Bursts of exercise are best for burning belly blubber.
If you want to fast-track towards a buff body, you’re better off doing shorter, higher-intensity exercises than slow, steady-state exercise, according to many studies.
“It’s not how long it’s how hard,” says Jackie Warner, a personal trainer in Hollywood and star of Bravo’s new show Thintervention. “Even if you wanted to do 15 minutes a day, do that to muscle failure.”
Warner’s prescription for a bikini body: Work out five days a week. Here’s a taste of what she suggests: Walk fast (up a hill, preferably) for two minutes, then run fast for two minutes and then walk slowly for a minute. Repeat this five-minute cycle three more times to equal 20 total minutes. Then, lift some weights that use two or three muscle groups. Do six exercise sets with very little rest in between.
“You will definitely get results with this intense style of training,” Warner told Metro.
More and more evidence shows this is true. Scientists in Australia recently published results of a review of worldwide studies on high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE). HIIE was found to increase fitness, lower insulin resistance, build muscle and burn belly fat more effectively than low-intensity steady-state exercise.
“High-intensity bursts of exercise put stress on your heart to increase oxygenation to the muscle,” says Warner. “Building muscle is the quickest way to a healthy body. It is the only thing that speeds up metabolism so a person can burn calories while resting.”
