Too Busy to Exercise this Holiday Season! Quick Workout Tips for You!

It is entirely possible to burn tons of fat with a short, 15 minute workout.  Today we are giving you ideas for a workout to do when you are too busy for your regular workout schedule.

15 Minute Workout Options:

Option A

This workout uses the 4 minute tabata protocol (20 seconds or work as fast and as hard as you can go with a 10 second rest – repeated 8 times).

Be sure to warm up with a walk, step touches or cardio machine first then perform the following:

1 - jump rope or jump squats or sprint runs outdoors

2 - push ups alternated with burpees

3 - Alternate these exercises doing the first set for the first four minutes, the second set for the second 4 minutes and the final set for the last four minutes.


Option B
Warm up as above.

Perform 8 - 10 reps of each exercise in the circuit below going from one to the next without rest and repeat as many times as possible in 10 minutes. No breaks and move quickly but with excellent technique.

alternating jump squats or jump lunges
+
push ups or inverted bodyweight rows
+
core pushups or floppy burpee
*all exercises featured in the warrior workout video below

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Do You Yasso?

Have you ever carried around something that you didn't ever use? Are you an expert packer? Do you love to travel? If you can say yes to any of these, hop on over to Women Rockin' The Road, where I have a post up about Things That I Could've Done Without!

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Where I Run These Days

And now for our regularly scheduled program: Jill's Fitness Friday link up.

My friend Lisa joined a running club recently and although she had her doubts beforehand, she loves it now! She has talked a lot about the fact that they are running less, but longer and stronger and each run has a focus. She has told me some of the details of her training runs and I have taken some of her group's ideas and run with them (he.he.he.)

The other night she mentioned that she had just finished doing Yassos and they had really kicked her butt. I wasn't sure what language she was speaking but asked her to elaborate. She explained them as this.

Take what your goal marathon pace is. For example, mine would be 4 hours flat, since I am attempting to run the half marathon in 2 hours flat. Now, run 800s meters (half a mile) at your goal time, but in minutes. For example, my goal is 4 hours. I have to run the 800 meters in 4 minutes. In case you are having trouble with the calculations like I did at first, that is an 8 minute mile. So I asked her, "and then what?" She said then you have a 400 M (.25 mile) "shag", which is a recovery period, where you run a slow jog. She suggested a 10 minute mile. I looked online and it says to run it in the same amount of time you ran the 800 meter, which for me would have been a 16 minute pace, which is a walk.

You are supposed to start at 4 intervals and work your way up. Her group did 8!! I decided to try it, and the next day, started with 4 of them. First I did a 1.5 mile warm up. Then I did 4 repeats and a 1.5 mile cool down. I did not run at a 16 minute pace during the recovery; I just ran at what felt comfortable.

Let me tell you, these things are magic! I have been doing intervals once every two weeks and hating them, although they DO usually get me about a 9 minute mile (which is my goal pace for a 2 hour half). They are strange because even though you run fast, then walk, then run fast etc, you still end up with a good combined pace. However, the Yasso beat my puny little intervals to shreds.

Don't get me wrong. These were hard. An 8 minute pace for me...is hard! But not impossible. My normal pace is about an 8:45 or 9 (for 6 miles). So my total was 6 miles and my average pace was about 8:25, which is 20 seconds per mile faster than normal! This week I decided to make sure it was not a fluke, so I did 5 of them this time. I ended up running 6 miles at an 8:10 pace. I was tired afterwards, but not completely dead, although I did almost lose my lunch around mile 3. But I recovered.

So, my question to you is this: For my half on Sunday, should I do this, or a variation of this, the whole time? Or maybe just part of the time? Have you tried doing intervals during a long race? If so, at what point during the race -- the beginning, middle or end?

I feel like I may not be sure of what I am doing, since the farthest I have gone on a Yasso day is 6 miles. Will it last for 13 or will I hit the wall somewhere in the middle? What do you think?

Have you tried to Yasso? 

PS EEEKKK... If you've popped out of Reader, note the "1 day and some odd hours left" until the Half!

Go over here

for more Friday hoppers!

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HIIT IT - and make it count

What is HIIT?  It is high intensity interval training.  Advantages of interval training (are)is that it utilizes the body's two energy producing  systems: the aerobic and the anaerobic.  The aerobic system is the one that allows you to walk or run several miles and uses oxygen to convert carbs into energy. The anaerobic system draws energy from carbs stored in the muscles for short burst of activity such as sprinting, jumping or lifting heavy objects.  This system does not require oxygen and does not provide enough energy for more than the brief activity.

High Intensity Interval Training involves short intervals of high intensity work. The intervals require you to work at 90% of yourmaximum heart rate followed by a rest interval.  The intervals are termed work:rest.  If you are beginning this type of training, you may want to start with 30:60.  This means 30 seconds of work followed by 60 seconds of rest.  As your cardiovascular system becomes stronger and can handle more capacity, you will increase to 30:30 and eventually 60:30.

You can also use a less specific method knows as Fartlek  or speed play.  To use this method, you pick a land mark like a tree or a park bench and walk or run as fast as you can to that point, then walk at an easy pace to recover.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) will get you fit and save time.  In the 1994 study published in the journal Metabolism, researchers had one group follow a 15-week HIIT program and another perform only steady-state cardio for 20 weeks.  The data revealed the steady-state group burned 15,000 more calories, but the HIIT group lost significantly more body fat.  A more recent study conducted at the University of New South Wales (Australia) reported that a group of women who took part in a 20-minute HIIT program of eight-second sprints followed by 12 seconds of rest lost six times more body fat than a group that performed steady-state cardio for 40 minutes at 60% Maximum heart rate.  The increase in the intensity boosts your metabolism and keeps it higher longer after your workout.  This is known as EPOC, or the after burn.

So why not cut your cardio session in half and get more benefit?  Seems like a no brainer to me!

 

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