By Kathy Smith, fitness expert, author and TV personality
To keep our bodies burning fat, we need to keep it guessing! Changing our exercise routine as well as adding interval training into our daily exercise routine will keep our bodies working hard and burning more calories. Cooking with Saladmaster will help us keep the fat off when we're cooking, and so will a new way of exercising!
Interval training will help you look better and feel better. Interval training is personal-trainer-talk for a burst of extra energy and intensity intermittently during a workout. For example, you're trotting on your treadmill at 4mph. Then, itermittently, you rev it up to 8mph for 30 seconds. This rev-up is a dig-down-deep exertion that you will maintain for only a short time. This rev-up period is something that you will do throughout your workout.
Here are four reasons why you should add interval training to your workout routine:
- Interval training burns calories faster! As you workout, your body establishes a certain metabolic rate that matches the workout rate. By adding a surge of high-intensity, you can increase that metabolic rate. Your body will burn calories at that higher rate longer than the duration of your high-intensity interval.
- Interval training increases your fitness level. The rhythm of an aerobic workout is good, but your body's fitness level adjusts to that rhythm. Without an extra physical push, you will not increase your speed, muscle, or endurance. Only by adding interval training will your body get fitter.
- Interval training sheds intramuscular fat. Do you have a zone of stubborn fat on your behind, your gut, or your thighs? Some of that fat may be what's called intramuscular fat. Your typical humdrum workout sessions can't touch this storage of fat; the only way to reduce it is by adding interval training.
- Interval training makes your workout routine more exciting and enjoyable. First, interval training breaks up the monotony of a clock-watching workout. Second, interval training gives you something to look forward to; if you're exerting every few minutes, that burst of energy helps you maintain anticipation. Also, interval training causes your body to shoot a burst of feel-good hormones into the blood stream, compensating for the extra physical push.
Keeping body fat at bay is made so much easier when you combine your Saladmaster healthy cooking routine with a smart exercise program. So fight the fat and experience the feel-good and look-good benefits that only good health can bring!
For more health, wellness and exercise information, visit www.kathysmith.com