Interval training is one of my favorite workout routines. It is versatile, fun, challenging and produces good results. Although I am not a full time personal trainer, I have had the pleasure of training many close friends, family members and work colleagues with incredible fat loss results. One of my favorite fat burning workouts is the 20 minute interval trainer!
The last few people that I have trained all had the same goal. They wanted to lose about 20 lbs. in 2 months. My “go to” work out for all of them was interval training. Interval training keeps the workout fun, exciting and gives you different challenges each workout. My good friend recently lost over 30 lbs in 10 weeks and he performed interval training 4 times a week for 20 minutes per workout! So why does interval training work? Let’s take a look at the science behind it all.
Why Does Interval Training Work?
Interval training creates a great deal of “muscle confusion.” This leads to your body exerting extra energy (calories burned) as well as taking your body more energy (calories) to recover and repair those damaged muscle fibers.
High intensity interval training will also work your “fast twitch” muscle fibers which are responsible for fast and explosive movements. It is important to work your fast twitch muscle fibers when you are training for weight loss because this will yield in more calories burned per workout. Your fast twitch muscle fibers take longer to recover thus your body will burn more calories when you are at rest.
This will dramatically speed up your weight loss progress over time. Burning an extra 200 calories per day for 2 months will yield 12,000 extra calories burned. This translates into almost 4 lbs. of additional fat loss! Over the course of a year this is equivalent to almost 15 lbs.! Small daily changes in your fitness routine will yield amazing results over time. Stay consistent with your interval training routine.
The beauty of 20 minute interval training is that you can fit it into the busiest of schedules. Having a treadmill at home gives you absolutely no excuse not to get a workout in everyday! If you don’t have 20 spare minutes for your overall health and fitness you’ll need to think hard about finding the time to implement this 20 minute workout. I recently came across a great post by Arun Shanbhag on interval training. It offers some additional tips and information.
20 Minute Interval Workout
The following are two sample 20 minute interval workouts. The beginner interval workout will burn in excess of 300 calories in 20 minutes. It is to be used for someone who is new to interval training. You should not attempt the advanced interval workout if you are new to interval training. You should work your way up slowly to this workout over the course of 4-8 weeks depending on your current fitness level.
The advanced interval workout will burn close to 500 calories in only 20 minutes! Compare this to jogging at the same speed for 20 minutes and it is no comparison to the static cardio session. This advanced 20 minute interval workout has been used by me and many of my clients to great success.
The following is a sample of an advanced interval workout routine. This routine should be the end goal of someone who is just starting a workout routine. Most of the healthy and young clients that I have trained are able to do this work out by the end of an 8 week training session.
If you are already an advanced level athlete or in particularly great shape try this one out. It will kick your butt and give you an incredible workout.
