Why 15 Minute Workouts Rule For Fat Loss

As a trainer, I have used almost every technique in the gym with various clients over the years.
From bodybuilders looking to build more lean muscle, to athletes trying to boost their sporting performance, to busy parents trying to drop some unwanted body fat.
That third group is the one which I'd like to discuss in today's article. Because, let's face it, this third group covers over 50% of the gym going public, and what you read here today may shock you into changing your workout routine for the better.
You see, despite the constant developments in the worlds of sport and science which unearth new training methods to hep us get greater results in shorter time frames, there are millions of gym members around the world who are still following old, long disproven methods.
One such method is the idea of performing long, slow cardio if you want to lose weight.
This idea of training rose to prominence in the 1970's and 1980's, and it has stuck in the minds of fitness enthusiasts and fitness professionals ever since. But just because something is popular doesn't make it true.
In the last decade, we have seen the emergence of several different forms of training which outperform those long, dull cardio workouts everybody else is doing.
Nowadays you can expect to burn fat while doing anything from weight training - yes - to high intensity interval training and it's the latter which is the subject of today's post.
15 minute workouts will help you to burn more fat and lose more weight than a long jog in a treadmill. Here's why:
  1. The afterburn effect associated with HIIT
  2. It's more sustainable
Sure, the so-called "afterburn effect" associated with interval training is fantastic for boosting fat loss results. You have probably already heard of it. This is the process by which the body begins to shovel fat into the furnace after a workout, placing our protein and carbohydrate reserves on lock down while entering a prolonged period of fat burning which can last up to 14 hours in total.
If you are performing regular bouts of high intensity interval training, you will notice fantastic results because of the culmination of these repeated phases of EPOC - that's the technical term for the afterburn effect, for you non-science geeks.
However, it's the second point which is the more important.
You see, the biggest factor in a successful fitness regime is sustainability. If you cannot stick to your routine you will not train long enough to see any potential return from it. And this is where things get tricky for parents, or gym members with busy lives.
By focusing on 15 minute workouts and basing them around HIIT, you give yourself a training program which is easily able to fit into the busiest of days and it becomes less of a chore to stick to.
And what sounds more appealing to you - three months of training for 15 minute per day or three months of stop-start training, doing long cardio on the treadmill?
I thought so.
Fat loss workouts based upon high intensity interval training are the main focus of trainer Russ Howe PTI, who has written for several well-known publications including Men's Fitness and Women's Health magazines.

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