My Favorite Way To Exercise!!

There are so many ways to exercise that it can be quite overwhelming. Do you think you should do zumba, pilates, circuit training, bootcamp, tabata or even start running? Most people want to either drop weight or gain strength from their workouts. Guess what? The type of training I'm going to tell you about will do this and more. This style of training will burn fat, build muscle, firm your skin, increase all the good hormones in your body, increase your metabolism. This will cause your body to keep doing these things for up to 36 hours after your workout! That's Nuts!! Not only will these things happen, but you will reach your fitness goals much faster than other types of workouts. So what type of exercise is it? Well...it has several names depending on who's telling you about it but they all mean the same thing. To me it's known as Interval Training, Surge Training, Burst training or Peak 8 Fitness, however, it is best known as Interval Training. It can be applied to any type of workout anywhere from running to weight training because all you need to do is change the way in which you do the style of workout you're doing.

So what is an interval? An interval is a high intensity spike in energy expelled, alternated with a time of recovery. I bet some of you are thinking that you can't do high intensity anything but remember that fitness is always based on each individual person. An Olympic athlete working at a high intensity is going to be much different than a 40 year old person exercising for the first time at their high intensity. That “High Intensity” is simply getting your heart rate into a certain zone, so don't be afraid of it. With that being said, there are a few things that will be the same for anyone who does an interval workout. First off, Your body temperature will rise and you will most likely start to sweat. Second, after each set it will be relatively hard to breathe and talk until you catch your breath. And Thirdly, lactic acid will increase which is why you feel your muscles burn.

Now the next thing you're probably wondering is how do you apply it to your workout? Well, there is one thing you need to remember when doing an interval...There is no right or wrong length of interval or rest. It's 100% individually based. If you are a first time exerciser you may only be doing a 20 second set followed by a 2 minute break while an Olympic athlete may do a 60 second set followed by 60 seconds of recovery. It completely depends on the person.
Let me give you an example of some progressions that I have done in past in my fitness classes.
Muscle groups: Chest/Back/Cardio

Level 1:
30 seconds Push ups
30 seconds rest
30 seconds Back Rows
30 seconds rest
30 seconds skipping
2 minute break
repeat 4x

Level 2:
30 seconds Push ups
15 seconds rest
30 seconds Back Rows
15 seconds rest
30 seconds skipping
90 second break
repeat 4x

Level 3
30 seconds Push ups
30 seconds Back Rows
30 seconds skipping
90 second break break
repeat 4x

This is a great workout that only lasts 12 minutes and causes your muscles to strengthen, fat to burn and so many other great benefits that last upto 36 hours after your workout!!
Here is another example, this time we're only going to do cardiovascular exercise. The exercise is a sprint(uphill) using the “Peak 8” style workout that Dr. Mercola teaches.
This is very simple to do.

Step 1: Warm up 2-4 minutes
Step 2: Start Sprinting as fast as you possibly can for 20-30 seconds
Step 3: Walk on spot for 90 seconds while breathing deeply to catch your breath
Step 4: repeat steps 2-3 eight times.

Easy eh? That's only 20 minutes!! Have you noticed what interval workouts have in common? They're fast. When you do it properly you don't need to do as much. When I introduced interval's into my runs my performance improved so much faster than with my previous method of running. Not only that but rather than feel drained, I feel energized!!
Intervals are the real deal. They're faster and more effective. Interval training is something everyone should be doing. I've had people in their teens all the way to into their 80's doing the exact same workout because it's do-able for everyone and it's effective for everyone.
Throw on your workout wear, put on your shoes, grab your water and let's go, it's a great day for a workout.
You're Created To Move!!!