Monday's Move of the Week

The Move: High Intensity Intervals

Are you in a cardio rut? Does your cardio exercise consist of watching your favorite TV show while moving steadily on a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical? Since most of us are planning on shocking our body with a huge Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, why not also shock your body in a more healthy way with some high intensity intervals? High intensity interval training (or HIIT) has been shown to burn fat like crazy, help increase running speed and well as cardiovascular endurance.

Muscles Worked: Heart and full body

How to:

1. Choose your piece of cardio equipment (OR get outside to run in your neighborhood or bike a fun trail)
2. Warm up for 5 minutes at a steady, easy pace
3. Speed up to your normal steady state pace for 2 minutes
4. Go at an all out “sprint,” giving it everything you have for 30 seconds
5. Repeat the 2 minutes of steady state/30 seconds of “sprinting” for 20 minutes
6. Finish with a 5 minute cool down

Trainer Tips:

• 20 minutes might be too much of a challenge for some people or might not be enough of a challenge. This is your workout so do what feels right and challenging to you!
• Try intervals on different pieces of equipment to really shock your body…one day might be running the next day might be biking…switch it up!

Make ‘em Harder: By decreasing the steady state time or increasing the interval time you will be making the workout more challenging.

Enjoy!