Exercise Tips – Part 3 of 3 Intensity is the Key

Intensity is a Key Ingredient for Fitness Success

Another common mistake is to focus your workout on longer, slower aerobic exercise. Many get into the routine of just plodding away on a treadmill for 30-60 minutes, and then calling it a day. High intensity interval training (HIIT) is key for reaping optimal results from exercise. There are many versions of HIIT, but the core premise involves maximum exertion followed by a quick rest period for a set of intervals.

The “Sprint 8” routine uses a set of eight 30-second sprints, each followed by 90 seconds of recovery done after a proper warm up followed by a cool down period. An elliptical machine or recumbent bike is typically recommend for the HIIT although it can be performed with virtually any type of exercise; with or without equipment.

Ideally, you’ll want to perform these exercises two or three times a week for a total of four minutes of intense exertion, especially if you are not doing strength training. You do not need to do them more often than that however. In fact, doing it more frequently than two or three times a week can be counterproductive, as your body needs to recover between sessions. If you want to do more, focus on making sure you're really pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly sessions, rather than increasing the frequency.

Remember, intensity is indeed KEY for reaping all the benefits interval training can offer. To perform it correctly, you’ll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 seconds. To calculate your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. That number is your maximum heart rate in beats per minute. Here's a quick summary of what a typical interval routine might look like using an elliptical: 

• Warm up for three minutes 

• Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn't possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate 

• Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance 

• Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times

When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight.

Additional Easy Ways to Improve Your Workouts 

Use a stop watch. This is particularly useful for when you’re doing Peak exercises discussed above. Resting too long between sets will lessen the overall intensity of your workout. 

Take notes to track your progress. As mentioned earlier, you need to continually increase the work you do in order to keep improving. So note the weights, reps, and intensity of each exercise, and kick it up a notch as soon as each exercise becomes easy to perform. 

Choose the right music for your workout. Research has shown that music can significantly boost your exertion level during a workout. While your body may be simply responding to the beat on a more or less subconscious level, the type and tempo of the music you choose may also influence your conscious motivation. Together, the synchronization of moving to the beat along with being motivated by the music itself allows it to do its magic. 

Allow your body to recover. While most people suffer from lack of exercise, once you get going, it can be addictive and some people do end up exercising too much — either by exercising too intensely, and/or too frequently. A really important part of creating optimal fitness is recovery. An equation to keep in mind is that as intensity increases, frequency can be diminished. 

Tailor your diet to your exercise regimen. Some research has indeed shown that eating easily digestible carbohydrates before exercise may enable you to work out longer, there’s also plenty of research that strongly supports skipping eating before exercise… especially if you’re interested in maximizing your fat-burning potential.

When you exercise while fasting, it essentially forces your body to shed fat, as your body's fat burning processes are controlled by your sympathetic nervous system (SNS), and your SNS is activated by exercise and lack of food. The combination of fasting and exercising maximizes the impact of cellular factors and catalysts (cyclic AMP and AMP Kinases), which force the breakdown of fat and glycogen for energy. One study found that fasting before aerobic training leads to reductions in both body weight and body fat, while eating before a workout decreases only body weight.

Also remember that on days when you’re doing HIIT, you’ll want to strictly avoid all sugars, especially fructose, at least two hours before and after your workout.

Restricting these carbs after exercise will prevent the production of the hormone somatostatin, the role of which is to inhibit the production of human growth hormone (HGH). If you consume fructose before or after high intensity exercise, you effectively negate one of its most potent benefits—the production of HGH, also known as “the fitness hormone.”

Aim for a Well-Rounded Fitness Program

Ideally, to truly optimize your health, you’ll want to strive for a varied and well-rounded fitness program that incorporates a wide variety of exercises. Remember, without variety, your body will quickly adapt. As a general rule, as soon as an exercise becomes easy to complete, you need to increase the intensity and/or try another exercise to keep challenging your body. I recommend incorporating the following types of exercise into your program:

1. Interval (Anaerobic) Training: This is when you alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods.

2. Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 2-3 set strength training routine will ensure that you're really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program.

3. Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury and help you gain greater balance and stability.

4. Stretching: Spend some time each day stretching pects, lats, hip rotators, hamstrings, hip flexors and calves. You can also use devices like the Power Plate to help you stretch.

5. Avoid Sitting For Prolonged Periods: Last but not least, emerging evidence clearly shows that even highly fit people who exceed the expert exercise recommendations are headed for premature death if they sit for long periods of time. Personally I try to move all day and defer sitting more than 10 minutes at a time. The key is that you need to be moving all day long, even in non-exercise activities.