Gravity Fx Fitness

The Tabata protocol is for advanced exercisers and was tested on elite endurance athletes. Most people aren’t ready for the all out 20 seconds of exercise followed by a 10 second rest period and then repeating this for a total of 8 rounds in 4 minutes.

A leisurely pace won’t get the fat burning effect you’re looking for with these short rounds of exercise.  Robert dos Remedios recommends starting with a 10 second work period followed by a 20 second rest period.  The next progression would be 15 seconds of work followed by 15 seconds of rest.

So you would gradually work up to the 20 seconds of work followed by the 10 second rest period, repeating for 6-8 all out rounds of exercise.  Stationary cycling was used in the research and will probably work the best for you.

Coach Mike Boyle likes to use the Airdyne cycle for doing intervals.  The Airdyne combines stationary cycling with handles that allow for an upper body push/pull.  This is a great tool for this intense training.

Recently on his blog, Boyle talked about a Tabata workout he did on this bike.  He completed 3 sets of 6 sprints, lasting 2 minutes and 50 seconds.  After the first set he rested one minute before starting the next set of 6.

After the second set he rested 2 minutes before starting the third set.  So he did 18 sprints of 20 seconds each in just under 12 minutes.

I don’t have any bikes in my studio so I have my clients do interval strength training workouts that last 30-40 minutes.  By using a Power Plate vibration platform for part of the workout I can have them do a lot of work in a short amount of time.

The exercises on the platform combined with the multi-joint resistance exercises done off the platform create a metabolic disturbance which leaves the metabolism elevated after the workouts have stopped.

This way someone with past injuries or someone who has been sedentary can still get some of the benefits of intense exercise without all the stress to their joints.  Otherwise, you can just use a stationary bike and gradually increase the work periods.

For more info on Tabatas you can read my review of Cardio Strength Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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If you have limited time for exercise you can still get good results if you use the right methods!

The right methods include total body training that elevates your heart rate and challenges your muscles at the same time.  To get results in minimal time you have to work hard and keep your rest periods short.  This will elevate your levels of growth hormone and help you burn more fat.

If you don’t have 90 minutes or more to go to the gym you no longer have an excuse.  Using tools like suspension trainers (TRX), sandbags, dumbbells or bodyweight exercises require you to use multiple muscles with each movement.

For example, exercises like pushups involve not just your upper body but your abs and low back, also.  Do your exercises standing or kneeling to get more bang for your buck.  The more muscles used with an exercise the greater the calorie burn.

If short on time don’t try to isolate different muscles – get your heart rate and metabolism up by doing more work in less time.  You can gradually increase the number of reps and/or decrease the amount of rest as your body adapts to the stimulus.

This can also ignite the “afterburn” effect.  For example, one study had lifters do 3 exercises for 30 minutes where they completed them in a circuit – going from one to the other and then repeating these three exercises.

Their metabolism was still elevated 30 some hours later!  Now these were experienced lifters but they worked every muscle in their body in this 30 minute circuit.  So the take home lesson is to use as much of your muscle fibers as possible if you are doing a short workout.  Then do some lighter intensity activity in between to help recover or just take it easy until your next workout if you have limited time.

An example of this would be the flex band squat/row alternated with some pushups.  Keep your rest periods short and get your HR elevated for as little as 15 minutes.  Push/pull exercises for the upper body and squat/lunge patterns for the lower body are a great way to do it.

Check out my previous post on a busy restaurant owner who lost 20 pounds of fat while exercising 2 hours a week.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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To burn fat you need to turn up the heat – dial up the intensity of your workouts!  One of my clients has lost 14 pounds in a month, while spending less time exercising.

Previously, she was walking on a treadmill 5 days a week and 4 months later had lost only 6 pounds.  She’s made more progress by making dietary changes and doing burst-type training.

She is still walking, but now she alternates her pace, going back and forth with periods of higher intensity walking – kinda similar to how your car burns more gas during stop and go driving in the city.

She is doing similar exercise in the studio with dumbbells.  Multi-joint movements that involve multiple muscles to burn more calories, alternating between two exercises with little rest in between.

This causes you to release more of your body’s fat burning hormones naturally.  This gets your metabolism elevated without spending hours exercising.  She can feel the warmth in her muscles as she sweats more, helping the body get rid of toxins that can build up.

I showed her a routine that she can do at home with dumbbells and bodyweight when she isn’t working with me in person.  Its great to get results while exercising less.

Research studies have shown that walking on a treadmill without doing any resistance training doesn’t always lead to much weight loss.  If you’re like most people and short on time, interval strength training and interval cardio are the way to go.

Yeah, triathletes and marathoners are usually pretty lean, but they often spend 10 hours or more per week on their training.  Unless you are training for competition, there are more efficient ways to stay in shape.

Yesterday, I did some interval cardio using the Ropes Gone Wild training ropes.  I did 15 minutes of various diagonal, circular and vertical patterns (beatdowns) with the ropes, elevating my heart rate in a short amount of time, going into oxygen debt.

I had my HR monitor on to see what my body was doing and also to see how many calories I burned.  In the 15 minutes I burned 230 calories according to the monitor, which isn’t all that much…..until you read the rest of the story.

I turned the monitor back on as I did some kettlebell presses, before packing it in for the night, leaving the HR monitor running.  An hour and a half later I stopped it and looked at how many calories I burned.

It said 490 calories in that hour and a half after the interval rope training, for a total of 720 overall!  Got your attention now?!  Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that the number is a little high.  Knock off 100 calories and that’s still a LOT of calories burned in less than half an hour of exercise.

The point should be clear – intense exercise keeps your metabolism elevated after you have stopped exercising.  So if short on time, turn up the flame to burn more total fat.  Its fine to mix in longer walks, bike rides or runs with your interval resistance training.  By the way, the monitor is a Polar F6.

If you’re looking for a simple program you can do at home, you might check out Turbulence Training.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Can you lose fat with short bursts of exercise lasting 15 minutes or less?  Yes – if you are doing sprint, interval or burst training!

With sprint training, you burn a LOT of oxygen, as you greatly increase your rate of breathing to recover from oxygen debt.  You burn a lot of oxygen in a short amount of time, which puts you in a state of oxygen debt, causing you to burn a lot of calories both during and AFTER you have stopped exercising.

This increases your metabolism for several hours after your exercise session.  The result is increased fat burning without spending several hours exercising.

We know that interval sprinting is a great way to burn calories while building or maintaining your lean muscle tissue, but this can be a little hard on the joints for those of us over 40.

The solution?

Burst (sprint) training on the X-iser!  This is an adjustable mini-stepper made of aircraft aluminum and used by several pro sports teams with their athletes.

It allows you to do sprint training without any impact on the joints, while working on single leg balance – which is important for injury prevention and performance.

You can use it as part of your warmup or as a separate cardio workout.  You would do 20 -30 second bursts, followed by a short rest period and then repeat for the desired amount of time.

This intense exercise elevates your heart rate in a hurry, making it a time efficient workout and a great way to lose fat.  As little as 5 minutes of this interval exercise can get the job done.

For those of you in decent shape who want to get even leaner, try doing Tabata’s – 20 seconds of all out stepping followed by a 10 second break, repeated for a total of 4 minutes.

Tell me what that does for your HR!  This routine was shown to increase your fat burning potential when done with cyclists on a stationary bike.

Don’t let a lack of time be an excuse for not exercising.  You just need to choose an efficient form of exercise.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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After a long Monday I am left with little time to exercise – a perfect time for a little Power Plate workout.  I had a fairly intense workout two days ago, so something lighter will do the trick.

If you have heard that a 10-15 minute workout on a vibration platform is the equivalent of a normal workout, it depends on what you are used to.

If you haven’t been exercising for quite some time then you can get some results from 3 of these sessions a week, but if that is all you do, you won’t look anything like your favorite athlete or be mistaken for a fitness model.

Your best results will come from combining it with other forms of resistance training – or you can do a session in between longer workouts, as a maintenance workout.

Like most people, I need a time efficient workout now and then to keep my metabolism elevated.  It also serves as a nice break from more intense workouts – it can help you recover faster.

Tonight I combined the vibration platform with some joint mobility movements.  Besides being a very joint friendly workout, all the reflex muscle contractions helped increase my circulation and flush out some waste products.

Movement based workouts are good for relieving stress and keeping the mind fresh, something we all could use.  I spoke once of “fire and ice training”.  This would definitely be a good example of the two extremes – high and low intensity.

Get moving!

Brian

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Can you burn fat with 15 minute workouts?  Yes, you can…. if the exercise session was intense enough.  Interval bike workouts are one way to achieve this.

I had a pretty long day today, which didn’t leave me much time for a traditional workout tonight.  Not a very strenuous day, but a long Monday just the same.

So I decided for a shorter exercise session.  I put my five fingers “shoes” on to give my feet a little workout and did a little self-massage with a Tiger Tail massager to warm up.

I picked a whole body exercise in order to get the most benefit – one that works my upper and lower body at the same time.  The squat-row movement wasn’t overly strenuous, but doing about 25 sure got my quads burning.

Bodyweight exercises work fairly well when you are 240 plus…..plenty of resistance.  In between sets I did some joint mobility movements to get some extra work in.

So I didn’t burn tons of calories but I did plenty to increase my health.  The movements worked all my joints, helping to lubricate them.  The movements combined with the self-massage helped flush out some of the “junk” that accumulates in all of us, by increasing lymphatic flow.

While I didn’t get quite breathless, I did increase my oxygen intake, flushing toxins out of my body in the process.  So I did manaqe to get some health benefits, as well as decreasing stress levels.

When I have more time and energy I will do a more intense workout that lasts slightly longer.  But that fifteen minute session was much more productive than just sitting on the couch.  At the end of the week it all counts the same.

My new exercise toy should arrive tomorrow in the mail.  Can’t wait to try out my fitness rope.

Get moving!

Brian

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