Fast, Efficient and Effective Exercise by Dr. Janna House, Chiropractor, London, ON

The Way I See It…

It takes time and energy to live a healthy lifestyle in London. Exercise is an important pillar of good health. “I’m too busy to work out,” is the most common reason for not exercising enough. Here’s how you can live, work out, boost your fitness without stress and still be healthy. It’s called burst or surge training. In twenty minutes or less, this high intensity type of training provides more benefits than an hour-long cardio workout. The good thing is, you don’t need fancy, expensive equipment. Burst or surge training, also known as interval training is a type of exercise that you can do anywhere, anytime.

The Science Behind It…

Most people go to the gym to burn fat and develop lean muscle. They assume that doing traditional aerobic exercise, like jogging on the treadmill, is going to do that. Research is showing us that long distance endurance exercise is not the most efficient way to burn fat and lose weight. Conventional cardio training can cause you to age faster, to stress your joints, to store fat instead of burn it and to upset your hormone balance (decreases testosterone and increases cortisol.) [1] It can also increase oxidative stress which leads to chronic inflammation. [2]

If you want to burn fat quickly, then opt for burst training. [3][4]

Benefits of burst training…

• Can burn up to 3x more body fat than moderate cardio training
• Improves muscle tone
• Firms skin, reduces wrinkles
• Improves athleticism
• Improves lung, heart & brain function
• Helps maintain healthy bone mass
• Improves insulin sensitivity
• Does not stimulate production of the stress hormone, cortisol

One of the best parts about burst training is that it produces a special metabolic response in your body. Intermittent sprinting causes your body to not burn as much fat during the exercise, but after exercise your metabolism stays elevated and will continue to burn fat for the next 24-48 hours. [5]

How to do burst training…

1. Warm-up for 3 minutes.
2. Exercise at 90–100 percent of your maximum heart rate for 30–60 seconds.
3. Rest and recover for 30–90 seconds by engaging in lower intensity exercise or by resting.
4. Repeat the high-intensity exercise-and-recovery cycle five to seven more times.
5. Cool-down for 2 minutes.
6. Do 3-4 times a week…alternating days.

Here are some ideas to get you started…

• Run in place. Keep your knees high and the speed fast. Make it really count!
•  Jacks. See how many jumping jacks you can fit inside 30 seconds.
• Squat pulses. With your feet shoulder distance apart, squat low and move up and down slightly. Make sure your knees don’t come past your toes.
• Jump rope.
• Bike. You can exercise in bursts either on a spin bike indoors or a bicycle outside. This is also a great exercise that can involve the whole family.
• You can swim bursts anytime you’re at a lake, beach or pool.
• High jumps. Simply stand in place, reach your arms above your head and jump as fast you can.
• You can go to the gym and do bursts on the equipment, to see how, check out this 5 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ym7d2MzZ96I
• For more information, ideas and demos, check out what Dr. Axe and Yuri Elkaim have to offer on this topic.

Sources…

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21944954

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9232561

[3] https://www.hindawi.com/journals/jobe/2012/480467/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17170203

[5] http://greatist.com/fitness/afterburn-effect-keep-burning-calories-after-workout

How to Do Interval Training… The Right Way