High Intensity Intervals for Fat Loss - Work it like a Dog!

So we live in a suburb where there's quite a few Labrador Retrievers. We own a black Lab, her name is Sona. In our neighbourhood the other Labs are often out for long walks with their owners. Some are really slow (doesn't really count for cardio) and others are faster. One guy goes out on his bike and his Lab runs beside him. I've seen another lady out jogging and her Lab is running with her. So what does all this have to do with high intensity intervals for fat loss?

Well... if you've seen our Lab you know she's very lean. We feed her very well, including oats, carrots, broccoli, Udo's oil, cottage cheese, blueberries, tomatoes, apples, bananas, as well as a few cans of Natural Balance dog food daily. So she's getting plenty of nutrition. To top it all off, she always finishes all our leftovers after we eat. So her calorie levels are as high as most labs, but we take her out three to four times a day for a 10-15 minute high intensity interval training session that we call "Play"... Basically we throw the tennis ball using the whippit and she retrieves the ball. Her sprint out to get the ball is at maximum effort, and then her return is a slower pace.

When we bring her in the house, for the next couple hours her breathing is heavier, and she's quite hot. This is the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption period where her body continues to burn calories at a much higher rate.

It's also what we do outside when we push the Prowler up and down in between our house and our neighbours.

When we have very limited time our workout looks like this:

Prowler push 3-5 sets of 30-60seconds with 60-120 seconds rest intervals.

If you give it all you've got.. this can pretty much flatten you!

Admittedly when we did it a few weeks back I was a little out of shape cardio-wise, and it took just 3 sets 60 seconds of all out effort to put me out of commission for nearly 20 minutes.

There's an intuitive feeling that this kind of effort is really good for you. So here's to high intensity intervals for fat loss!

Work it like a Dog!

:)
Shane