Geschatte leestijd: 4 minutenDo you also hate those endless cardio sessions that take up your entire workout time?
An hour on the treadmill, three-quarters of an hour on the elliptical, cycling for miles on the stationary bike… it can drive you crazy!
But… of course, you still want to lose that extra fat! So you hop back on that bike, treadmill, or elliptical.
What if I told you that there’s a solution where you can achieve more results in less time with your cardio workouts?
Bill Phillips – yes, he of Body-for-Life fame – has found a method to achieve the same or even better results in twenty minutes than in all those hours-long workouts that most athletes do.
He calls it the…
20 Minute Cardio Solution™
The workouts in the Body-for-Life program all use the Intensity Index. The Intensity Index is a scale ranging from level 1 to 10 and measures the energy you generate during your training.
Level 1 is lounging on the couch, level 10 is the most intensive thing you can do for a certain period or with a certain weight. Level 10 could, for example, be an all-out sprint or the most painful set of bench presses you can imagine.
The beauty of the Intensity Index is that it doesn’t say anything about the speed of your sprint or the weight you’re bench pressing. It’s about what a level means to you personally. If you can sprint at a maximum speed of 5 kilometers per hour, that’s level 10 for you. If you sprint at 20 kilometers per hour, that is your level 10.
The 20 Minute Cardio Solution makes good use of this Intensity Index. On the treadmill, for example, you start by walking slowly, and using a faster setting or a steeper incline, you increase the intensity. The same goes for all the equipment you can use for your cardio workouts: you adjust the machine to a heavier or faster setting to increase your intensity.
Outside the gym, you can also use the 20 Minute Cardio Solution very effectively. You may not have all the options of inclines or heavier settings, but you can easily adjust your speed. So you can run faster or bike harder. With a little imagination, you can intensify your training in all sorts of ways.
It usually takes some practice before you can recognize the right intensity levels. Often you start too light or too slow, or you start too heavy or too fast. After training a few times, you will naturally find out where your different levels lie, and you can gradually increase the intensity of a level as you become more trained.
How to do the 20 Minute Cardio Solution?
The 20 Minute Cardio Solution™ is an interval training that takes you from a moderate to a high level several times during your workout. That’s what I like about this way of doing cardio training: doing level 8 for an entire workout is not sustainable, but the intervals are so short that it’s doable, and you’ll eventually be exhausted anyway. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in those twenty minutes!
The method starts at level 5 and goes up to the heaviest level, level 10.
The high intensity of the method ensures that your fat burning is much more effective than if you were training at low intensity. So you burn more in a shorter time.
The Schedule
Start by choosing a cardio machine you’re already familiar with. This experience makes it easier for you to determine your starting level and you don’t have to spend time learning the entire machine.
In this example, I’ll use a treadmill, still one of the most commonly used cardio machines in the gym.
- Get on the treadmill and set it to 20 minutes and the speed you want to start with. That’s your level 5, which for the untrained athlete means brisk walking and for the experienced athlete means walking. Maintain this level 5 for two minutes.
- Now go to level 6 by increasing the speed of the machine, and maintain that pace for one minute. Remember the speeds of the different levels, as you’ll need them for the next cycle.
- Continue to level 7 and also maintain that for a minute.
- Do the same to get to level 8 and level 9. Level 9 is brisk walking or running, depending on your fitness level.
- Now go back to level 6 for a minute.
- Repeat this two more times, going from level 6 to level 9. You’re now at 14 minutes of training.
- Start the fifteenth minute again at level 6 but now continue to level 10 in the nineteenth minute! Give everything you’ve got in that last minute of the series. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sprint, but you need to reach your level 10.
- In the last minute, go back to level 5 and you’re done.
- Now you can shower and leave the gym!
Schematically, the 20 Minute Cardio Solution looks like this:
The big advantage over other programs is that you never outgrow this. Your endurance and strength will continue to adapt, and your levels will become more intense as a result. The training method itself, however, doesn’t change; this is something you can continue to do forever!
The method ensures that your body will handle its metabolism better and better, resulting in more fat burning.
The Body-for-Life method recommends doing the 20 Minute Cardio Solution three times a week, and that – coupled with a sensible diet – will help you achieve that lean body you’re after! I highly recommend it.
