There is a growing trend in exercise of moving away from the traditional model of exercise which is sustained moderate intensity activity for long periods of time. Interval training is typically done in much less time, i.e. 20 minutes, and consists of short segments made up of brief high intensity movement followed by longer rest periods of lower intensity activity.

One idea to ponder…A recent study showed that those who did a 20 minute interval training work out burned 3x as much fat as those who did 40 minutes of traditional exercise. Half the time, three times the fat burned...sounds pretty good! 

Here are some suggestions from Dr. Joseph M. Mercola, an osteopathic physician.

If you want to do more, focus on making sure you're pushing yourself as hard as you can during those two or three weekly interval training sessions, rather than increasing the frequency. Intensity is KEY for reaping the benefits. To perform interval training correctly, you'll raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, and to do that, you have to give it your all for those 20 to 30 second intervals.
A typical interval routine on the elliptical machine might go like this:
·        Warm up for three minutes.

·        Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 20-30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you can’t go another second. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate.

·        Recover for 90 seconds, still moving, but at slower pace and decreased resistance.

·        Repeat the high intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times.

When you're first starting out, depending on your level of fitness*, you may only be able to do two or three repetitions of the high intensity intervals. As you become more fit, keep adding repetitions until you're doing eight during your 20 minute session.

*Do NOT start this work out if you are in bad health or have significant illness, especially cardiovascular problems. Before you consider this type of work out feel free to discuss it with your Chiropractic Partners doctor or talk with your primary health care provider and/or your trainer.

Additional articles about the benefits of interval training:

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/03/09/interval-training-exercise-is-better.aspx

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2010/04/15/new-study-shows-how-you-can-exercise-less-and-get-more-benefits.aspx

Brian Ransone, DC