place.
What is the catalyst needed to jump start this process? An increase in your metabolism is the answer. If you do any sort of cardio, and you do it for calorie burning reasons, in a perfect world you don?t want the burn to stop after you leave the gym. In order to do that, you should strive to increase your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) so it burns fat long after the workout is over.
Enter what we like to call Metabolic Interval Training, or M.I.T for short. This form of high-intensity interval training will help you burn fat even while you sleep. What is M.I.T.? It is a combination of exercises followed by short rest periods. The best part of what we believe to be in using M.I.T. is that the more you do it, the more effectively
you can burn fat. The more muscle you put on, the less body fat you have, which results in a higher RMR. This does not mean of course that you should stop doing other types of cardio in favor of M.I.T.
But, it's important to also know how each type of training affects your joints and muscles. By running on the treadmill for 30 minutes, you are performing thousands of reps. All of it focused on the joints of the hips, knees, and ankles. When you perform M.I.T. you do less repetitions spread out over your entire body. New York strength and conditioning coach Kenny Hinchman, co-owner of East Coast Athletic Development says, "I've seen my clients burn a lot more fat with circuits than they even did with steady-state cardio. Even with clients who have pre-existing injuries, I can keep their intensity up while choosing movements that don't kill their joints." One additional point is that the longer you exercise at a steady, continuous pace, the more muscle destroying hormones your body produces, cortisol, estrogen, which in turn creates unnecessary stress on your body.
With M.I.T. a workout is unique to the individual who performs them. And depending on the trainer who programs the workout, it can be structured so as to not over-burden a particular muscle group. For a list of exercises we use during M.I.T. send a quick note. If you wish to try this on your own, take a couple (2, 3, 4 simple exercises) and combine them as a group with no rest in-between reps. Upon completion of the set, take a minute or so rest in between. Voila, you have your own interval-training program.
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