If you are doing “cardio” to get in shape, that is, prolonged, time-consuming aerobic exercises such as running, biking, swimming, etc., stop doing it. It doesn’t help.

You heard me right. Cardio isn’t just boring, it’s inefficient.

Running 40 miles a week isn’t just bad for your body, it’s a terribly inefficient way to burn fat and improve your body’s overall performance.

Let’s consider a better way …

The Real Deal: Intensity

Exercising at low intensity for an extended period of time causes your body to burn a constant amount of energy during the session. The consumption of calories is excellent and it is precisely what we must do to get rid of body fat. The problem is that to burn large volumes of energy at low intensity you need to do a lot of exercise, which is not only hard on your lifestyle but also on your body. High-volume running specifically can cause damage to the knees, ankles, and back. A high volume of any type of exercise (for example, training for hours a week) is a great way to burn out and miss out on the things you enjoy in your life.

The good news is that there is an answer. When you’re stressed from short-duration, high-intensity exercise, your body burns calories faster than it can make them accessible and replenish, resulting in an oxygen and fuel debt. This debt isn’t magically erased after your workout ends – a growing body of studies has shown that the body continues to work to catch up for hours after you stop exercising.

If you’ve ever done high-intensity exercise, then you’ve come across this firsthand. After stopping, he is still gasping for oxygen and shaking. For hours afterward you can feel the effects of the workout.

Which means that you are not only consuming calories during the short period of exercise, but also during the hours afterwards, while enjoying other activities.

Research indicates that the number of calories burned from a short, high-intensity training session and an hour-long workout is the same. Therefore, the high intensity exercise session can provide you with exactly the same or much better results without the wear and tear and in much less time.

Great! How do I start?

Here’s a simplification of what a high intensity training session looks like:

1) Warm up for a few minutes

2) Work like crazy for 20-60 seconds.

3) Rest

4) Repeat 2 and 3 until the workout ends.

Simple, right? But it is not easy, because in (2), when we say “like crazy” we are talking about 80-90% of the highest possible intensity. The effort during these intervals is extreme, hence the words “high intensity”.

There are a few different ways to structure your intervals. One known technique is the Tabata protocol, which uses 20-second intervals of work followed by 10-second rest. The number of intervals used can vary, but 8 is a good place to start. If you’ve done the math, yes, 8 Tabata intervals is actually only 4 minutes of work, including rest periods. That doesn’t seem like a lot until you recognize that it’s 4 minutes of incredibly intense work.

It is difficult but effective, very efficient, and strangely rewarding.

You can use many varieties of exercises in an interval training. If you have access to a treadmill or rowing machine, try running or rowing for 8 intervals at 80% of your maximum speed. If you want to build some muscular endurance, do Tabata squats or butterfly crunches – as many as possible for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and repeat for 8 intervals. You can substitute almost anything: chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, jump rope, etc.

Instead of cardio, substitute 8 Tabata intervals 3 times a week, or about 12 minutes per week of training. Train with intensity and you will see results in much less time than you would with cardio.

Time to kick the cardio to the sidewalk.