It seems the rapid weight loss world has caught up to the competitive
sports world. Just about anyone who's got their ear to the ground in
the 'losing weight' field can hear the thunder...Do Your
Exercising At Intense Levels To Achieve Rapid Weight Loss.
For decades in the competitive running and cycling arenas, athletes
have been doing 'intervals' of intense training interspersed with rest
periods. Now it's time for people looking to lose weight to benefit
from intervals, too.
You can read an excellent article on Intense
Training by Jason on the subject.
I first noticed the relationship between intense
training and weight loss in the 1990's after my competitive running
career was over. I did my best to maintain fitness with steady state
running, but because I'd had the luxury of eating just about anything I
wanted to when I was competing...and was still in the habit of piling
my plate too high with food, the weight slowly started sticking to my
ribs.
Then I did some intervals with my son and daughter who were
just starting out in racing and noticed that my body weight was coming
down. I also noticed that if I did the intervals hard enough, my heart
rate would be elevated for hours after the workout. Of course, my heart
wasn't pounding away at the rate it was going during the workout, but
it was more than 50% over my resting rate for a long time afterward.
I correctly reasoned that all of that heightened
metabolism after the workout (when I was collapsed on the couch in
exhaustion) was burning up my fat.
In case the idea of exercising to the point of
collapse doesn't toot your whistle, don't despair. It doesn't have to
be as extreme as I was doing it. But you'll certainly benefit from
bumping up your exercise intensity in short bursts, rather than
plugging along at the same effort when you're working out.
How It Works On Bike Trainers
My recent focus has been on writing bike
trainer reviews for my Cycling-Review.com site.
And you know what? There are some styles of exercise equipment that are
more conducive to hard intervals and rapid weight loss than
others...and that includes bicycle trainers.
Let me give you a few examples.
There is a category of bike trainers called fluid trainers. I've done
several Cycleops
Fluid2 trainer reviews and have concluded that this is an
excellent example of a trainer that can dish out more resistance than
even Lance Armstrong can generate. Fluid trainers can resist against
3000 watts of power, while the best sprinters are putting out bursts of
1600 watts when they're sprinting at the end of a Tour de France stage.
So it's no contest when it comes to an intense cyclist versus a fluid
trainer.
My Kurt
Kinetic Road Machine reviews have led me to the same
conclusion. Fluid trainers are the ultimate 'interval-ready' style of
bike trainers.
Contrast that with bicycle wind trainers. Most of
these have such a small impeller that they can't really move enough air
to provide higher levels of resistance. Additionally, when they're
being pushed to their limit, they can produce enough noise to clear the
room.
Unless the exerciser is very much a beginner, wind trainers won't
provide enough resistance to achieve the rapid weight loss type of
workout that Jason writes about.
Bump It Up To Take It Off
Whatever your choice of exercise, you'll achieve rapid weight loss a
lot more effectively by doing intense training. It elevates your
metabolism...not only during exercise, but for hours later. That means
that long after you're done cranking those pedals as hard as you can,
you'll still be losing weight.
About the author: Ron Fritzke
has run a 2:17 marathon many moons ago in 1983, at the Boston Marathon.
Currently, he races his bike in Northern California...all the while
looking for and writing about high quality bike products.
