HighTensity Sessions Report Part 2

What The HighTensity Sessions Technique Is All About

Before beginning a running program, most people wonder how much they should run and the distances they should be aiming for. You might be one of these people. A huge majority of people also decide that they should “take it easy” and opt to walk for an hour instead of working up a sweat.

The HighTensity Sessions technique involves aiming for the shorter but higher-intensity run instead of the longer, slower and lower-intensity walking workout.

Thus, when you follow The HighTensity Sessions technique, you will be aiming to achieve a mid-to-high levels of intensity with your workouts (regardless of how far you actually run) instead of aiming to walk/run a specific distance at low intensities (otherwise known as LowTensity).

When I say intensity, I’m talking about the measure of how hard you’re working during an activity.

Think about it in a scale of 1-10 — an activity with an intensity of 1 could be sitting down at your desk, while a 10 is running away from a man-eating tiger chasing after you. HighTensity is at around a 6 to 8 intensity level, while LowTensity is around 3 to 5 intensity levels.

*** IMPORTANT: The beauty of this technique is that while you will be working hard enough to break a sweat, you won’t be working so hard to the point that you’re killing yourself during your workout. It’s easy enough to sustain for the required period of time, but hard enough so that you’re actually getting the maximum benefits for fat loss. ***

Also, the HighTensity Zone is completely different for every single one of us. A relatively fit 25-year old might consider running 3 miles in 20 minutes to be HighTensity, while HighTensity for those who hasn’t had any aerobic activity for the past 10 years might mean brisk walking for 15 minutes.

How do you measure your intensity? I discuss a more accurate method to measure your HighTensity Zone in the program, but for the beginner the Perceived Exhaustion Method will do. Measuring your exhaustion level, although subjective, is actually quite a reliable indicator of how hard you’re actually working and is actually supported by the American College of Sports Medicine.

How do you use the Perceived Exhaustion Method to measure your intensity level? During your run, you will be constantly rating how hard you’re working using the scale above (1 is sitting down, 10 is running from a man-eating tiger). The goal is to constantly keep myself at an intensity level of 6 to 8 for 30 minutes per workout.

“But what if I can’t run at high intensities for long periods of time?”

I understand that there’s a huge possibility that you will not be able to do this, especially if you’re new to running — and guess what? That’s perfectly fine!

It’s all right to start slow at first if you’re a beginner. Remember that the goal is to have a workout at the intensity RANGE of level 6 to level 8. If you can keep your intensity level at 8 during your entire running session then great; but since most beginners won’t be able to do that, aiming for a range will prove to be better in the long run.

When you’re jogging at a relatively fast pace, it might feel like you’re at intensity level 6 for the first few minutes, then it quickly creeps up to intensity level 9 until you’re finally gasping for air. Stop running, but stay in motion by walking and give your heart some time to catch up. Once your intensity level is below 6, start jogging again and work your way up to an intensity level 9.

The point is to work yourself up to a mid-to-high intensity levels (whatever that is for you) and maintain that pace for a prolonged period of time. Inside “The Average Joe’s Guide To Running For Weight Loss” you will discover the exact running workout that can turn those who can’t run for more than 2 minutes to people people who can run without stopping for 30 minutes at a time.

“But what about the fat-burning zone? I heard that lowTensity workouts are much better for fat loss!”

Most experts say that LowTensity workouts for longer durations are much better than HighTensity sessions.This concept comes from the fact that at lower intensity workouts, the body burns a greater percentage of calories than from fat, while you burn a greater percentage from carbohydrates than fat at higher intensities.

I’m going to give you three reasons as to exactly why this concept is flawed:

Exhibit A.) When running for fat loss, it is NOT the ratio of fat:carbohydrates that you should be looking at, but rather the total number of calories that you’re burning. And the bottom line fact is that high-intensity workouts burn much more calories than LowTensity workouts.

LowTensity workout:
30 minutes
200 calories burned
65% from fat (130 calories)
35% from carbohydrates (70 calories)

HighTensity workout:
30 minutes
400 calories burned
50% from fat (200 calories)
50% from carbohydrates (200 calories)

Not only do you burn more calories overall, but you also burn more fat calories at higher intensities than you would with LowTensity workouts.

Exhibit B.) HighTensity workouts raises your metabolism to a much greater degree than LowTensity workouts ever will. If you make running at higher intensities a habit, you are essentially training your body to boost its metabolism. A person with a faster metabolism burns more calories during the day than a person with a slower metabolism even if they both don’t do any form of exercise whatsoever.

(That’s why young college kids with fast metabolisms can stuff in as much food as they like and not gain a single pound, while having a single scoop of ice cream for dessert can be disastrous for older guys like us.)

Exhibit C.) HighTensity workouts are more time-efficient than LowTensity workouts. Take a look at the table in exhibit A. If you do the math, you’ll need approximately 60 minutes of running at LowTensity to burn 400 calories — which you can achieve in just 30 minutes of running at HighTensity! In other words, you burn more calories for less the time. If that doesn’t have “time-efficient” written all over it, then I don’t know what doesn’t.

So why is the LowTensity workout so popular in fitness circles? Well, we have to remember most personal trainers get paid by the hour. The longer your workout is, the more money they get to squeeze from you. Another reason is that anything that requires people to actually work for their results don’t sell as well as the easy, no-need-to-break-a-sweat solutions that seem too good to be true.

“What Kind Of Results Can I See With The HighTensity Sessions Technique?”

I’m not going to promise you insane results such as lose 10 pounds in a week. Besides the fact that such drastic methods usually do more harm than good, the goal here is to achieve long-term results instead of one-shot techniques.

A reasonable estimate for how much weight you could lose when you use this technique is around 10-15% of your bodyfat weight. So a 200-pound person with 20% bodyfat (meaning he has 40 pounds of fat) could expect to lose 4-6 pounds within two to three weeks. However, this estimate is taking in a lot of factors — how intense your workouts are, the consistency of your workouts, etc. — and I definitely wouldn’t be surprised if you lose more than that. I personally lost 25% of my bodyfat weight during my first 3 weeks.

Conclusion

If you’re just starting a running program for weight loss or if you’ve been running at LowTensity levels and started to plateau, the HighTensity Sessions technique that I just gave you is a very powerful concept that will seriously take your running sessions to another level. This will drastically cut down on your workout time and make you lose even more weight than if you follow the conventional method of LowTensity workouts for long durations.

If you’re looking for a more complete running program, I highly suggest that you check out “The Average Joe’s Guide To Running For Weight Loss”. It greatly expands upon the information in this report, includes a complete running program for weight loss and a step-by-step system on using this concept for much more effective and efficient workouts.

To get more information about “The Average Joe’s Guide To Running For Weight Loss” simply enter your details on the form below:

I sincerely believe that adding HighTensity Sessions with your aerobic workouts is the best way for anybody to shed those pounds and burn off the fat, and I sincerely hope that the realizations in this report has been helpful to you as it has been to me.