4 Reasons Why Short Workouts Are Better Than Long Workouts

If you think you have to devote enormous amounts of your time to fitness in order to see results, I’ve got good new for you.

The science says otherwise.

In recent years the fitness research has moved more and more towards how to get the greatest results from the shortest amount of time possible–which is nice since time is becoming rarer these days.

What’s even better is that we’ve figured out how to actually get BETTER results from a smaller amount of time working out than doing longer sessions.

 

Skeptical?

I’ll explain to you why this works. Why shorter workouts burn more fat than longer workouts.

 

1. They keep the heart rate (& calorie burn) going fast

There’s not much downtime. All of your time is spent burning fat.

This is hard to sustain when your workouts are really long.

If you were to run as fast as you could all the way around a track, you wouldn’t give it nearly the intensity that you would if you were to run as fast as you could for a much shorter distance.

Intensity Increases

When it comes to burning fat, all that matters is whether or not your body is using enough of it’s energy in order for it to pull from your fat reserves to help.

Going for a jog just isn’t intense enough to make your body pull from its fat reserves for quite a while.

Which is why you MUST workout for a long stretch of time with cardio in order to see results.

But when you keep your workouts short you’re able to up the intensity dramatically, which immediately sends your body into fat burning mode.

Sprinting will do more than jogging the same distance

If we both run the same distance, or we both do the same amount of repetitions of an exercise, it doesn’t mean we’ll burn the same amount of calories.

The person who is going the fastest will.

Even though we both did the same amount of work.

Intensity beats duration (amount of time) every time.

It’s called HIIT

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training.

It’s the current direction for fat burning and weight loss, based on the nehttps://www.austinkickboxingandjiujitsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/placeholder-vertical-1.jpgt scientific research.

There are plenty of articles that break down exactly how it works–or you can join a fitness gym that utilizes its principles in their classes.

I’m glad HIIT works so well, because it’s also way more fun and much less time consuming than the old way of losing weight.

2. Creates Afterburn

When I first heard about “Afterburn” I thought someone was pulling my leg.

Then I did the research, and sure enough–“Afterburn” is real.

Basically, when you put your body into fat burning mode using the correct principles, your body stays in that mode for up to 2 days afterwards.

That means that your body is burning more calories non-stop throughout the rest of your day–and the next.

I like to imagine that working out (using HIIT) is like spinning a basketball.

When you stop spinning it, it still takes a long time before it returns back to normal again.

3. Your body will adapt to long sessions

The more we do something, the more our bodies try to figure out how to conserve energy while we do it.

Luckily, short sessions don’t give your body much of a chance to figure out how to conserve it’s energy, unlike longer sessions.

And the variety used in a Boot Camp or Fitness Kickboxing workout, or something similar, makes it nearly impossible for your body to adapt and stop burning as many calories.

So our body is constantly being tricked into burning the most amount of calories possible.

4. People are more likely to stick with it

When it comes down to it, this is probably the most important aspect of why shorter workout sessions are better than longer ones.

After all, none of the research matters if you’re not doing ANYthing.

Shorter workouts fit people’s schedules better.

All you need is 45 mins to spare and you can fit in an entire workout, warm-up and cool-down included.

With that said, if you are more likely to stick with a longer, more “cardio” style, workout, then THAT is the workout for you.

The most important factor in your weight loss is consistency.

So find something that you know you’ll stick with and do that.

 

Coach Forrest