Losing belly fat is one of the crucial requirements necessary to a long and healthy life. The fat around our mid-sections, called visceral fat, collects around our vital organs. It's this white fat that secretes toxic cytokines that create health risks in several ways. It ups your chances to suffer heart disease and makes you more insulin resistant leading to deadly diabetes. Cytokines also cause inflammation that has been associated with the development of several kinds of cancer. Bottom line, this fat has to go. Most people consider diet when challenged to lose weight, but diet is not enough. You need to exercise to increase your metabolism, burn fat, and put your body into an entirely healthier state of being. But as most of us couch potatoes are exercise-averse I have good news, research points to the fact that in many cases, less is more. You just need the right kind of exercise.[1]
Modern exercise researchers have shown us that the old idea of jogging for miles each morning might not be the best approach to health and weight loss. While there are some health benefits to prolonged aerobic exercise, new high-intensity workouts lasting as little as 20 seconds have shown amazing results that fly in the face of what we knew before. Dr. Michael Mosley, Emmy award-winning medical journalist, believes that as few as three of these brief workouts a week will bring about weight loss, and ultimately a healthier you. He calls his workout plan "fast exercise."
Dr. Mosley's plan is certainly not the first of the high-intensity workouts. Back in 2005 research was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology [2] that demonstrated that three groups, one cycling 2 hours a day at a moderate rate, another group cycling hard for 10 minutes a day in one minute bursts, and the third cycling hard for 2 minutes in 30 second bursts with a full 4 minutes rest between bursts of intensive cycling achieved the same results. After two weeks of exercise, the study showed that all 3 groups improved equally in muscle fitness, including the rate at which their muscles were able to absorb oxygen. The third group also had the benefit of an increase in muscle enzymes critical in the fight against type 2 diabetes. Other studies have shown similar results such as that 6 minutes were equal to 6 hours of exercise.
After seeing that short high-intensity exercise can give you the same muscle fitness as longer workouts it's important to know that longer workouts could have a negative impact on your health. While fitness is important, Dr. Alan Sears, who worked with obese patients for decades, learned that longer duration and aerobic exercise can encourage your body to store fat in some cases and depending on the method of training, can actually shrink your heart and lungs increasing the risk of heart attack.[2]
The secret to the high-intensity short exercise has to do with who we are as animals. Primates tend to sit in trees or walk briefly on the ground until it's time to catch some food or run from predators which will involve short-term high-intensity exercise. The body reaches into its fat reserves for energy and begins generating anabolic hormones like growth hormone and IGF-1 which builds lean muscle mass and burns fat. Too much exercise and the body starts storing fat for the next long-term workout.[3]
According to Men's Fitness, the way to create a good high-intensity interval training routine is to focus on movements that will exercise your entire body in one exercise. Knowing how your body reacts chemically will really help you design a good workout. In the first 10 to 15 seconds we use up our phosphate pool, but don't really start generating a significant amount of lactic acid, which is known to be hard on our bodies. Resting 30 seconds allows the body to reset its levels of ATP (cellular energy phosphate) and creatine phosphate levels.[4] So, 15 seconds hard at it, then, take 30 seconds of rest. Move your whole body by touching your toes, kicking your knees high in the air, circling your arms, twisting your trunk and bending to the side. If you are up to it squats and kick outs are also good. Exercise for about 15 seconds then, rest for 30 seconds. Remember that you should warm up before any exercise. Do a few of the exercises just mentioned but at low intensity, or just enough to get those muscles warmed up and get the blood flowing. The duration is up to you. There are different ideas about how long you should do an HIIT workout. The shortest is about 2 minutes and the longest, about 10 minutes.
Do high-intensity interval training every other day, and try to move around or go walking a bit on the other days. It's important to move every day. Find a friend to do it with, or invest in a good HIIT video that you like. It will encourage you to keep doing it over the long-term. Every time you do this will you most likely be lengthening your life. Your metabolism will go up, you will drop that hard-to-lose belly fat, particularly if you reduce the number of carbs and increase the amount of protein you eat each day. Diet and exercise will work together to help you shed that dangerous visceral fat. Believe it or not, a minimum of six minutes of exercise a week in 3 two-minute HIIT workouts and you will be more fit and healthy.
Sources
- webmd.com/diet/obesity/the-risks-of-belly-fat
- naturalnews.com/024188_exercise_fat_loss.HTML
- mensfitness.com/training/cardio/8-amazing-fat-burning-intervals
- bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw40.htm
The goal of most people is to live the longest lives they can with the longest healthspan. New research by longevity scientists and gerontologists are showing us that aging is a disease we can beat. While there is no fountain of youth you can get in a pill, the right diet, exercise and supplementation can help you live longer, healthier lives. Livealonger.life believes that we can better health through knowledge and that it's important to take charge of your own health. Arm yourself with knowledge so that you can make the best health decisions for yourself every day. Join our mailing list to get new articles about health and longevity delivered to you by email. We even give away a free booklet on reducing the effects of heart disease.
Live longer,
Ted Coombs
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Ted_Coombs/2307197
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