Articles

The Definition of Insanity
By Rick Mayo, owner of NPPT

I believe the definition of insanity is: Doing the same thing and expecting different results. This definition certainly applies to your health and fitness goals. If you want to make changes in your weight, performance or quality of life you must change something about your exercise program. These changes do not need to be dramatic to produce your desired results.

One method of changing your program is to increase the intensity of your exercise sessions. By increasing your intensity you can improve your fitness level without increasing your time allowance. Interval training is a perfect example of how to make your workouts more effective.

Research proves that interval training burns nearly twice as many calories as steady state exercise. Intervals are simply short bouts of intense exercise followed by a short recovery phase. Here is an example of a basic interval workout:

• Walk for 5 minutes to warm up
• Run for 1 minute/ walk for 2 minutes- Repeat 7 times
• Walk for 5 minutes to cool down

This sample structure will work with cycling, elliptical trainer, stair climbing and etc. Also, you may need to change the details of this structure based on your fitness level. By using the variable intensity training you will burn more calories and increase the performance of your most important muscle: Your Heart!