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Don't fool yourself - crash dieting and "marathon" gym sessions simply don't work. Your body was never meant to be fat. And getting it back in shape is easier than you think... |
Try These 10 Minute Cardio Drills
By Jon Benson
I bet you've heard that you have to exercise at least 20 minutes before your body starts to burn fat. Is that correct? Well, yes and no.
Today, I'll give you the "no" side of this debate, and how Dr. Len Schwartz, inventor of Heavy Hands™, turned me on to a real time-saving, pleasurable way to get my fat-burning cardio in: 10-minute cardio drills.
Let me tell you how Len discovered this trick. But first, let me tell you a bit about Len.
Dr. Len Schwartz is not just a pioneer in fitness; he's also 81 years old and has a "fitness age" (how old your body “thinks” it is) that is no-doubt in the 20s or 30s. He performs bouts of exercise that I can't come close to doing – yet!
Read Len's bio in my book, Fit Over 40. It is mega-inspiring, and he goes into detail on how he trains specifically to maintain single-digit body fat at 80+.
So, when Len told me that he was now "doing 10-minute sessions of cardio," naturally my interest was piqued. I wondered how that worked, as I bet you are, too. I mean, after all, don't you have to exercise at least 20 minutes to get your fat-burning furnace really fired up?
All I can say is, obviously not!
Len, and many others, are proving this method works—and that your body is smarter than you think it is. However, this is not just "10 minutes and quit". These are 10-minute "drills," or "mini-sessions" of cardio throughout the day.
If you read yesterdays tip, fasting cardio, then you already know you can get your body into fat-burning mode quickly. What I didn't tell you is "how" quickly. When fasting, you are burning fat almost from the first minute of exercise. Now, using that knowledge, you will soon see why multiple, shorter bouts of cardio can burn more fat and do it faster than one long bout.
Back to Len for a moment. Len discovered this trick when he was finding himself pressed for time. His regular one-hour cardio sessions were getting more difficult to fit into his schedule. So he decided to "sacrifice" his results (more on that in a second) and break up his cardio into four 15-minute sessions.
Len reasoned that "anyone can find 15 minutes here and there," and he was correct. That should be a great lesson for you right there—lack of time is one of the more common excuses people make for not exercising. However, if you get clever, you can always create the time you need.
Len soon increased this to six sessions of just 10 minutes each, just as an experiment. His results didn't suffer. In fact, they improved over his long-bout sessions.
A study was done in 2005 that supported this notion of brief cardio for fat loss. Without going into the boring details, the study concluded that multiple shorter sessions of cardio were "no less beneficial for heart health" and stimulated "a slightly greater increase" in fat-burning.
You do not need six sessions, unless you're really wanting to get super-lean. Three 10-minute sessions would be a great start. Like Len says, anyone can find 10 minutes. You just need something you can do during that 10 minutes that's effective and convenient.
Len's Heavy Hands is an ideal tool to use for that. I do not sell gym equipment, but I use an online company called Big Fitness to purchase my own. They save me about 30-40% off retail. You can find Heavy Hands there for under $30.
Other options include a brisk walk, simple stairs (walk up and down your office stairs for 10 minutes), or if you have a home or nearby gym, any number of cardio devices. Either way, give the 10-minute cardio drill a shot. You may find that you burn a lot more fat—and your "lack of time" excuse gets burned up at the same time!
You Should Sign Up for Fit Over 40 Here.
