Exercise Routine With High Intensity Interval Training Workouts
If you are on a quest to burn calories you probably know that the best way to lose fat is to increase calorie expenditure through lower calorie intake and increased physical activity. Creating a balance of proper diet and exercise routines is the right combination to slim-down the body and improve overall fitness and health.
For those of you who want to step up with the calorie burning exercises and shape your body with increased muscular mass, you might have to change your regular workout routine and even your diet.
Long cardio workouts like brisk walking, jogging, swimming or cycling are great if you want to lose fat and maintain your endurance and physical stamina. However, to increase your muscles you will need to change the way you work out.
Building lean muscle mass requires increased resistance to your muscles that will activate the fibers you haven’t before. By doing ordinary cardio workouts you have always been within your aerobic threshold, and muscles would get all the necessary fuel through the air you breathe in. With increased resistance your body will have to dig deeper for the energy to fuel your muscles because the rate you breathe the air in is not adequate to satisfy the current needs.
When your anaerobic threshold is reached your heart is operating at more than 90% of its maximum rate and your muscles are beginning to starve for oxygen. This is the moment when you feel fatigue in your muscles, and it marks the beginning of the end. Soon you will have to slow down to intensity below your anaerobic threshold or to stop the exercise.
Anaerobic threshold can be reached with exercises like weight lifting or running. If you lift weights you must stay in the range from 8-12 reps as it is the best way to reach the threshold more quickly which in turn has the effect of muscle growth. Using the light weights and large number of reps can still be considered to be in your anaerobic range. When running you must focus on high resistance running on a treadmill or sprinting at your maximum rate. As rule of thumb, all exercises that last for more than two minutes are considered aerobic exercises and everything below two minutes is considered anaerobic.
If you can run for more than two minutes at the same intensity you should increase the pace to stay below two minutes and reach the threshold. Running in intervals that combine 4-5 minutes of cardio workouts and 1-2 two minutes of running flat out is also called high intensity interval training or HIIT. This training is the best combination of aerobic cardio workouts and anaerobic workout because you are stressing your cardiovascular system (heart, lungs and blood vessels) and your muscles. This kind of exercises is a perfect combination for efficient calorie burnouts even hours after the workout, and it grows your muscles that will give you shaped and carved-out appearance.
Ramping up your physical activity with weight lifting and HIIT training might require increased calorie intake. HIIT training, for instance, burns 9x more fat than traditional aerobic exercise and your metabolism stays elevated for more than 24 hours afterwards. Don’t starve yourself out on a quest to lose weight and burn fat because you are jeopardizing your health. You will burn fat this way, but you will also lose the muscle mass. Muscles need fuel to work and grow and by keeping calories low you will not see the real benefits of your new workout routine.