Think your fit ? Try 6-9 x 80-100m sprints 10 seconds rest in between each sprint. Exellent fat burner.cardio session done in mins. Less catabolic more efective than a hour on the tred mill. NOT FOR THE FEIGHT HEARTED.

How many times per week?

just use as normal cardio session's you can be done in under 5 mins but dont be fooled it's be proven that high intensity cardio burns more fat stores for up to a hour after excercise.dont eat to much before hand you'll be sick

I?m often asked if it?s possible to increase aerobic and anaerobic capacities at the same time. This article shows that you can, using a very brief training programme.

Dr Izumi Tabata and a team of researchers from the National Institute of health and nutrition in Tokyo set out in 1996 to find the most effective and efficient aerobic training method - this they defined as one that would boost cardiovascular fitness and speed up the fat burning process.

They compared a brief, high intensity program with the more commonly advocated moderate, sustained effort method.

The moderate effort group were asked to ride an exercise cycle at 70 % of VO2 peak for an hour a day, 5 days a week.

The high intensity group were asked to do a brief warm up (4 minutes) and then made to do 8 sets of 20 second maximum intensity sprints on an exercise cycle at 170% VO2 peak with only 10 seconds rest between each repetition.

Result.

The moderate intensity exercisers increased their VO2 max by 10%. Unsurprisingly, they showed no effect on their anabolic capacity. The high intensity group increased their VO2 max by 14% and showed a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity. So a single cardiovascular programme significantly improved both aerobic and anaerobic capacities!

The programme

3 days a week for 8 weeks:

Minutes 1-4 warm up at 50% of perceived maximum effort followed by

Minutes 5-8 inclusive sprint for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds

Minutes 9-12 inclusive warm down at 50% of perceived maximum effort.

If running gets boring, the same programme can be done swimming, skipping, on a road bike or a static bike. It could even be done on a treadmill, jumping to the sides for 10 second rest if you?re mad enough!

The first time through the cycle, it?s a good idea to build up the sprints gradually i.e 75% max first week, 85% max the second, 90-95% max the third or your lungs/heart/legs will find it very hard.

References

Tabata et al, ?The effects of Moderate-Intensity Endurance and High Intensity Intermittent Training on Anaerobic Capacity and VO2 Max.? Reported in Med Sci Sports Exercise 28.10 (1996): 1327-1330

Tabata et al, ?Metabolic Profile of High-Intensity Intermittent Exercises,? Med. Sci Sports Exercise. 29.3(1997): 390-395

Thank you for the article!