Yesterday I answered the question about how long it would take to change your body shape, today I’m looking at an important aspect of that, which is how hard you’re willing to train.

For mid lifers sessions need to be short with adequate recovery. We focus on intense HIIT sessions and short resistance sessions, but the key is that word intensity.

We were training in our local gym today, and cardio wise it’s amazing how many people are climbing onto the treadmill for their dull steady state slow run, or the same on the elliptical. It’s boring, it doesn’t burn many calories, it’s not raising your fitness levels and you’re in for a 40 minute session minimum to really start making any kind of difference to your body composition.

HIIT works by raising your heart rate high then dropping it momentarily in the interval, but the working portion needs to be as intense as you can safely go. 15 to 20 minutes of this kind of training is enough to spike your metabolism, keep you burning calories all day at a raised rate and build your fitness levels.

Skipping at a slow pace for 30 seconds, resting for a couple of minutes and then doing something else for 30 seconds at low to mid intensity just isn’t going to cut it.

So, like the body shape changing question, how hard should you train? How much do you want to change your body shape and how fast? How quickly do you want to start feeling fit and strong?

Do you want to smash it for 20 minutes three to four times a week and get results fast? Or do you want to watch TV while you plod on a treadmill for 40 minutes plus and not feel or see changes?

I’d love to hear your thoughts…