"HIIT"

Practice "HIIT", the acronym for High Intensity Interval Training. The basic idea is to do your cardiovascular training in 2 different zones. Zone #1 is your "cruising speed", which is the speed and/or resistance that keeps you inside your Target Heart Rate Zone. Zone #2 is significantly more intense, cranking your heart rate to well above the THR, approaching or surpassing 80% of your Maximum Heart Rate.

The concept is pretty simple. No matter what form of cardiovascular training you are doing, you spend the first 5 minutes or so cranking up the intensity so that you are at your cruising speed of approximately 70% of your maximum heart rate. Once there, every 1 to 4 minutes, crank the speed or resistance up to a much higher level, to at least 80% to 85% of your max.

When cruising at the higher level of intensity, this is known as the "interval", hence the name High Intensity Interval Training. Perform your interval for 1 to 2 minutes, after which you should be VERY ready to slow things back down to your cruising speed. Once you are back to cruising speed, go another 1 to 4 minutes, then repeat the whole process.

This type of training confuses your body about how to keep up with the energy demand, which keeps it from slipping into a comfortable rythym. You will burn more calories this way, burn through more bodyfat in a shorter amount of time, crank your metabolism up significantly higher, and improve the maximum cardiac output of your heart, all at the same time! If you are looking for a way to shorten your workouts, but lose weight more quickly, HIIT is the way to go!

Make sure you are staying in the 70% to 85% target heart rate zone with a low-cost, easy to use Polar Heart Rate Monitor.