Can 20 Minutes Of Exercise Every Two Days Really Help You Lose Weight Quickly

By admin On November 21, 2009 Under Blog

If you're looking for the absolute fastest way to lose weight, then you'll be glad to know you don't need to spend countless hours pounding the treadmill or paying expensive gym memberships. What if I told you that you only need to spend 20 minutes every two days and you can literally start losing weight within two weeks? If this sounds impossible, hear me out first…

If you have limited time to spend exercising, then you'll be glad to know about High Intensity Interval Training. Although it sounds simple enough, this short workout will make you sweat, pant, even feel a little faint! It's literally the ultimate workout, whether you're relatively fit or you haven't worked out in a while.

Just follow this simple workout that takes just 20 minutes!

1) Spend 3 minutes jogging to warm up

2) Sprint at 80% maximum effort for 30 seconds straight. You should be a little winded at the end of the 30 seconds. If not, then you're not pushing hard enough

3) Spend 90 seconds either jogging slowly or walking to recover

4) Sprint at 90% maximum effort for 30 seconds

5) Spend 90 seconds recovering by either walking or jogging slowly

6) Sprint the fastest & hardest you can for 30 seconds

7) Recover for 90 seconds

Repeat steps 6 & 7 3 more times. In total, you'd have completed 6 sets of sprinting + recovery

9) Warm down for 3 minutes by jogging

10) Rest for at least a day and repeat the entire workout once you've recovered

If you're relatively fit, you'd think this workout will be super easy. Especially compared to jogging for 60-90 minutes. However, before you dismiss this, try it out first. I guarantee you'll be wheezing for breath at the end of your 4th set sprinting. By the 6th set, your legs will feel like jello.

The very best thing about this workout? It self-adjusts to your fitness level. No matter whether you're super fit or rather sedentary, you'll be totally tired at the end of the workout. How can this be?

Well, if you're fitter, you'll just sprint harder and faster than someone less fit. That's why the workout requires you to sprint at 80%, 90% & 100% of your maximum capacity. So, you'll notice yourself sprinting harder and faster as you go along. It's not unusual for your muscles to feel slightly sore a day or two after the workout, especially when you're first starting out.

Now, that you're convinced it'll give you a great workout super quickly but how can 3 minutes of hard sprinting help you lose weight? Don't you need to spend hours working out aerobically to burn fat?

Not necessarily…

The secret with high intensity interval training (that's what sprinting is) is that your body continues to burn fat long AFTER your workout. Because you heavily tax your body while you're sprinting, your body literally burns energy after the workout… sometimes for as long as 12-18 hours after the initial workout. That's why your body feels hot even after you've completely rested and taken a shower. Due to this, you actually burn MORE calories doing this interval training for 20 minutes than if you jogged for an hour.

What's more? Hard sprinting builds fast twitch muscles. These are big muscles that need to burn energy even when it's not doing anything! So, you lose weight two ways. One because you're effectively burning MORE energy after the workout Two because all the new muscles you're building will burn even more energy even while you sleep!

So, if you are not afraid of hard exercise and want a proven way to lose weight quickly by just spending 20 minutes every other day, then give interval sprinting a try. You definitely won't regret it!

Peter Lim is a fitness fanatic whose wife just gave birth to a beatiful pair of baby girls. Check out his shopping tips when buying a double umbrella stroller or twin stroller.