BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb 30 Second Boost = Higher Metabolism

When you're exercising, work a 30 second boost into your routine, and it apparently really helps your metabolism -

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Yes, that's the science behind interval training. It's the whole thing about your body finding a "comfort spot" and adapting to it, which is why you have weight loss and fitness plateaus or stalls.

Your body learns and becomes efficient (when all is running fairly well) at whatever you ask it to do on a routine basis. So, if you run two miles a day at the same speed, you will be very "efficient" at it.

What you want to do is give your body new challenges every couple of months or so - just when it gets comfortable! LOL

And, intervals are a great way to do that without constantly increasing your time or distance.

I have an article on Adding Intervals to your Walks that could be used for any aerobic workouts.

Another great thing to do is to jump. When I do my tv-walking, I do some jumps - just a few - straight up, like you're trying to touch the ceiling (yes, I have high ones :-) ). This is also very good for bone-building, which is very important to women!

My bike actually does have various interval settings on it but so far I was focusing on surviving So I've just ridden at "6" for whatever length of time. However now that I've hit 15 minutes twice a day, I think I will take your suggestion. When I go for my second set of 15 minutes later on, I will do the interval set. I wonder if I should do the interval at level 6 or maybe level 7 since intervals mean a portion of the ride is done "easier" - I don't want to lose part of my workout here

For jumping, I just set up my Dance Dance Revolution game in the basement where I can jump around - the cement floor is solid. The floor up here is too wiggly for jumping on, the TV moves around too much. So when I play DDR there's a fair amount of jumping in that game I highly recommend it!

I don't know about levels on a bike. Just make sure you're really working harder for those 30 seconds. Like if you were going up a hill or racing someone to the end of the block. On a treadmill, I either crank the speed up like a half a mile per hour, or increase the incline a couple of percent. Or some combination of the two.

There's one trick I use when walking, actually--walk much faster or jog to the next mailbox or street corner, then slow back down to a moderately brisk pace. In running, they call it "fartlek", which is Swedish for "speed play". I think it's a funny word, but it's where interval training really started.

I emailed the kiddos but nobody has offered a PS2 yet!

Fartlek!! That's a cool word OK I'll have to remember that!

It looks like you can get a PS2 for about $50 on eBay - I highly recommend it!! Even if you just got Dance Dance games and used it as a workout machine it is SO fun and really does burn off lots of calories

OK yesterday I tried the interval setting on my bike for the first time. Up until now I'd been doing two 15 minute sessions a day, on the straight "level 6" rating. So the ride had been an equal difficulty for all 15 minutes.

This time I put it on its "hills and valleys" program at level 6, for 15 minutes. I have to say it felt too easy at the beginning and end because it has a "gentle" warm up and wind down period. Maybe it'll help if I do this for 20 minutes rather than 15 minutes - I hear from people that you should ride for 20 minutes to get your heart rate going for long enough. Up until now I couldn't ride for 20 minutes straight but I think my endurance is up now and also with this hills and valleys having easier starts and ending it might work out well.

In general I'm very encouraged since at the beginning of this all I could only ride for 3 minutes before I got tired!!

Lisa, I know i keep harping on a theme, but a warm up and cool down is very important to prevent injury. Take it from one who has been there!

So in the 20 minutes, the extra minutes at the beginning and the end NEED to be easy. You can't just jump on the bike at a high tension and not expect to pay for it eventually. Every trainer in the world will tell you this.

OH, and it's great that your endurance is up!

I know I need to start easy - but this is a bit TOO easy, my legs feel like they're flying around in circles. On a real bike if I started slowly there'd still be a little resistance on it - it's more like the chain fell off Maybe I can tweak the settings a little ...

Deb I use fartleks too when i run. Sure is a funny word, huh? I do feel better after a few intervals, like my blood is happily coursing through me.

Yep, Jilly, I love fartlek!

Lisa, maybe you can either walk in place for a bit, or wear ankle weights for your bike warm up. Or, maybe cut the tension in half would work? Just something so you can warm up your joints & muscles a bit. Jilly's right, if you get on going full out when you're still cold, something could snap.