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Interval Training vs. Boring, Mindless Cardio

Let’s face it: people love to waste time. Humans have a natural tendency to procrastinate or take the easy road, which ends up costing even more time. One of the biggest time-wasters is not paying attention to your cardio and making it mindless and a waste of time; whereas, you should instead focus on interval training.

Cardio can be mindless and boring, and most people don't focus on it. Interval training is a much better and shorter exercise that has proven results!

Photo by localfitness.com.au. [Attribution, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

How people hop on a treadmill and spend 45 minutes or longer thinking they’re doing effective “cardio” work? How many mindlessly watch TV while on the treadmill and don’t focus on any cardio goals? It’s probably safe to assume that 90 percent of people do one or the other.

Cardiovascular training—or aerobic training in scientific terms—is achieved through the utilization of the oxygen pathway. In order for your muscles to contract, the cells in muscles must produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Muscle cells only produce a limited amount of ATP, and ATP must continuously be re-synthesized in order for muscles to keep working. In order to continue aerobic conditioning, lactic acid produced by muscle contraction must combine with oxygen to re-synthesize ATP in order to sustain aerobic exercise.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

There are many benefits of cardiovascular training:

  • The heart becomes stronger and is more efficient in pumping oxygen-enriched red blood cells throughout your body. IT takes less beats to pump blood through the heart and body.
  • The lungs become more efficient by increasing a body’s VO2 max, which is the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise
  • It improves your metabolism that can lead to weight loss.

“Whoa! Did you just say weight loss?” Yes, yes I did.

However, here is the caveat: Slow, boring, endless cardio work will not increase your metabolism or help you lose weight.

Walk into any gym and there’ll be people plodding along on the treadmills, ellipticals, and, even worse, recumbent bikes. Most are watching the big screen TVs in front of them while barely moving their legs and arms on machines. Their heart rate isn’t going anywhere, and they probably aren’t out of breath. An hour later, and they think they just got the best cardio workout ever because they spent so much time on the cardio machine.

Do you think these people lose weight? Hardly.

You can get the most efficient, metabolism-increasing, mind-blowing cardio workout ever in only 20 to 25 minutes! That type of training exists, and it’s called Interval Training.

Embrace Interval Training

Interval training has been scientifically proven to lead to better weight loss over endless cardio that most people practice. How much can you accomplish in the 30 to 35 minutes that you save each day?

Interval training is not easy. As a matter of fact, it’s very intense; however, you’ll get the greatest benefit for your cardio buck in the shortest amount of time!

Interval training can be described as short bursts of high-intensity work followed by short rest periods at a moderate pace. For instance, normally you’d jump on the treadmill, do a short warm-up, go at an all-out, high intensity workout for a period of time (and I mean all out–this isn’t play time). Afterwards, you’d decrease speed for a period of time. This cycle would be repeated a number of times over the next 20 to 25 minutes. Finally, slow your pace, do a couple of minutes of cooling down, and you’re off the machine and heading home to be with your family.

The beauty of interval training is that you don’t even need a fancy piece of cardio equipment! You can do intervals outside by walking fast and then slower, or sprinting and then jogging!

If you want to incinerate calories, increase the functions of your heart and lungs, and save time, look into interval training. It’s time to get rid of mindless cardio once and for all!

Please leave a comment below: What have you done for cardio for your fat-loss goals?