Love Notes by Jari Love

Interval Training For Fast Results

by Jari Love

Want to get more out of your workouts? Then try interval training for fast results!
There’s a little secret in the fitness world called interval training.
What is interval training? Rather than doing the same cardio exercise your entire workout, interval training alternates short, high-intensity bursts of exercise with slower, low-intensity periods of recovery.
Research has shown that such intervals of high and low-intensity activity burn more calories and build fitness quicker in a shorter amount of time.
Once designed for elite athletes, interval training is now something the average fit person can try. You don’t need fancy equipment or special training to rev up your routine with interval training.
Read on to learn more about this fast, slow, fast, slow method of training and weight loss.

Theory Behind Interval Training
By alternating high-intensity movements with low-intensity movements, you’re working both your aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen) systems. High-intensity exercise causes your muscles to produce lactic acid (waste products), which lead to muscle soreness. Too much lactic acid build up causes exercise to become exhausting and painful.
Alternating hard and easy exercise will reduce the amount of lactic acid that accumulates, thereby making exercise more comfortable, improving your endurance and increasing your speed.

Interval Length
So how long should intervals be?
The answer is, it doesn’t matter.
There are no real hard-and-fast rules about interval length. Varying lengths bring varying benefits. So how fast and how often you pick up the pace depends on you.
Beginners should aim for no longer than 30 seconds of high-intensity bursts. If you’re feeling strong and are in good shape, go ahead and push yourself a bit longer.

Know the Risks
While a no-rules approach may sound appealing, interval training isn’t for the beginner. If you’re new in the land of fitness, take your time as you increase the intensity of your workouts.
Rushing into high-intensity exercise may lead to injury. Start out slowly. Add one or two high-intensity intervals each workout. Slow down if you feel you’re overdoing it. As your stamina increases, feel free to challenge yourself.

Sample Workouts
Remember, there’s no set rule about how to do interval training. It can be tailored to your fitness level and type of exercise.
An interval-training workout involves four variables that can be changed to meet your goals: intensity of intervals, duration of intervals, duration of recovery intervals, and the number of interval repetitions.
Interval training can be casual, spur of the moment bursts of activity depending on how you’re feeling that day or if you’re working towards a more specific sports or fitness goal you can take a more sophisticated, scientific approach.
Interval training workouts have been designed for plyometrics, sprints, stair running, jump rope, speed drills, and agility drills.
A simple example of interval training for walking would be to add short bursts of jogging or alternate slower walking with brisk walking. If you walk outdoors, you could jog or walk faster between certain landmarks such as mailboxes or street signs, then slow down for a short distance.
A second example that really gets your heart pumping and improves fitness in a short amount of time includes running, rowing, or cycling. Warm up for about 15 minutes, then run, row, or cycle as hard as you can (at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate) for three minutes. Then go easy for three minutes, allowing your body to recover. Repeat these three-minute intervals of high- and low-intensity exercise three or four times. Then cool down for 10 minutes.

Increase Your Intensity
To get the most out of your interval training try the following:
• Add Resistance. Between sets of cardio do a set with dumbbells, resistance bands or with your body weight.
• Increase Speed. Really push yourself during the sprinting intervals. Remember, it’s only a handful of seconds.
• Lengthen Intervals. Add a few seconds to your intense intervals.
• Change Exercises. If you’ve been sprinting then switch to burpees or high knees.

Here are WORKOUTS that help you increase your exercise intensity.

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

DO YOU MAKE THESE 5 FITNESS MISTAKES?

by Jari Love

Stroll through any gym and you’ll notice many mistakes. Mistakes that waste time. Mistakes that put people in danger. And mistakes that are just plain crazy.
Maybe you even make a few of these mistakes yourself.
By avoiding these common blunders, you’ll put yourself on the fast track to results.

Check out the following 5 fitness mistakes and the solutions you need to avoid danger and to get fit fast.

Mistake 1: You use the wrong weight
The goal is to challenge your muscles, not to simply go through the motions. If you are able to complete 15 repetitions easily, then the weight is too light. On the flip side, if you aren’t able to perform an exercise through its full range of motion, and find yourself cheating on form, then the weight is too heavy.
The correct weights will feel challenging by your last few repetitions, but won’t force you to sacrifice form.
Mistake 2: You do the same routine
You may have noticed that most people do the same exercises each time they visit the gym. Maybe you’ve been doing the same exercise routine as long as you can remember – if it isn’t broken then don’t fix it, right?
The truth is that exercise routines have expiration dates, and that is the date that they begin to lose their effectiveness. As a rule of thumb never use the same routine for more than 4 weeks.
Mistake 3: You don’t warm up
Most people consider warm up time to be wasted time – they’d rather jump right into the heart of the routine. What they don’t realize is that a good warm up will allow you to perform at a higher intensity, which means greater results.
The point of a warm up is to increase your muscle temperature. This increases blood flow, muscle contraction and reduces muscle resistance. Your warm up should last 5-10 minutes.
Mistake 4: You use bad form
Gyms are filled with people performing exercises with bad form. The two biggest reasons are that you aren’t concentrating on the exercise, or you’re trying to lift weight that is too heavy. Lifting with improper form almost always results in injury.
Take the time to achieve proper form, by doing so you’ll avoid injury and will reap the full benefit from each exercise.
Mistake 5: You workout alone
People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and typically see fewer results. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Why rush to the gym if no one is there waiting for you? Why push yourself if no one is watching? Exercising alone is a recipe for disaster.

Jari Love – original creator of Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Food Lie #6: It’s not just genes: What it’s like to work out like a Victoria’s Secret model

by Jari Love

Food lie #6 says that being thin is all about your genetics. This couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not the “skinny gene” that gets passed down from one generation to another, it’s the lifestyles that support being the “ideal” weight. If your parents tend to be overweight or obese, your chances of being overweight or obese are also high. But not from the genetics, but from the lifestyle that is modeled for you. Speaking of models, read this article from a fitness blogger and re-evaluate your perception of the models.

Fitness blogger Poppy Cross found out first-hand what it takes to look like a Victoria’s Secret model.

Victoria’s Secret models don’t break a sweat as they glide down the catwalk – and it’s hard to imagine they’d ever need to. Didn’t they just drop from the sky, all slender and sleek with a whisper of a waist and divinely sculpted thighs?

Not quite. The truth is that looking like an “Angel” (the brand’s upper echelon contract models) takes serious slog. Behind the lace is a “military mind and athlete’s performance”, says one blogger who has laid the truth bare.

After four months on the same “relentless and intense” exercise regime followed by the models, London-based fitness blogger and journalist Poppy Cross wrote about her experience in The Mail on Sunday.

The 29-year-old said nothing could have prepared her for the mental and physical challenge that lay in store.

“There’s a reason the VS models are known as athletes,” Cross told Stuff. “They have to have lean muscle as opposed to the regular rake-thin catwalk model. It’s about sexiness not skinniness.”

From lifting weights and running to boxing, ballet and pilates, all manner of methods are employed to get those rock-hard abs, she says.

Adriana Lima’s workout routine includes HIIT training, boxing the bag, yoga and capoeira – a type of martial art. Photo: Victoria's Secret/Instagram

“VS models all have different routines. Three months pre-show, they all increase their workout intensity. Adriana Lima admits she trains twice a day in the run-up – favouring boxing and jumping rope,” says Cross.

On her blog, Cross quotes Victoria’s Secret creative director, Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou, saying: “It’s really like being an Olympian – they have to be in peak condition.”

And as Cross learnt for herself, looking like a past or present Angel, such as Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Adriana Lima, Gisele Bundchen, Helena Christensen or Miranda Kerr, is no stroll through a meadow.

SO WHAT’S INVOLVED?

Genetics do play a role, says Cross. “Victoria’s Secret requires all its Angels to be 5-foot 9-inches tall and have 24-inch waists.”

But that’s just the beginning. To be a Victoria’s Secret model, you also need 18 per cent body fat or lower, says Cross.

At 5ft 9in with a 26-inch waist, Cross already had the fundamentals when starting the programme, but at 22.2 per cent body fat, she had a way to go before reaching Victoria’s Secret standards.

She was told by personal trainer Dan Roberts, who works with the models, that she needed glutes “as solid as concrete”, sharply-defined obliques, muscles in her skinny arms “to get the Gisele-esque lines” and more definition in her thighs.

Before starting the programme Poppy Cross was already very slim, but afterwards gained more lean muscle. 

That meant a lot of weight training, including dead-lifts, weighted lunges, tricep dips and press-ups. After one month she was physically and mentally exhausted, but by month three she was deadlifting 72kg.

One of the brand’s most famous angels, Alessandra Ambrosio, has said “you put all your mind, all your everything” into the role.

She tries to work out at least once a day, alternating between a lot of weights and then no weights at all. She throws in some ballet, and is a huge fan of pilates, spin classes and yoga. She also spends time running after her two kids and playing with them in the pool.

WHAT ABOUT DIET?

Foodwise, Cross was put on a calorie-restricted high-fat, high-protein, low-carb diet, which meant chicken, fish or beef with almost every meal. Sugar was out, including fruit. Vegetables were allowed initially, but on the pre-catwalk diet, it was all proteins and fats, she wrote in The Mail on Sunday. “Extreme low-carb diets push the body into a state called ketosis, which means that it primarily burns fat for energy.”

Her diet, devised by nutritionist Dr Charles Passler who also works with the models, ensured she had the nutrients required to be healthy.

By the end of the programme, Cross got down to 17 per cent body fat. Because she’d garnered so much lean muscle, she didn’t lose weight, but dropped at least a dress size and shrunk her waist.

In her blog, she says even her cholesterol levels came down marginally. Coupled with her lower glucose levels, that meant a healthier metabolic profile.

SO THE UPSHOT?

At the end of her challenge, Cross felt “healthier, fitter and firmer, which is a positive result”.

She’s also learnt how much time and effort is needed to build lean muscle. “Anyone who thinks that the VS models rely solely on starvation and genetics is wrong,” says Cross in her blog.

So then, given the hard graft, should any of us look on in envy when the Angels strut their stuff, or rather count ourselves lucky as we scoff our chips and dip?

“If you want to make it your career then you could train like them! It’s actually a privilege to look after your body on that scale and feel so physically fit,” she told Stuff.

In her blog, she says the hours and dedication required to be VS catwalk-ready would be impossible to maintain if you have a job, family or want an enriching social life (ie. where you can eat whatever arrives on your dinner plate).

Cross says even Adriana Lima claims to only do strict diets before a show – “after the show, I become normal again” – whatever “normal” may constitute for the likes of a super-being like Lima. Via stuff.co.nz

Jari Love – original creator of  Get RIPPED! DVD series and group exercise classes. The hot-selling and critically acclaimed Get RIPPED! series enables individuals of any fitness level to burn up to three times more calories than the traditional weight-training program, and has received rave reviews from fitness critics throughout North America since the first title debuted in late 2005.

Belly Bloat Solutions

by Jari Love

Looking to trim down to get fit and have that flat belly? Sometimes it’s “easier said than done.” It may not be the extra weight around the midsection that is preventing you from enjoying a trim and toned tummy!

There are foods, eating habits, and other issues that can lead to a bit of bloat, and all of the crunches and abdominal exercises in the world won't overcome them. So, if you want to get that flat stomach for the upcoming beach weather or just so you can feel more comfortable in your everyday clothing, follow our belly bloat solutions:

• Too much fiber too fast - If you have just started a diet in order to shed some weight, you may have added too much fiber, too quickly. As an example, if you switched from white to whole grain bread and rice, added a few cups of fresh raw vegetables, and a serving of lentils or beans to each day's food - well, you are definitely going to be bloated until your digestive tract adjusts. Slow it down on the fiber, add it slowly, drink lots of water, and get plenty of exercise. In as little as two or three weeks you should be able to go "full fiber" without any troubles.

• Swallowing air – Have you been using a straw to drink water or beverages, talking while eating, chewing gum, or consuming soda and carbonated beverages? Any of these behaviors can allow you to swallow gas and trap air in your belly! This has to make its way through the entire system, and along the trip, it is going to cause belly bloat.

• Forbidden foods - Do you have lactose intolerance? Perhaps you get a bit of bloat when you eat foods containing gluten? Many people with unexplained bloating are witnessing the results of intolerance. Issues like celiac disease cause irritation and an inability for the intestines to absorb nutrients, and this leads to bloating.

There are other issues that might give you an undesirable "pooch" in the upper or lower abdominal area. Fortunately, you can often begin to address this by making changes such as those above, drinking plenty of water, and getting at least 30 minutes of exercise each day. These behaviors ensure that your digestive system is functioning properly and that your entire abdominal area remains as flat as possible.