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Can you think of anything more torturous than spending an hour pedaling away on a bike or plodding along on the treadmill? You're not alone. Most exercise enthusiasts dread conventional cardio - why?

Because it's b-o-r-i-n-g.

So why do it at all? The goal of a cardio workout is to lose the unwanted inches and to develop the efficiency of your heart and lungs. But new studies are out that show our slow-go cardio sessions may not be as effective for burning off that holiday bulge as we thought.

When you plod along on the treadmill at an even pace, your body enters what is called a steady state. This means that your body has adjusted to the pace and is now trying to conserve energy.

Conserve energy? But I thought the point was to burn energy?

And so your dilemma goes: You can't stand the monotony of traditional cardio and it leaves you with less than satisfactory results. So what should you do?

The answer is HIIT, a new training technique that blasts both boredom and fat.


Check out what experts are saying:

"In research, HIIT has been shown to burn adipose (fat) tissue more effectively than low-intensity exercise - up to 50% more efficiently."

"HIIT speeds up your metabolism and keeps it revved up for some time after your workout. The bottom line is that HIIT training burns a greater number of total calories than low-intensity training, and more calories burned equals less fat on your body."

What is HIIT?

High-Intensity Interval Training: is an exercise strategy that improves performance with short training sessions. These sessions involve a warm up period, several short, maximum-intensity efforts that are separated by moderate recovery intervals, and a cool down period.

In other words, your 60 minutes of low-intensity cardio is replaced with more effective, High Intensity Interval Training for as little as 15 minutes. The addition of explosions of speed into your comfortable pace will increase your power, muscle tone, speed, strength, endurance and best of all will melt the inches off.

Here is an example of a HIIT program - this can be done on any form of cardio equipment or even jogging outside or swimming laps:

Start with an easy 4 minute warm up, casually increasing your pace to the one that you usually maintain for your workout.
Once you are sufficiently warm, sky rocket your intensity for 30 seconds.
Return to your normal pace for the next 30 seconds and then sky rocket again.
Repeat this 30-30 interval for 6 minutes and then gradually decrease your intensity as you enter a cooling off pace.


After your HIIT session you can expect to burn more calories due to an increase in your metabolism - sounds good, right?

Spencer Cuckney is a certified personal trainer with over 16 years experience and can be contacted on 07919 101 208 or at info@fitnessmaster.co.uk

Assure Your Fitness Success in the New Year

It's that time of year again - time for the infamous New Year's Resolution. If you are like most people that I know then one of your top resolutions will be to get into better shape this year. Shaping up for the New Year is a phenomenal goal to have.

Did you know that 80% of New Year's Resolutions are unsuccessful?

That means that out of your 10 closest friends 8 will fail to meet their goal - I'm not too excited about those odds, are you? The good news is that you have what it takes to be one of that elite 20% who do meet their goal. How? Glad you asked - read on for 5 guidelines that will guarantee your 2007 fitness goals.

1. Write Your Resolution as a Contract - and Sign It

I know it sounds strangely official, but that is precisely the point. First take your resolution and write it out in very specific detail. Below your resolution make a To-Do List of activities that go hand-in-hand with accomplishing your goal. Now sign and date the contract.

Here is an example:
In the year 2007 I resolve to drop 25-pounds at a consistent rate of 2 pounds per month.
In order to meet my goal I will:
1. Walk 1 mile 3 times a week
2. Only eat 1 dessert item per week
3. Meet with my personal trainer 3 times a week

2. Visualize Your Success

This is the easiest step to take to make sure that you attain your goal, but it is also the most overlooked. The power of creative visualization is undeniable and has been proven time and time again by go-getters such as Michael Jordan, Einstein, Napoleon and Andrew Carnegie.

The way to use creative visualization to reach your goals is to let yourself visualize what it would be like to have already achieved this goal. Take a moment to let yourself feel the excitement. Your goal has been met and you are now 25 pounds lighter, you can see how amazing you look, you can feel new confidence building, you can even see the reactions of those that you love as they see the new you.

Remember what accomplishing your goal feels like - this experience will keep you motivated and will help pull you through the inevitable difficulties of making the changes you want.

3. Be Realistic In Your Goal

As you go about choosing your goal it is important that you find one that is realistic. Dropping 100 pounds in one year (though not impossible) is probably not the most realistic goal. Be careful not to aim too low either - losing 2 pounds in a year may be too easy - you should challenge yourself and expect substantial change within a practical realm.

The best way to set yourself up for failure is to make New Year's Resolutions that are simply unattainable. Rather than setting yourself up for a fall, find goals that are realistically within your reach.

4. Tell Everyone You Know

I know what you are thinking - why tell everyone your goal when you may not ever meet it? Isn't that just embarrassing? No - because you will meet your goal once you place this added motivation on your shoulders.

Friends and family members can be a treasure chest filled with support and encouragement. You may even find that someone close to you also shares a similar goal - and now you have a built in buddy for motivation.

If your family isn't very supportive, take heart. You still have a good reason for telling them your goal - it's a little thing called the guilt factor. Even if you aren't being showered with support you will still feel a shade of embarrassment or guilt when your resolve begins to slip - but this only works if those around you are clued into your goals to begin with.

5. Meet with a Professional

The ultimate way to guarantee your fitness success in 2007 is to meet with a trained professional. Every pro in every industry has a coach. Top athletes have coaches that give them the edge. The most successful business people have wealth coaches who guide them to riches. Well, fitness is my specialty - and since you are serious about creating a healthy and fit physique - guarantee your results by teaming up with me, your fitness coach.

Together we will come up with a fitness plan that is uniquely yours, one that fits your lifestyle and brings you maximum results in minimum time - something that you will appreciate as your resolutions are checked off.

Think Positive

New Year's Resolutions can begin to feel like one big punishment - Don't eat this, Don't eat that, and Exercise, Exercise, Exercise. Instead look on the positive side by focusing on all of the new and tasty healthy foods that you are able to eat and remind yourself that the satisfaction you will get by meeting your fitness goals is worth every drop of sweat.

Spencer Cuckney is a certified personal trainer with 16 years experience and can be contacted on 07919 101 208 or at info@fitnessmaster.co.uk

Cardio Fitness

When considering improving your cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary fitness there are really only three ways to do this or more accurately there are three techniques to get you much fitter.
But before i get to these there are also three other points to consider and these are the three main principles of fitness Frequency, intensity and duration. Frequency being how often - ideally 3-5 times per week, intensity how hard - ideally 70-85% of maximum heart rate or slightly hard to hard on a RPE scale and duration being the length of the exercise time - ideally somewhere between 20 minutes and an hour.

The three technique to use when improving cardio fitness are:

1. Steady rate training - This is when you can maintain the pace you are working at from anywhere between 10 minutes and 60 minutes approximately. This in heart rate terms is about 70% of maximum heart rate and is termed aerobic training. This is when you are jogging, running, cycling or swimming for any length of time. You utilise fat and glycogen jointly as well as improving your general fitness.
   
2. Interval training - This type of training is defined broadly as high intensity work followed by periods of recovery i.e. run fast for two minutes and then walk slow for two minutes and repeat, this has been proved by many studies to be far more effective at fat loss than steady rate training as for the same time period you burn more calories, keep your metabolism higher after exercise for longer and also keeps the body guessing as to what is coming next.
3. Fartlek training - This type of training is a combination of the above and more. Typically you could walk fast, run fast, jogg up hills and constantly change terrain. You can basically run whatever distance at whatever pace and keep changing the pace. Originally derived from the Swedish word speedplay.

If you use the three techniques described above in a structured training programme and manipulate the principles also described above then you will achieve a very good level of cardio fitness.

Spencer Cuckney is a certified personal trainer with over 16 years experience and can be contacted on 07919 101 208 and also on info@fitnessmaster.co.uk

Expert Help

One of the most effective ways to becoming fit and healthy is to enlist the services of a professional, in this case a Personal fitness trainer.
If you are looking to service your car you would take it to a reputable garage, the same applies if you wish to build an extension to your house you would go to a reputable well known builder. This will apply to pretty much everything in life for example if you have a burst pipe you would enlist a plumber, if you have toothache you would go to the dentist - so when considering on how to make the most of your most important asset - YOURSELF - it would make sense on hiring a reputable well known professional trainer. Below i have listed 6 reasons on why you should choose a personal fitness trainer:

1. Safety - probably the most important reason is to make sure that your workouts are safe, with an experienced and well qualified personal trainer they will make sure that the type of exercise you are doing is RIGHT for you and that you perform the exercises correctly.
2. Efficiency - These days one of the main reasons people give for not getting fit is lack of time. So it would make sense to have a workout that is time efficient and gives you the results that you require. A personal trainer will design a programme that will do this. you only have to look at the masses of people that train in the local gym for hours on end and never actually get anywhere.
   
3. Weight loss - The major concern for people these days is obesity - there is no better way than hiring a trainer to help you lose body fat, they will educate you, help you set goals, track your progress and make you accountable.
   
4. Home training - As previously mentioned time is a major factor that people consider when starting a fitness regime. If you join a local gym you will have to travel there, get into the changing rooms, get changed , make your way to the gym and spend an hour on your standard one size fits all programme and then you have to get showered, changed and back to your home or office. When you have a trainer visit you at home or in the office it saves a lot of time and with their experience the programme will be shorter and more effective.
   
5. Specific training programmes - If you have a health concern or are interested in a particular sport then a trainer is ideal to help you tailor that programme. This could be the case if you are a diabetic, have heart problems or are interested in running a marathon - a good trainer will have experience in these fields.
6. Motivation - One of the main reasons people quit there fitness routines is motivation, a trainer will provide top rate motivation at all times, a trainer will also help to structure your routines and make you accountible. this will certainly keep you on track year in year out.
   

Spencer Cuckney is a certified personal trainer with 16 years experience he can be contacted on 07919 101 208 or at info@fitnessmaster.co.uk.