Obviously cardio training generates quite an interest. Sadly, majority of people are still doing a few wrong things and it's killing their results.

Most people are not burning enough darn calories.

Probably they are tied up and do not have time to worry about the proper type of exercise (which machine or activity), the mode (steady state or intervals), the optimal ratio of intervals, or the best duration.

Some people coast along on the treadmill at 2.3 miles per hour or some similar sloth-like pace and they think that just by hitting a TIME goal, such as 45 or 60 minutes, that with X duration completed, they are assured to get the results they want.

On the other extreme, we have folks who have found or created some mega-intense, super-duper short training protocol like the 4-minute wonder workout from Japan. Just because the workout is high in intensity and it is performed in intervals, they too think they are assured to get the results they want.

What's ...
... missing in both cases is the realization that total fat loss over time is a function of total calories burned over time (assuming you don't blow your diet, of course).

AND

Total calories burned is a product of INTENSITY times DURATION, not intensity OR duration.

Too much focus on one variable at the exclusion of the other can lead to a less than optimal total calorie burn and disappointing results. And remember, intensity and duration are *variables* not absolutes! (Variable means you can change them even if your guru says you can't!)

When you understand the relationship and interplay between INTENSITY X DURATION you will find a SWEET SPOT where the product of those variables results in the maximal calorie burn and maximum fat loss, relative to your existing over all health and fitness level.
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