Everyone’s busy, and many people feel like they just don’t have the time or flexibility to commit to a regular exercise schedule. The good news is, you don’t need to do an hour or more of exercise, nor do you need to leave your home, to burn some serious fat. All you need is 4-10 minutes a day.
We’re not talking about 4-10 minutes of light jogging or gentle yoga, we’re talking about a style of exercise called High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), sometimes called burst training, which consists of short, intense bursts of exercise punctuated by short periods of rest or less intensive exercise.
Although we often think of the effectiveness of exercise as depending on how long we exercise and how many calories we burn, more and more studies are starting to show that these are not the only factors to consider—they may not even be the most important in terms of fat burning and weight loss.
Studies, including those done by East Tennessee State University, Baylor College of Medicine, and the University of New South Wales have all demonstrated that short, high-intensity workout sessions lead to greater fat loss over time than longer, low-intensity sessions.
One key study even showed that a group of people performing 4-6 sessions of 30-second sprints lost more fat over 6 weeks than a group doing low intensity exercise on the treadmill for 30-60 minutes. That is a huge difference in time spent exercising.
HIIT is effective because it enacts certain metabolic changes that allow the body to burn fat with higher efficiency. The body then remains in this mode for up to 72 hours post-workout, so the fat-busting power of the workout lasts long after the exercises themselves are finished. This is great news for all of us time-pressed people, as there are effective HIIT workouts that you can do in as little as 4 minutes a day.
Although there are many different types of HIIT training, most require you to perform circuits of different common exercises such as push-ups, jumping jacks, side planks, running in place, squats, and tricep dips. Some popular variations of this method include the Tabata method (4 minutes), The 7 Minute Workout, Total Body Transformation’s 5 Minute Workout, and Dr. Axe’s BurstFit to name just a few. Try them and see if one inspires you to incorporate it into your daily life. Our personal absolute favorite HIIT Workout is; Dr. Kareem Samhouri’s FREE Anti Aging Workout DVD.
As HIIT is intense, don’t forget to do a short warm-up of light movement and stretching before you start. And remember: although it doesn’t take long, HIIT training is not easy, so if you’re just beginning or returning to exercise, spend some time building up your strength and stamina before trying HIIT. Consider getting the advice of a physician on how to start.
-The Alternative Daily
Sources:
http://static.ow.ly/docs/Interval Training v Continuous Training_5gS.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8883001
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18197184
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20473222
http://www.muscleandfitness.com/workouts/workout-routines/4-minute-fat-burning-high-intensity-workout
https://www.thealternativedaily.com/7-minutes-exercise
http://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness-pictures/5-minute-workout-that-will-shed-your-winter-weight.aspx#01
http://draxe.com/whats-the-1-exercise-to-burn-belly-fat-fast
