The two terms here you need to understand is “Anaerobic” and “Interval”. Lets start with Anaerobic – what does this mean?
Anaerobic training is when the body can not deliver energy to the muscles using oxygen alone and needs to instead heavily rely on utilizing lactic acid to get energy to the muscles.
It is generally accepted that to get truly anaerobic that you need to reach between 80 – 95% of your maximum heart rate. So how do you get your body to these levels of heart rate? Well that’s where Interval Training takes over!
Interval Training is defined as a period of work followed by a period of recovery. The best way to maximize the anaerobic system is to go all out (for example on a run or on boxing pads with me) for a period of between 30 seconds to no more than 2 minutes. I generally get my clients to do intervals of 1 minute with recovery of 1 minute to 3 minutes depending on there fitness and goals. Recovery from anaerobic interval training is ALWAYS at a low intensity. This low intensity recovery helps you recover for the next interval.
I like to get my clients to do 5 intervals and then they have completed 1 set. After this set its 2 minutes off to stretch. Then we do another set of 5 intervals and again have a stretch after the set. Over several weeks I develop people so they can do 4 sets (so 20 intervals over all).
Once you get to 4 sets the great part is that you start to recover faster – so then you can add toning exercises between intervals – the whole exercise session then becomes extremely productive and believe me – do this twice a week and you can be super fit and toned in a literally weeks.
So that’s a bit about what anaerobic interval training is but, why is it so good at burning fat? Well all the magic really happens after the actual exercise session…
Basically while you are doing the intervals the body is mainly burning off carbohydrates (so that’s great for all of those out there who love your carbs!), however after the session for hours your body needs a huge amount of energy to help restore the body to a resting state and adapt it to the exercise just performed. These include hormone balancing, replenishment of fuel stores and cellular repair. The body gets this energy from its stored fat. So therefore after your interval training your body is in fat burning mode all day long!
A great way to demonstrate the effectiveness of this ‘after burn” is to see how many calories your body burns after a good anaerobic training session. You can do this by using a heart rate monitor that has a calorie counter on it.
Use the heart rate monitor during the session as usual but then leave it on for say 4 hours after the session – you will be amazed on how many calories your body burns after exercising anaerobically!
So what are you waiting for? Start training anaerobically to get the most out of your workouts and if you need any professional help please contact me.