“push harder and harder and get outside of your comfort zone regularly and watch the results flood in”
Intro:
Have you ever wanted a clear cut way to lose weight and didn’t want all of the crap that is constantly served to you on a silver platter about what one workout/food/change will do for you? If so, you came to the right page for the completely free, honest truth about how everybody’s bodies work and why hours of cardio does nothing except waste your time.
See, the human body is quite simple on a macro level. If calories in(food) are lower than calories out(exercise), you will lose weight. If the opposite is occurring, then weight will be gained. Obviously, there are a 100 other intricate things that could be happening in your body that would affect whether your diligence following the calories in vs out strategy actually holds up.
Cardio in its most basic of terms is described as what occurs when your heart rate rises to the level that your body must adapt(sweat) in order to become better at this exercise the next time you perform it. There is nothing inherently wrong about doing hours of cardio. The only problem with that is the highly supported fact that very few people have the time to put in 15-20 hours a week of cardio that they would most likely not want to be doing and will opt to skip the workout if a better opportunity rises up such as binge watching the third season of your favorite TV show.
Make your habits better, and your body will soon become healthier, slimmer, and more toned as a byproduct, not to mention the gains you will make if you follow the rest of this post to a tee.
What is HIIT?
There is a form of cardio that is superior to any other version of movement when it comes to taking and keeping fat off, and you’ve most likely heard of it. It’s called High Intensity Interval Training. Now, before you close this tab and roll your eyes like, “oh, another idiot prescribing this mumbo-jumbo training that is supposedly the one thing that is going to alleviate all of my weight loss struggles,” please read this next paragraph.
As I’ve said before, there is no magic pill, there is no one thing, there is no fairy dust coming down to save you because you wanted to believe that you could change for an hour or two on a Tuesday in June.
You have to be willing to sacrifice for what you want. Nothing in this life that is worthwhile comes easily. To truly make gains in any one portion of your life, such as losing weight, one thing is more important than anything else: consistency.
According to Dictionary.com, consistency is defined as “steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.” So, if Dictionary.com has any reliance about their sources for their definitions, adhering to the same principles over and over again will eventually lead to success for you in whatever part of your life you are struggling with.
Back to HIIT, which is the acronym for the type of workout described above. There have been studies performed surrounding athletes and their levels of fat loss not just on the day but the next two days after they perform these circuits of intense cardio. The results are staggering. There is more than enough evidence to link the High Intensity Interval Training regimen to continuously burning fat over the course of the 48 hours after you finish your workout due to the aggressive nature of the workouts.
Keep in mind, these circuits may look easy, but they are not for the faint-hearted. They are grueling workouts that will test your spirit and ferocity.
A very general format to follow for these workouts is that you don’t want to put any exercises in the circuit that you are doing for strength, such as push-ups, slow squats, pull-ups, dips, or slow lunges.
The goal with these workouts is to create a format that you can change and advance through as you obtain a higher performing cardiovascular system, which will lead to faster heart rate, more blood circulation throughout your body, which will lead to burning off fat faster and more efficiently.
A sample workout would be something of this nature:
- Jumping Jacks
- Burpees
- Jumping Lunges
You would perform the first exercise, jumping jacks, for a certain amount of time, say 45 seconds, then go right into the next exercise, burpees, for another 45 seconds and then do the final exercise, jumping lunges, for 45 seconds. Then, you would take a break for a designated amount of time, let’s say 1 minute. You would repeat this however many times you could get through the entire thing, maybe 5 or 6 times, then finish with a burner set.
A burner set, for those of you who are unversed in training lingo, means to perform 1 exercise as the last exercise of your workout, for as long or as many reps as you can withstand.
A personal favorite of mine is the wall sit. Set the stopwatch and see how long you can hold it. My personal best is around 3.5 minutes, so any of you who are looking for motivation, get after it!
The beautiful thing about the structure of this is you can decide how many exercises there are, what the exercises are, how long you perform the exercises, how long of a break you get, how many total rounds you want to complete. It’s all personalized. Another way to diversify this is to not limit yourself to only 3 exercises and get bored with it. Go for six and put into groups of 2 or 3 and then train that way.
Here are some sample exercises to choose from and divvy up into different workouts:
- Burpees
- Jumping Jacks
- Jumping Squats
- Jumping Lunges
- Sprints(up to about 50 meters)
- Box Jumps
- Squat/Lunge Split
- Stationary Bike
- Kettlebell Swings
- Bear Crawls
- Any of the variations above with added weight(only do this once you feel comfortable about your fitness level and your health in general – this is not for beginners)
How to start
A very important detail is that you should start off doing this type of workout 2 times a week in place of your current cardio workout. If you do not have a current cardio routine or are a complete newbie when it comes to nutrition, training, or working out in general, that’s fine and great for you that you want to improve your life! Start with once per week for a few weeks even if you think you can do more if you are new to this. Do not overdo it because you could injure yourself. However, that is the case with everything in life. Just take it at your own progression, ease into that shit, then once you feel like your body can take the stressors, push harder and harder and get outside of your comfort zone regularly and watch the results flood in. Just make sure to always have a solid warm-up and cooldown(Look out for a future post regarding these) to maintain your muscles and help to prevent injury.
There you have it! Use this basic template to intensify your weight loss beyond what you thought was previously possible. And remember, progress will come. It won’t happen within a day or two, but consistent work day after day, week after week will provide a sturdy backbone for your health and fitness goals to become what you thought was previously unimaginable.
As always, read and implement this into your life, share to help as many people as possible, and please reap the rewards of these posts as much as you can. Power through!
If you’ve made it this far into the article, I appreciate you. Share this through social media, through word of mouth, and through your own family and friends to encourage more and more people to change their lives.
Come win with us.