Interval Training Exercise:
Maximum Benefits...and Fun, Too!

Guest writer Paul Renn reviews the simplicity, effectiveness and fun of interval training exercise, below.

Americans have more gyms and more exercise equipment both total and per capita than any other country. So why are we also the fattest nation on earth? Let me start by saying no exercise program will help you lose weight and stay healthy if you don’t control your eating. You can spend hours a day in the gym, like many people do, and afterwards eat a meal of simple carbohydrate-loaded fast food, and you’ll never age well or stay healthy.

But what if you do moderate your diet, yet you’re still not seeing and feeling the effects of exercise?

Want to work out in 20 minutes and get the same effect as an hour workout? There’s something called interval training exercise that you should know about, if you don't already.

Some of you may have done wind sprints in high school... it's the same concept. For 30 to 60 seconds you go 90% to 100%, then jog for the same amount of time. Do this for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes, or until you burnout.

What if you don’t have a track to run on? Try cross training. In your backyard, or even your living room, there are a number of exercises that you can perform, and styles of cross training.

Interval Training Exercise Without Equipment:

• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Pull-ups
• Air Squats (no weights, bending below the knee)
• Burbee (a push up with a jumping jack)
• Walking Lunge
• 50 or 100 meter sprint

Interval Training Exercise With Equipment:

• Dumbbell overhead thruster
• Jump rope
• Medicine ball throw
• Box jump (or anything solid to jump up, land on, and jump down from)
• Rowing machine

There are literally hundreds of different exercises.

How do you do these? It sounds easy, but you’ll probably feel completely spent after a short workout! There are several methods, try these two:

First Method: Choose three or four different excercises. Now pick how many reps of each exercise you will do.
For example: Do 5 pull-ups (you can do a jumping pull-up), 7 push-ups, 9 sit-ups and 11 air squats.

Set a timer. I recommend working up to 20 minutes over time -- 10 minutes will initially be sufficient for you to feel completely worn out. Now go! Oh, you'll feel it, but you’ll get a better and more complete workout than spending hours at the gym.

Second Method: Same concept, but you’ll need a watch with an interval timer. You’ll set it for 20 to 30 seconds. Choose 4 exercises, but this time you’ll attempt as many reps in that 20 or 30 second interval as you can do. Choose 5 or 6 rounds.

Does it sound easy? In concept, yes, but it’s not! It IS, however, a very thorough and engaging way to get your recommended dose of anti aging exercise.

Check out a cross training or cross fit book, dvd, or web-site with videos, or work with a personal trainer, to learn to do the exercises safely and properly, and for maximum effect.

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