Crunches, leg lifts and bicycle kicks have their time and place when it comes to abdominal training. Although they can tone and tighten the abs, the one thing they can't do is burn high amounts of fat. The only way you can do this is through cardiovascular exercise.
Interval training is a high intensity form of cardio that improves your aerobic capacity and causes you to burn more calories than regular cardio according to the Mayo Clinic. Since weight is lost throughout the body as a whole, use interval training to shrink your belly.
Step 1
Stretch your body dynamically before you start your workout. Dynamic stretches are done in motion and they get your body ready for exercising movements. Perform stretches like lateral lunges, leg swings, arms swings, arm crossovers, shoulder shrugs, shoulder rotations, side bends, trunk rotations and alternating toe touches. Do 12 to 15 reps of each stretch.
Step 2
Perform a light warm-up to get your core body temperature elevated and to further loosen up your muscles and joints. Use running for example. Start out walking slowly and gradually pick up your pace until you are jogging lightly. Continue at this pace for five to ten minutes.
Step 3
Increase your pace to do your high intensity interval. Run at an intensity that is about 75 to 80 percent of your maximum effort. You should be breathing heavily at this point and not be able to carry on a conversation if you are trying to talk. Remain at this pace for 20 seconds.
Step 4
Reduce your pace for your low intensity interval. Run at a point where you are at about 50 percent of your maximum effort. Take long, deep breaths and stay at this pace for 40 seconds.
Step 5
Continue your workout. Increase your speed back to your high point, then go back to your low point. Alternate back and forth for 20 to 30 minutes and finish with a light five minute cool-down. Treat your cool-down like your warm-up but in reverse order. Start with jogging, then progressively decrease your speed until you are walking briskly, then slowly.
Step 6
Exercise often enough, but not too much. Work out three days a week on alternating days. Do not perform interval training on consecutive days because of its intensity.
Tips and Warnings
- Running is only an example. Perform any type of cardio for your interval training, such as elliptical training, stair climbing, indoor cycling, rowing, jumping rope or inline skating. The only important thing is that you alternate back and forth with your intensity. When doing your intervals, 20 seconds and 40 seconds are just examples. Use any time frames you want and work your way up to longer intervals as you adapt to the training. The key thing is to make your low intensity intervals twice as long as your high intensity bursts.
- Interval training is intense. If you have not exercised in a while, make sure to get your doctor's approval before doing it.
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