Should You Do A High Intensity Workout?
There is no valid reason that a healthy person should maintain a low intensity exercise regimen unless they simply aren't really interested in seeing real results. A low intensity workout, defined as exercises during which your heart rate is around 60% of its maximum rate, are fairly inefficient for anything other than very slow and gradual weight loss. They won't help you boost your metabolism, they won't aid significantly in building muscle mass, and they don't do much for strength and endurance.
A high intensity workout, which is defined as exercises which push your heart rate up to 75% of its maximum or more, is infinitely better for nearly every aspect of your overall health.
You can determine your maximum heart rate by taking your current age away from 220. So, for example, if you're 50 at the moment, then your maximum heart rate is 170 beats per minute. Don't let the term "maximum heart rate" fool or scare you. You aren't going to damage your heart if you go up to or over this heart rate.
The 220-age formula is only an estimate and, depending on your individual physiology, you may find yourself exceeding that number. Since it's nearly impossible to damage a healthy heart by exercise, that's nothing to worry about.
Low intensity exercises are beneficial for warming up and cooling down, before and after high intensity phases. Low intensity exercises are also good for the elderly, anyone recovering from an illness or injury, someone who is significantly overweight and out of shape, or someone who is just beginning to workout.
Sadly, a good number of healthy people who could be receiving major benefits from high intensity workouts are stuck doing inferior low intensity exercises because a personal trainer has recommended it. Generally, a trainer would recommend the less effective low intensity exercises for one of two reasons: confusion or personal protection.
Personal protection simply means that a person is very unlikely to injure themselves during a low intensity workout so a trainer who is particularly paranoid about lawsuits may recommend the safer route. Most trainers who would do this are either entirely unsure of their abilities, planning to be absent for their clients workout period, or simply unfit to be a trainer.
The confusion route is more common and more difficult to explain. Both intensity levels burn calories and, of those calories, a percentage of them are fat calories. Technically speaking, a low intensity workout burns a higher percentage (50%) of fat calories than a high intensity workout (40%). Because of this, some trainers will recommend the workout wherein 50% of the burned calories are fat.
Sadly, this doesn't actually result in the client burning more fat and, thus, the confusion.
A high intensity workout burns a higher number or calories overall than a low intensity workout. Generally speaking, a smaller percentage of a larger number is often times more than a higher percentage of a smaller number.
Let us suppose that you burn 100 calories by walking for 20 minutes. Walking is a low intensity exercise, so 50% of those calories are fat, meaning that your 20 minutes of work has succeeded in burning 50 fat calories. Let us also suppose that you burn 160 calories during 10 minutes of a high intensity exercise. Of those 160 calories, 40% of the burned calories are fat which means that your 10 minutes of work burned 64 calories.
Despite the smaller percentage, in our example you burn 14 more fat calories in half the time. Now, half the time doesn't mean half the work because those 10 minutes are at a higher intensity. However, half the time is still half the time.
If you're really serious about losing weight, make the bulk of your exercise regimen high intensity and bookend it with warm up and cool down low intensity exercises.
Related Tags: fitness, health, calories, high, workout, intensity
Gray Rollins writes for MuscleProgram.com. Learn how to lose weight while building muscle, and to learn about the benefits of high intensity workouts, visit us. Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles
Recent articles in this category:
- Dental Insurance For Individual Can Be Of Help At Time
Dental problem may cost one a lot of money and pain. But, practicing a reasonable care could decreas - Personal Trainer For Perfect Health
There is a general misconception that need for a fitness trainer comes for novice or from those who - Varicose Veins - Causes, Symptoms, Treatment
The majority of people after thirty notice the changes that appear with the maturing. In this case t - Scenar Therapy - Self-treatment Or Healing Partnership
Do you want to learn about a device which will help you to ease your pain? If you get this kind of a - Scenar - 5 "no, Nos" Of Scenar
Are you fed up with the pain in your body? Various parts of our body seem to ache due to different r - Scenar Device - 5 Tips On Travelling With Your Scenar (skenar) Device
You might be aware of scenar which has become quite popular these days. This is actually the acronym - Scenar Therapy - How To Treat Your Pet With Scenar
There are many alternative methods of treatment that are being invented these days. Lots of people a - Your Options For The Treatment For Appendicitis
Appendicitis is considered to be a surgical illness. Due to its severe character, the treatment for - How To Choose The Right Copd Medication
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD does not have any cure. But with the help of medicines - Septic Arthritis: Infectious Agents Penetrate Joints' Spaces
Another major type of arthritis is septic arthritis, which is also known in various terms like: pyog
Most viewed articles in this category:
- Drugs - the Last Alternative for Adhd in Kids
Anyone over the age of thirty who has grown up with ADHD understands that there was not much help av - Foods To Eat To Gain Weight
Malnutrition has the same degree of problem as obesity. There are people who are too skinny, they fi - Understanding Postpartum Clothing
The same way most pregnant women dream of the day when they will begin showing for wearing maternity - Kegel Exercising for Bladder Control and Enhanced Sexual Pleasure
Kegel exercises strengthen the muscles of the pelvic floor, thereby improving the urethra and/or rec - The Use Of Weight Loss Herbs
Nothing has garnered more attention in today's world than the success or failures of weight loss pro - A Simple Acid Relux Cure
Many people today are afflicted with heartburn. If they eat food that is too spicy, they get heartbu - Five Effective Household Back Pain Treatments
Back pain treatment comes in lots of forms, from exercise to pain mediction. Standard and most wides - Herbal Remedies - Can They Cure What Ails You?
You've probably heard about herbal remedies before and how they can treat a variety of health proble - Natural Relief for Tinnitus - What are your Choices
Natural Relief For Tinnitus - Alternative Options Did you know that there are an estimated 50 t - Birthing Around the World
Since ancestral times, different cultures showed off different customs and beliefs around the miracl