Continuous & interval training

As part of your regular cardiovascular program, you should be implementing both continuous and interval training.

There are a great many advantages to doing cardio work and both continuous and interval training will offer a unique set of benefits to your body and overall fitness level.

When first starting cardio work, you will likely want to perform a lot more sessions that are at a steady, ongoing pace as this will be a good way to build a solid base upon which to build on. Furthermore, since you are not that advanced yet you will need something that isn't overly challenging and usually this is the form of exercise that is most appropriate.

After you have done that for a month or two, then you can move into adding both continuous and interval training. The latter type of session is the one that is really going to kick your fitness level up a notch and really get you seeing results in terms of lowering your body fat percentage.

To perform these types of workouts you will want to go at an a very high pace for a period of thirty seconds to one minute followed immediately with an 'active rest' period where you will work at a much lower intensity for either two or three times as long as the 'sprint' portion was. So, you are aiming your ratio for sprint to rest to be either 1:2 or 1:3.

You will then repeat this protocol for a total of six to eight repetitions, lasting approximately twenty to twenty five minutes. As it is a very intense form of exercise, if you are unable to perform that many to start off with, don't be too concerned. Just focus on doing two or three but keeping the intensity level high as that's what this type of session is all about.

Also be sure that you are doing a five minute warm-up and cool down so you don't overly stress your body to begin with and also allow a good chance for the heart rate to return to normal after completion.

Finally, if you are really interested in increasing your fat burn, one protocol you can try is doing your sprints then followed by 20 minutes at a steady state pace. This enables you to release a high number of fatty acids into the body (during the sprints) and then burn them off with the steady state cardio at the end.