Short And Sharp Is The Way To Go

Simone Rank is the Head Trainer and Director of YummyMummyFitness and has recently posted a blog on their website at http://www.yummymummyfitness.co.nz , extolling the virtues of ‘short and sharp’ training. Here is what she has to say on this subject.

“A few years ago we were told that exercising slowly will burn fat whereas exercising hard will burn carbs. I believe short and sharp is the way to go for these reasons:

You need to use up all available carbs in your system before your body starts burning fat – this is simply because carbs are much easier to convert into energy than fat so your body will always use them before anything else but at the same time all unused carbs will be stored as fat.

Lesson #1 : Use up all carbs you have consumed throughout the day to stop any leftovers from being stored in fat cells – which is totally not what we want right? - When we exercise hard our body starts working a lot more efficiently and with that gets better at converting already stored fat into energy (once all available carbs have been used)

Lesson #2 : Vigorous exercise kick-starts our metabolism and helps us lose more weight faster while being on a controlled diet.  Why exercise for an hour if we can get the same benefits in 30mins? The longer we exercise for, the more we have to slow down or else we will ‘hit the wall’. A one hour walk will burn the same amount of calories as a 20-30min jog – plus the added benefit of upping your metabolism because we are moving faster and working our muscles harder.

Lesson #3 : If you are time poor – like most of us mums are – use your time wisely, exercise short and sharp several times a week rather than long and slow for more added benefit.  Our muscles will gain more from short and sharp exercise than they will from longer lasting and slower exercise. This makes a huge difference to the way our shape changes as we get fitter and stronger

Lesson #4 : Short & Sharp means more toning and a more athletic body shape. Just look at any athlete – sprinters, marathon runners, track athletes – they all work out at max capacity several times a week (of course this has to be well balanced with rest and endurance to avoid injuries and to achieve maximum results) – but all of them have turned their bodies into fat burning machines that work in training just as much as while resting! Our bodies are amazing machines that can adapt to a lot more than we think we are capable of! Go hard, rest lots, stretch and eat well and you are on your way to a lean, toned and healthy body!

I’d love to hear what you do to get huffy puffy and exercise vigorously? :)

Happy training, Simone x”

Thank you Simone, as always, for your professional and well-timed advice.