It’s common belief that the longer you exercise, the more calories you’re burning. Many people push themselves to stay on the exercise bike for at least 30 minutes, or run miles in ugly weather to be sure they get in the required workout time. What if you found out that this time table is not necessary, and it’s not true that a longer workout is the best thing for your body? Brace yourself, because evidence indicates that short bursts of exercise can be just as effective and burn more fat than the long early morning spin session.
Exercise Intervals
If you don’t have 30 to 60 minutes a day for exercise, then high intensity interval workouts might be for you. While working out for longer periods of time burns more calories, high intensity burns more fat. To get to this fat burning level, try doing three to six 10-minute exercise sessions per day. This is an effective way to lose weight, stay in shape and burn calories and fat regularly. For many people, it’s even more effective than sticking to their 1 hour workout routine.
Time Accrued
The CDC says that the human body needs 150 to 300 minutes of exercise every week to maintain strong muscles and bones, lose weight and lower risk of complications like diabetes and obesity. Here’s the secret: it doesn’t matter as much how you acquire those minutes, because it all adds up.
Grab 15 minutes here, or 10 minutes there, and it’s the same as performing a single 25-minute workout in the same day. Exercise bursts will work to keep you healthier, slimmer and trimmer overall, but there’s a trick to it: you need to maintain high intensity for this to work.
Take It Up a Notch
Running burns more calories than walking, just like jumping up and down burns more calories than sitting. The more intense your workout, the more calories you’re going to burn. So when you’re working out in shorter intervals, make them true exercise bursts and make them intense. Work on maintaining a high level of intensity for your workout for 10 minutes at a time, and don’t slack off. This is a very effective way to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your workout, and some people find it more motivating to know they will be done with their workout sooner.
Slimming Down
As long as you use both cardio and strength-training exercises, you’ll be getting a healthy workout that helps you achieve and/or maintain the body you want to have. And if all it takes to get there is 10-minute sessions, it becomes a whole lot harder to find reasons not to exercise. So start giving yourself a really great reason to get into shape with a simple reminder: you’ve got an extra 10 minutes, so why not use them?