The Optimal Fat Burning Exercise: Interval Workouts

A lot of people think a good weight loss workout means you have to push yourself to the max. Not true! Don’t get me wrong, a heart-pounding workout can be great for your body, but when it comes to exercising for optimal weight loss, you actually don’t want your heart pumping up in the 80%-90% of max range. You want to keep your heart rate closer to 70% of it’s max. Surprising, huh? But if you’ve ever been on some sort of cardio machine (a bike, treadmill, elliptical, etc.) you’ll notice it encourages a lower heart rate for optimal fat burning.

Still, there’s something else you want to keep in mind when searching for the optimal heart rate for weight loss and exercise. Don’t keep a constant pace. You actually want to fluctuate your pace in order to increase and decrease your heart rate. This means you should have intervals of harder cardio workouts, and intervals of recovery. I won’t get you bogged down by the science of why interval training is the best fat burning exercise, but the basics are that, by fluctuating the intensity of your workout, you’re actually burning an increased amount of calories from fat during your recovery period. Pretty cool, huh?

One thing I want to emphasize is that you don’t need a gym or expensive cardio machines for effective interval training. When you check out my Reshape the Nation program you’ll discover the daily “accelerators” we’ve created feature a more intense movement, followed by a less intense recovery period. They’re interval training! And you don’t need a gym or a fancy piece of equipment to do it. All you need is a little motivation! Well here it is: It’s Friday, it’s April, the weather is beautiful (or hopefully is where you are), and today’s a great day to get moving! So let’s get started!

Happy weekend, everybody! And happy accelerating!

Comments for "The Optimal Fat Burning Exercise: Interval Workouts"

1. Awesome post on exercise!!! The post itself is motivating. I’ve been doing interval exercises and now I know I’m doing the right thing.

   Posted by Art on 04/16 at 01:04 PM

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