Burn 36% More Fat With This 10 Minute Cardio Routine

If you're going to do cardio, you might as well get the most out of it. I believed in cardio for years, yet the only result that I got from those 40 minute treadmill and biking sessions was the loss of muscle. I had read about losing muscle mass due to performing too much cardio, but I didn't fully understand it.

I became frustrated after continuously burning off my hard-earned muscle while trying to get lean, so I gave up on cardio. Within a few years, my body-fat percentage had reached a level that I never imagined possible; so I decided to do something about it. I set out to research the latest cardio trends, and came across HIIT training.

After absorbing as much information about HIIT training as I could, I was convinced that it was the absolute best thing when it came to cardiovascular exercise. But I had to solve one small problem before I tried it. I workout at home, and I no longer own a treadmill. How was I going to take advantage of the fat burning benefits that HIIT training provides?

Photo courtesy of Commons.Wikimedia.org

Let me cut to the chase before I bore you to death with my past experience; stairs. If you have access to a staircase, whether it be in your home, apartment building or anywhere, you will be able to do this 10 minute cardio routine.

Your staircase doesn't have to have a lot of steps either, ten is great, even eight will work. If you only have four or five steps, just kick-up your pace. If you have more than ten steps, take it easy until your body gets used to the routine, at least you'll have them when you are ready for more of a challenge.

All it takes is ten minutes a day, three days a week, and a low carb diet to get you 36% better results than 40 minutes or even an hour of regular cardio. All you need is a stop watch. Let's go.

1. Stand at the bottom of your stairs. Start your stopwatch.
2. Jog to the top of your stairs.
3. Walk down to the middle of your stairs.
4. Jog back up to the top of your stairs.
5. Walk to the bottom of your stairs.
6. Stop. Check your stop watch.

Whatever the time reads is the amount of time you have to rest. Repeat this for ten minutes. Technically, this isn't HIIT Training, it's Intensity Training. But if your regular diet and cardio routine burns 1 pound of fat per week, and you replace it with the 10 minute cardio routine above, you will lose an extra 0.36 pounds of fat.

Be sure to warm-up before you do this or any cardio routine. Because this is a high-impact exercise, it's a good idea to wear knee supports and ankle supports to help absorb the shock. My ankles became slightly sore after two days of stair Intensity Training, so I began wearing ankle supports. More on interval training.