Can You Get Fit In a 10 Minute Workout?
Can You Get Fit In a 10 Minute Workout?
10 minutes?
I’m sure you’ve seen all the commercials on TV and in the magazines that advertise, “Get fit in 7 minutes a week” or “Five minute abs, your secret to slim toned abs” maybe even, “Slender legs and better butt in 6 minutes or less.” My point is we’ve all seen these claims, but is there anything to them? The good news is YES and…no. The devil, as always is in the details. See below.
High Intensity Interval Training…or Metabolic Conditioning
This form of training does work and it is called, high intensity interval training or HIIT for short. It’s biggest proponents claim that you get the same benefits of traditional endurance training like jogging, rowing, etc, but all you do is perform short high-intensity bursts of these exercises. The catch is often of those infomercials or magazines that you see and read are telling you to perform HIIT incorrectly. The science they mention is generally correct, but the way they’re applying it is wrong. I’ll dive into what and how to do it properly later, but first I think it’s important for you understand the science behind why it works.
Why HIIT works?
Martin Gibala is a physiologist and he works at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He performed the following experiment. Martin got a group of cyclists and he had them cycle as hard as they could for 30 seconds. So, for 30 seconds these guys and girls would pedal as hard as they could, as fast as they could. They would then get to rest for 4 minutes. Which on paper seems like a lot of rest, but trust me, it’s not! Especial if you’re going a hundred percent. They would repeat that cycle four to six times.
Which means they’re only “working” 4 to 6 minutes tops. But you see how the devil is in the details? Sure they’re only “working” for 4 minutes to 6 minutes, but the actual workout lasts for at least 18 minutes. Which is still pretty short, but not still not a 4 minute workout like most people advertise. You see how the marketing can kind of deceive to you and lead people astray?
Now, the interesting findings from Martin’s study is that when he compared those who did HIIT training to those who just did traditional cycling for 60 minutes he discovered that they got similar results. Their exercise capacity increased, their muscle metabolism increased, and their cardiovascular fitness also increased.
BUT…it gets better! There’s this guy by the name of Jason Talanian he found out that those who did HIIT also burned more fat than those who did lower intensity workouts (jogging, cycling, etc, in the traditional sense). That means you will become leaner faster with HIIT.
This is another secret that nobody really talks about.
Most of the marketers claim this is a “new” revolutionary idea and promote it’s never been done before blah blah blah blah blah. Actually that’s a farce! Runners and swimmers have been doing interval training for decades so that they can increase their performance. In 1954, Roger Bannister, the guy who broke the 4-minute mile did so by only training 30 minutes a day.
How crazy is that? This dude would do all out Sprints for 60 seconds and then he would rest for 2 minutes and he would repeat that cycle until his 30 minutes were up. You see Roger was a medical student on clinical rotation and he didn’t have a ton of time to train to break a four-minute mile. But by exercising smartly and doing what he could, he did something unbelievable, even unbelievable to this day. It’s a phenomenal feat!
Now here’s the thing, right about now all you reading this want to go out and do interval training right?
But to really get the benefits out of a true hour long workout into a few short minutes you have to really have a mindset of giving 110%. That’s the big trade-off. It’s not, “I’m going to go at 80%,” it’s not, “I’m going to give it 90 %.” You have to give it your all with whatever exercise you are doing.
That means if you’re cycling, you are cycling as hard as you can for that time domain. If you’re doing burpees, God forbid, you’re going up and down as quickly…and safely as you can. That’s the trade-off. Most people do not enjoy working that hard, even for a shorter period of time. It’s like running wind sprints back when you were playing volleyball or softball or whatever it is that you were doing. The positive, is it’s relatively quick instead of jogging for an hour, you’re running for 15-20 minutes period and getting the same benefits if not more.
When should you perform high intensity interval training?
I have most of my clients perform HIIT in Phase 2 of my training systems. The reason I wait till month two is most clients are not ready mentally or physically to give me that kind of effort. If I imposed upon them HIIT right from the get-go, generally speaking, they would become exhausted, super sore, and feel like quitting.
I will also use HIIT for clients who are getting ready for an event, let’s say a wedding or for vacation. That’s another time I’ll introduce them to high intensity interval training. And to be honest, I call this Metabolic Conditioning and shorten that up to Met-Cons.
You should perform high intensity interval training after you’ve lifted weights assuming that you do lift. If you don’t, that’s fine, but you won’t get nearly as much bang for your buck.
Now what does a Met-Con or what does high intensity interval training look like? How do I do it?
The classic version is go hard for 1 minute. Then rest by either walking or sitting for 1 to 2 minutes. Repeat that cycle 10 times.
Pick a movement that you can do, that’s not going to hurt you. If you have bad knees don’t run! I would suggest using a rowing machine or even swimming. If you don’t have space, burpees are a great option because they work your entire body. Just doing air squats can give you a great workout. You can even alternate the movements that you’re performing so you can do a push-up and then alternate to air squats. The options are endless. The main takeaway though is 1 minute on, really hard and then to 1 – 2 minutes of rest. Repeat that 10 times that is the classic version.
What I normally do for my clients though is I have them go 20 seconds on 40 seconds off. That’s for Phase 1 of HIIT. Once they get in better shape and are prepared for more we than go 30 seconds on and 60 minutes off. That’s Phase 2. Then for Phase 3 we go 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. I generally have my clients perform ball slams, kettlebell swings, and rowing for their Met-Cons.
As you can see, you can you get fit in 10 minutes. But the devil is in the details.
If you would like a system that addresses not only Met-Cons, but much more please click the link or go to www.winstonsalem,justyoufitness.com
Regardless go be awesome
KELLEN LAKE – You deserve the best!
PS – You want a system that all you have to do is show up and get guided throw it? Click here.
Ladder Down!
Warm-up with 5- 10 minutes of light cardio, then dynamic stretches (leg swings, arm circles, etc.). After the workout, cool down with light cardio (walking, etc.) to bring down the heart rate, and then stretch.
Descending ladder from 10 to 5.
Squat, then reverse lunge left, reverse lunge right
Push-up
Single Leg Hip Bridge (1-1)
Rest 60 sec, then 2 Rounds:
20 sec Hollow Hold
20 sec Mountain Climbers
20 sec Side Plank Left
20 sec Side Plank Right
