10
Jan 10
Lots of you have a treadmill, bike or other piece of cardio equipment at home. Your best bet for increasing your fat loss efforts is to do intervals rather than a long, slow session where you barely break a sweat and are bored silly. In the video I explain three different training protocols depending on your fitness level. These can be applied to any cardio equipment or can even be applied to a run/walk scenario.
For each of these protocols you will do a fairly easy warm up and cool down. You will repeat the hard set/active recovery 5-8 times depending on how much time you have to devote to your workout. (Active recovery is when you are still working, but at a low intensity in order to lower your heart rate.)
Beginner: Warm up 3-5 minutes, hard set for 30 seconds, active recovery 1 min, cool down 3-5 minutes
Intermediate: Warm up 3-5 minutes, hard set for 30 seconds, active recovery 30 seconds, cool down 3-5 minutes
Advanced: Warm up 3-5 minutes, hard set for 1 minute, active recovery 30 seconds, cool down 3-5 minutes
You will see that as you get more fit, you will slowly be increasing your work load and decreasing your active recovery or rest time. These are just a few of many intervals that you could employ to increase your fitness level and fat burning efforts.
Your thoughts? 10 comments and I’ll get another workout option up that will include your cardio equipment and strength training sets.
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My passion is teaching people how to work fitness into their daily lifestyle in order to improve their quality of life. Let’s work together to help you reach your fitness goals!
Hi Shawna,
I tried the cardio interval on my elliptical. Wow, I was working hard before too, but I did a 3 min warm up then about 10 sets of 30 sec hard and 30 sec regular then 3 min cool down. Awesome. Now if only I could get my eating to coincide with all this exercise!
Thanks for your blog. I try to visit as often as possible and it gets me inspired and pumped to do a workout every time I visit.
Good to hear Mel! I’ll try to keep it coming!
Louise, Once you’ve got your training down, aesthetics (how you look) is predicated a great deal by diet….always a work in progress for all of us, so just keep at it!
Thanks for the interval workout! My husband and I did it and love it!
Hi Shawna,
I am loving the interval workout on my elliptical. I have now added a 25 minute full body workout on the ball with weights! When the alarm goes off at 5 a.m., I just get up, just like I did when I did your bootcamp for that month! If I don’t think about it and just get up, I feel so much more energized after. Thanks.
Yay Louise! Good for you. Getting up at 5 am to train on your own requires discipline. Having a plan before you get started is key though and it seems that you have a great system in place. Stay tuned for more workouts to keep you going at home. You’re an inspiration to all my ‘at home’ trainees! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Shawna,
I have been doing the intermediate interval training for a couple weeks now.(And still loving it by the way!) I am still working hard, but when should I increase the intensity, also should I be doing this everyday? I did increase my dumbbell weight for my full body workout.
Louise
My goal is to always do a ‘PR’ (personal record) in a workout. That is, I want to do something that I haven’t done before. So, that may mean that you add a few intervals of the high intensity intervals to your workout now that you’re getting comfortable with the intermediate workout. Or, you could add a set or two with heavier dumb bells (as you said you’ve done), or more reps with the same dumb bells. You always want to push yourself to accomplish a little more each workout. Realistically, as we age, we get to the point that there isn’t any ‘pushing’ left, so if you can repeat one of your best workouts, then I consider that a ‘win’. Does that make sense? The problem with most people is that they always repeat the SAME thing and expect DIFFERENT results. You will maintain your fitness level and body shape doing the same workout consistently, so if you’re happy with where you’re at, then this strategy works. If, however, you want DIFFERENT results, you have to do a slightly DIFFERENT (more intense) workout each time because your body will eventually adapt to the challenges that you put it though. In any case Louise, you’re the poster girl for consistent home training and many could learn a thing or two about discipline by reading a page from your book (or Face Book!). Thanks for your question!
Hi Shawna,
I have started to add every other set in my interval training for 1 minute. Wow, I can actually do it and not die! Feels great, thanks for your support.
Louise
Hi Shawna,
I think I need to change my workout up. Good news tho, since beginning of Jan I have lost 4 1/2 inches and about 5 lbs. The HIIT on the elliptical is getting a little boring. Any suggestions?
Good for you Louise! I’m so happy to hear that you’re focusing on the inches lost and not just the weight. Your weight loss is great, but not always the best indication of progress. Both inches and weight loss is a MAJOR accomplishment!!
Now, not to be self serving, but I made my e-book for your situation specifically. You need to change up your program and you’ll find a ton of variety with cardio and strength options in it. The audio programs are great because you can choose a combination of strength/cardio and it will keep you on track by telling you when to start/stop and control your rest. This helps to keep your intensity up and your workout time down!
If you enjoyed boot camp style workouts, you’ll have over 20 workouts to choose from in the e-book. You can check the exercise library on your computer, or print it off along with the workouts and you’ll be set at 5 am with plan in hand. And, if you enjoy your elliptical trainer, you can keep one of those workouts in your program once a week too. Keep me posted on your progress! I’m so impressed with your dedication!
PS Check out http://www.femalefatlossoverforty.com