Stop Spending Hours on Cardiovascular Exercises!

Cardiovascular exercises improve endurance and should burn fat. Many of us think we have to spend at least 45 minutes four to five times a week doing these in order to get the full benefit of this type of aerobic exercise. Usually this type of exercise takes the form of running, jogging, walking, and biking. These are usually done in a fairly moderate fashion and can last anywhere from a half hour to an hour per session at one pace. As we get older these sessions can feel daunting and tiring, so much so that we tend to do less and less of this type of exercise.

There is a entirely different way of approaching cardiovascular health and aerobic exercise, one that is so fast and simple you will not believe that it can work even better then the traditional approach to aerobic exercise, but it truly does! Many of you will have heard of this as “Interval Training”. A specific form of this training is called “TABATA”, which was designed by a Japanese scientist named Izumi Tabata. It provides the same health benefits as longer sessions of cardiovascular workouts but takes just a fraction of the time. It is done three to four times a week minimum and lasts for four minutes. Yes you read correctly… four minutes, three to four times a week. One can do it more often or for a longer duration, but this is not necessary. This is a high intensity training. You can do straight calisthenics, spinning, treadmill, using a trampoline and many other types of exercise in this fashion. Go online to see what types of things you can do in this form of exercise and also to download a Tabata Timer to use for your training.

The testing that was done for this method of exercise showed an increase in both aerobic and anaerobic systems which increased by 28% over six weeks, healthier levels of all Lipid panel tests and increased weight loss. The method is as follows: 4 minutes long, with 20 seconds of intense training, 10 seconds of rest for a total of 8 sessions or rounds. Be sure to do a bit of a warm up before and cool down after. You should be very out of breath pretty soon after beginning if you are working up to pace. The fat burning will continue all day if you do this in the morning/ It is efficient and can fit into any lifestyle. Be sure that you check with your physician before doing any new exercise program. Here’s to improved health and fitness as we age!

Barbara Bloom bloominsideout.com