Are you someone who walks laggardly on the treadmill with a perennially bored expression on your face, sneaking in a smile only when you step down from the treadmill? If yes, then don’t worry, you are not alone, most people think that this is the best way to exercise and also a major calorie-burner. But latest research is propagating a different school of thought. A short burst of exercise in a stipulated time seems to be the latest way to lose weight and stay fit.
It is said that you can actually reap much greater benefits by exercising in short, high-intensity bursts known as intervals than you can exercise for longer periods at a slower steady pace. So you should start with the best twenty-minute workout program to inch your way towards health and fitness.
Benefits of Short Burst of Exercises
Why should you go for a short burst of exercises and give up your traditional way of exercising? Well, if you are wondering about that, here’s why you should include it. In very simple terms, these kinds of workouts rally around short bursts of very intense activity, alternating with periods of rest and comparatively less strenuous activity. One example of this would be to run hard at maximum speed for thirty seconds and then break into a walk at a slow rate for one minute. Alternating this sequence for ten minutes can result in a short but very effective fat-burning workout. Adding short bursts of exercises to your fitness program has numerous benefits, including both physical and mental benefits.
Your metabolism increases
Short interval exercises can keep you in fat-burning mode for a good part of the day. This is due to the fact that we breathe in more oxygen during intense workouts or activities than in slower and steady pace of exercise. This in itself can give a boost to your metabolism and even after exercise the best part is that we continue to burn calories long after we hang up our sneakers. That is why it is considered as one of the fast weight loss exercises
We burn fat during exercise, but studies have shown that interval training or short duration of exercises can result in a whopping amount of fat loss. So you might spend a lot of time huffing and puffing on the treadmill, but you won’t get the same result. But in interval training you get more bang for your back, you finish your workout quickly and get quicker results as well.
No Equipment needed
The best part of these exercises that you don’t need weights or any other fancy types of equipment, your own body weight is enough.All you need to do is exert your body to the maximum. The key is to move your body at maximum output. Any plyometric moves and exercises based around having muscles exert maximum force in short intervals will get the job done, pushing your heart rate and increasing your speed and power. The plyometric exercises include lunges, squat thrusts, jumping jacks or burpees, all exercises that do not need any equipment whatsoever. These are what you will call fast weight loss exercises.
Suppresses your appetite
There is a general misconception that exercises make you feel hungry. But short bursts of exercise can actually curb your hunger. Some studies have shown that ghrelin, which is a hunger-stimulating hormone was curbed when people performed these HIIT exercises and hence controlled their binge-eating to a large extent.
It is quick but it isn’t an easy workout
If you are too busy, then you can squeeze in a twenty-minute workout quite easily, and you don’t need to worry that you are missing on your hour long calorie burning sessions. You can get the maximum results in very less time. Even if you are traveling, you can fit in a workout in your hotel room, these exercises are that convenient. Don’t think that since you are skipping your traditional gym routines you are not burning as many calories! The fact is you may end up burning even more calories, and it isn’t easy! You would need to sweat buckets; it is that intense.
So Start Sweating!
The beauty of the workouts is that you won’t get bored. Researchers have found that repeatedly pushing the body close to its exercise limits for very brief durations, interspersed with periods of rest, is not only more effective than continuous moderate activity but also improves cardiovascular, respiratory, and metabolic and mechanical functions.
The twenty-minute workout: This twenty-minute circuit burns tons of calories, and will leave you sweating, without a doubt. Follow the protocol to the T and you will soon knock off those extra kilos!
Start with a warm up
You cannot begin an exercise routine before doing a proper warm-up, otherwise you might get injured. A proper warm up before a workout, and a cool-down after completing a workout is absolutely essential to protect yourself from an injury.
The first move will be the frontal lateral jack. Stand with feet together and arms at your sides. Jump feet out to a little wider than shoulder-width. At the same time, alternate arms between swinging out at the sides (to shoulder-height) and in front of you with every jump. Repeat for 30 seconds.
Change into butt kicks. While on your left foot, kick your right foot behind you and swing your right arm across. Switch legs and repeat for 30 seconds.
To transition into capoeira, bend slightly forward. Hold your core tight and swing your arms around to the sides while simultaneously tapping the same foot behind, so if your left arm swings to one side, your left foot kicks your behind. Repeat the motion for 30 seconds.
Try the break the board, move to the next, which is a jumping motion. Hop off to your left foot to bring your right knee straight up. While switching legs, bring both arms above your head and swing them down when the knee comes up. Complete for 30 seconds to finish the warm-up.
Lower Body Workout
Begin by continuously jumping a foot to another foot as if you’re jumping rope but without the rope. Keep moving your wrists in small circles by your sides. Complete for 20 seconds.
Get on to a pushup stance. Hold one leg off the floor behind you. Move your foot toward your body with a jump, and then try to stand and balance on one leg. Lower back down and jump out until the leg is straight, that’s one set. Complete 20 seconds on the right leg and 20 seconds on the leg left.
Complete 20 seconds of jumping rope after each move. To start the next move, start in a squat position facing to the side. Dip twice in a lowered squat position, then pivot foot 90 degrees so you are now facing forward. Squat deep and jump, then move 90 degrees to the other side. Pulse twice and pivot to the center for the jump squat—that was one full rotation. Continue alternating sides for 40 seconds.
With feet hip-width apart, lower into the squat position with arms bent up at the elbows. Jump from the squat position and straighten arms out. Complete the dynamic motion for 40 seconds.
Return to the squat position. Hold your right fist into your left wrist or vice-versa and drop into the lowered squat position, and hold it. You can hold the position and then challenge yourself further by maintaining the lowered squat with your heels raised off the floor. Hold the squat for 40 seconds. This is one of the best exercises to burn fat fast.
Upper Body Workout
Stand with your palms resting on the ground. Jump back with a force so that both your legs are in a line and you are in a push-up position. Position your shoulders so that your stance remains in a push-up. Raise your hands off the floor and bend into an arch, backward. Then jump feet back toward hands and vertically, reaching arms above your head. You have completed a burpee. Continue for 40 seconds.
Start your body aligned in a push-up position with feet a little wider than shoulder-width. Lower your shoulder deep, just slightly off the ground, again in a push-up. Next, rotate your body to the side, balance carefully as only one hand is on the ground. Return to center for a push-up and rotate to the other side. Repeat for 40 seconds.
Sit on the ground with legs bent and palms resting flat on the ground right next to your hips. Straighten one leg in front of you and raise it to parallel to the ground. Continue shifting one leg to another straightened for 40 seconds.
Begin again in the top of the push-up position. Lower your shoulders to the ground and bring your right knee up to the right elbow. Keeping your left leg straight, hold for 20 seconds. Switch sides and hold for another 20 seconds.
Cardio Blast
Begin on the ground in a plank position. Keeping back straight and hands planted, bring your right hand up to shoulder level. Break into a plank, and lower down into a push-up. When you move up again, bring your left hand to shoulder level. Do eight in all; complete four sets of eight moves.
Start again in push-up position. Bring your right foot near your right hand and put your foot back. Then bring your left foot near your left hand and bring it back again into a plank position. Do ten suicide pushes.
Begin in the push-up position with legs spread wide. Jump legs forward and together, but keep hands planted on the ground. Jump back into the wide push-up position. Complete four pike push-ups.
Do this for a final exercise; begin with hands on the ground, feet together in the pike push-up position. Lower your shoulders to the ground and rise until arms are straight. Repeat four times. This is one of the best belly fat burning workouts.
Cool-Down Stretches
To prepare your body for a cool down, lean slightly forward. Squeeze your core tight and swing your arms around to the sides while simultaneously tapping the same foot behind (so while your left arm swings to the right, your left foot taps behind). Repeat the motion for 30 seconds.
Stand tall with feet hip-width apart. Bend forward and dip your head hanging in a relaxed way right before your legs.
Bring your right arm straight across your chest, and hold it there with your left arm underneath. Hold for 15 seconds with each arm to stretch your triceps. Tap from side to side for the duration.
While standing, bend your right knee in a lunge position and let your hands rest on your knees. Try it on the other side as well. Hold for 15 seconds on each leg to stretch out your quad.
Interval training, in the form of sprints, shuttle runs, and timed lap swimming, has been a favorite among athletes for at least a century. But recently, however, casual exercisers have caught on to its benefits as well. Earlier it was thought that an hour long exercise was enough to lose weight, the pace did not matter. But in the late nineties many types of research including one by Japanese researcher Izumi Tabata, who popularized the Tabata Protocol, suggested that short, intense interval workouts, also regarded as fat burning workouts may give results similar to longer, slower cardio workouts but in a much quicker time period. So the time is ripe to change your exercise routine, who knows, you might reach your fitness goals earlier than you had anticipated.