Here's a 2-part series on short workouts for fat loss. It's really no secret that shorter and more intense workouts provide a greater benefit to helping you lose more fat in minimum time. Let's see why this is the case... and how you can use these short workouts to lose 5, 10, 15 more pounds of fat in less time. Maximum fat loss. Minimum time.
Short Workouts for Fat Loss?
Now first, you may be surprised to hear that short workouts are more effective for fat loss than the long and boring cardio sessions you're so used to. That's because shorter workouts will help you burn more fat in the long run due to an increase in metabolism. More strength. More focus. More endurance gained. Only if you put some intensity into these workouts. In today's hyper dynamic, fast-paced environments, who has the time to spend hours in the gym hogging the treadmill or elliptical? Cause I certainly don't.
If you're a busy professional, student, housewife, stay-at-home dad, or anyone with a hectic schedule, you obviously don't have hours and hours to spare every day to get in some exercise activity. But if you're ultimately trying to transform your body, change the way you look, gain a bit of muscle, buff up, or lose 20 lbs of fat, you can't risk neglecting exercise. Getting in a tiny bit of exercise is better than no exercise.
So how can you maximize fat loss and lose more fat in minimum time?
The Answer is High Intensity Interval Training
I'll say that shorter and higher intensity exercise is more effective than the long cardio workouts you're so used to. Why is that? Because shorter workouts forces you to work harder and more efficiently by adopting a higher intensity approach to each exercise and movement.
There is absolutely no need for long training sessions lasting 1, 2, 3 hours. A short 10-15 minute workout will do wonders for shedding fat if you know how to properly structure one of these workouts. And this works especially well for cardio workouts.
The key to doing shorter workouts is to understand intensity and how to use a higher intensity approach to your short workouts for fat loss. For our purposes of these 10 minute workouts, I'll introduce the concept of high intensity interval training or HIIT for short.
There are several elaborate scientific definitions but HIIT is essentially a form or exercise that alternates short bursts of intense activity with short periods of very low intense activity and/or rest (called active rest). This can be applied to all types of different exercise activities like running, sprinting, biking, cycling, lifting weights, and body weight training.
As an example of HIIT running,
- run fast for 2 minutes, then walk or jog very slowly for 2 minutes, this makes one full interval of HIIT
- repeat this interval 4 for times
- so you'll run fast for 2 minutes, walk/jog for 2 minutes and repeat again 3 more times for a total of 4 times, a total of 8 minutes running fast and 8 minutes jogging/walking slow
The 2 minutes of running fast represents the short intense burst of exercise while the 2 minutes of jogging and walking slowly is the rest or active rest portion of the workout.
The total workout can be completed in 16 minutes. Compare this to a one hour jogging session at the treadmill. Which would you choose?
Overall, you'll run much faster in these 16 minutes (even with the 2 min active rests) than the 1 hour slow cardio treadmill workout. That's because you're able to run really fast and then recover in 2 minutes, refuel and run fast again. With the 1 hour cardio workout, you'll have to preserve your speed and energy. If you go all out too fast, you'll burn out easily. You're forced to run slow with longer cardio workouts. This is why they're called long slow cardio or LSD cardio.
So you'll develop greater speed, endurance, and conditioning in a quarter of the time it takes you to run on the treadmill. HIIT workouts are great for improving conditioning, fitness level. You're training for function as well as fat loss.
Here's another sample HIIT cardio workout that lasts just 5 minutes,
HIIT sprinting up a short hill,
Let's take a short hill that we can run up in 30-45 seconds, run up the hill once really fast, then jog or walk down the hill, repeat for 4 times. That's it. Only 5 minutes ( or maybe several minutes longer if the hill is steep) and you've got a fat burning workout that's twice as productive than that lousy 1-hour cardio session at the rusty treadmill......and in way less time too!
Benefits of HIIT
So what exactly are the benefits of shorter HIIT cardio workouts?
Because you're operating at a higher intensity level with a higher work rate and minimum resting periods, you'll be elevating metabolism for up to 48 hours after the workout itself. And you know how important a rise in metabolic rate is to fat loss.
Higher metabolism = more calories burned = higher basal metabolic rate,
You burn even more calories while at rest doing nothing, which also means,
More Fat Loss, Quicker Fat Loss!
Those 7, 9, 12 lbs of fat you've been wanting to lose will be cake.
With longer less intense LSD cardio, you don't get this rise in metabolism. Longer workouts utilize fat energy sources to fuel the workout but what you're really after are total calories burned throughout the entire day.
HIIT workouts will burn more overall calories on a total basis by the end of the day. You achieve a calorie deficit easily with HIIT. You don't get this effect to lose fat with LSD cardio at all. And for this reason, you can lose fat easily with HIIT.
Our environment is very dynamic and changing fast every day. Why resist? Go along with the pace. Prioritize by training effectively and efficiently. It's all about training hard and smart, not just hard with HIIT workouts. Time is precious and we have to spend it wisely. Lounging around on the treadmill for 2 hours a day is something most of us can't do and won't do. And frankly, it's not even the best way to lose fat.
I also think, from my own observations and experiences, that a lot of dieters don't or can't stick to a exercise regimen because those workouts are too long and boring. They're low intensity. They're slow. They're monotonous. They're no fun. And so they become discouraged and give up on training. So that's why I recommend HIIT or any high intensity cardiovascular and conditioning workouts. You're lose fat and enjoy it.
Train smart. Train hard.
And you're not just limited to using cardio and aerobic exercises for HIIT either. You can incorporate body weight exercises and circuit weight lifting for an greater benefit to enhance your fat loss results.
In the second part of this article series, I'm going to give you a few more examples of different exercise modalities that uses HIIT for maximum fat loss in minimum time. You can learn to structure your own HIIT high intensity interval training workouts and come up with some of your own. Train with style.
Let's proceed to short workouts for fat loss, part 2 here.
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