Austin Fitness Extreme

So I always get asked these two questions: "what is the best way to lose weight?" and "is running good for losing weight?" Well lets start with the first one.

In My opinion the very best way to burn fat (with regards to exercise) is to do high intensity intervals. Let me give you an example. Say you are on a 1/4 mile track. Jog half a lap, sprint half a lap. Repeat for 4-8 laps. "Sprint intervals", as I like to call them can kick you butt. The thing I always tell my clients is that you can take that jog/sprint principle and apply it to any exercise. I repeat ANY EXERCISE! Take bench press. You do a bench press with 1oo lbs for 20 reps. You then do abdominal crunches for 20 reps. Repeat 4 times. As your chest,shoulders and triceps fatigue, you give them a break with crunches. You are still keeping your overall heart rate up and your exercising another body part. Just as you chest has started to recover you hit it again for another 20 reps. By the end of 4 rotations your entire body feels fatigued. Again you can take this "sprint interval" system and apply it to any exercise. Spin Class, a very popular form of group exercise, is essentially one big sprint interval class. Austin Fitness Extreme incorporates the "sprint interval" system.

Running! BLLAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH. I hate running. With a passion! I would rather have my nose hairs pulled out with flaming tweezers than run.................but, I still make myself run. I love to run in the heat. If I'm going to be miserable , I may as well just be full on miserable. I'm a little sadistic. I have run 3 half marathons and 2 full marathons(one of which was Pikes Peak marathon) and I still dread the trail. I must admit running is a wonderful form of exercise. With that said , I am a firm believer that you can over do it and injure yourself. While our legs are designed for travel, our joints need a break from time to time. The pounding that your body takes from running can cause a multitude of problems as time goes on. Knees,back,hips,feet can all suffer from constant running. Not to mention those nasty blisters. My suggestion for you runners is to periodically take some time off. Try swimming to keep your cardio conditioning up. Swimming will increase your cardio and never give your body the pounding that running some times can.

What if I want to do both? Try this. Grab a pair of 15lb dumbells. Now bring those to a treadmill and set them down next to the treadmill.