Improve your body’s ability to burn fat, growth hormone production, insulin sensitivity, and glucose tolerance by trying the Peak Fitness program, which incorporates minutes-long high-intensity interval training. Discover more about the benefits and proper way of doing this exercise program by checking out this infographic.ise program by checking out this infographic.
Peak Fitness: Great Wellness Benefits with Less Exercise Time
Exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. Dr Mercola along with countless other health experts and scientific studies, attest to its many benefits. Performing it correctly will produce positive biochemical changes in your body and even help prevent certain chronic diseases. Yet, committing to a regular exercise program is one of the biggest issues people face today, as many simply do not have the time to do it.
Fortunately, recent studies show that you can achieve your fitness goals by replacing hours-long cardio sessions with high-intensity interval training, which is done by combining short bursts of intense exercise with ample periods of rest.
After 30 years of long-distance running, I finally switched to high-intensity interval training or anaerobic training, which is a part of my total Peak Fitness program. In as little as 20 minutes, twice a week, Peak Fitness can help obtain numerous benefits – more than what conventional aerobic training can bring.
What’s in It for You?
One significant benefit of high-intensity interval training is the increased production of human growth hormone (HGH), also known as the “fitness hormone.” HGH is a synergistic, foundational, biochemical underpinning that promotes muscle and effectively burns excessive fat.
While Peak Fitness type exercises are more successful at fat burning and weight management, they can also benefit your heart and lower your risk for certain chronic diseases like diabetes. The reason is high-intensity interval workouts can help improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance – two things that are crucial to optimal health.
Other benefits associated with interval training include:
- Reduced body fat
- Improved speed and athletic performance
- Improved muscle tone
- Younger-looking skin
- Increase in energy
How This Exercise Program Is Performed
This routine is done twice a week with any type of exercise. You can do high-intensity exercise using a recumbent bike or an elliptical machine.
While sprinting outdoors is one option, you must be very careful to avoid injuries. Unless you are an athlete or have high fitness levels, I advise avoiding sprinting, as many get seriously injured. If you are keen on sprinting, make sure you allot time to stretch properly.
A Peak Fitness exercise usually looks like this:
- Warm up for 3 minutes.
- Exercise as hard and fast as you can for 30 seconds. You should be gasping for breath and feel like you couldn’t possibly go on another few seconds. It is better to use lower resistance and higher repetitions to increase your heart rate.
- Recover for 90 seconds, still moving but at a slower pace and with decreased resistance.
- Repeat the high-intensity exercise and recovery 7 more times. When you’re first starting out, depending on your level of fitness, you may only be able to do 2 or 3 repetitions of the high-intensity intervals. As you get fitter, just keep adding repetitions until you’re doing eight during your 20-minute session.
- Cool down for a few minutes afterwards by cutting down your intensity by 50 to 80 percent.
- If you are not in shape you will only want to start with a few reps and work your way up to the full 8 reps. Also you never want to do this more than three times a week as your body requires time to recover from this extensive stress if you are to recover properly and receive all its benefits.
During this time, you’ll want to raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold that can be attained by working out as intensely as possible for 20 to 30 seconds. To calculate your anaerobic threshold, subtract your age from 220.
As mentioned before, all you need is 20 minutes or less to complete the entire workout.
Written by – Dr Mercola
