Busy? Short Workouts Will Do.

If you have a busy schedule, do a 30 minute intense workout to get better results than longer sessions.

All about the hormones
Hormones are powerful messengers that regulate your body. In my nearly 10 years of experience training all types of folks, I’ve found that people in their 20s and 30s can simply workout, eat less, and lose weight. Those over 40 may need to take in consideration hormonal effects and whether or not they are balanced. Whatever your age, you will get better results if you exercise to achieve a hormonal response conducive to fat loss.

So how do you exercise to get the best hormonal response?
Shorter workouts with intense intervals have a much better hormonal response than long steady-state workouts. For cardio type workouts, the ideal time is 20-30 minutes. For weight training workouts 30-45 minutes is ideal with 60 minutes being the maximum duration.

More growth hormone, less exposure to cortisol.
These shorter, more intense workouts will increase growth hormone which is beneficial for body fat loss. They will also produce less cortisol which is often referred to as the stress hormone. Most of us could use less stress and exposure to cortisol. Overexposure to cortisol leads to increased abdominal fat as well as making it more difficult to lose body fat in general. Growth hormone will do the opposite, allowing you to burn fat and gain muscle easier.

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Now before I write myself out of clients, I must add that our 1 hour Bootcamp class is divided up into segments that make a 1 hour class effective. We start with a 5 minute warm-up, then 10 minutes of flexibility work, 35 minutes of cardio and strength exercises, ending with 10 minutes of static stretching. The 35 minutes of roughly half cardio and half weight training makes for an ideal workout time.

References:
1) Marcus C.C.W. Elliott, Phillip P. Wagner, and Loren Chiu, Power Athletes and Distance Training, Physiological and Biomechanical Rationale for Change. USC Sports Med 2007, vol 37, issue 1. Retrieved from: http://www.spartascience.com/publishedresearch_assets/Power%20athletes%20and%20distance%20training%20physiological%20and%20biomechanical%20rationale%20for%20change.pdf
2) Tremblay A, Simoneau JA, Bouchard C. Impact of exercise intensity on body fatness and skeletal muscle metabolism. Metabolism 1994; 43 (7): 814-8 Retrieved from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0026049594902593
3)Shawn Talbot, PH.D., FACSM (2007) The Cortisol Connection - Why Stress Makes You Fat and Ruins Your Health - And What You Can Do About It.
4) Skoluda N, Dettenborn L, Stalder T, Kirschbaum C., Elevated hair cortisol concentrations in endurance athletes. Department of Psychology, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany. 2012 May;37(5):611-7. Epub 2011 Sep 25. PMID: 21944954 Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21944954

Downtown San Jose Fitness Bootcamp. Women's fitness bootcamp class serving the Naglee Park neighborhood and downtown San Jose Area. Women's fitness, bootcamp class, interval training, intense workouts, mom's fitness, cardio class, weight training.