Ever heard that your 60-minute workout will make you burn more calories for the rest of the day? Sounds too good to be true, right?! Read more to see how to make this happen for you.

The concept of Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC), and the benefits of high-intensity exercise is huge asset when it comes to weight management and weight loss.

Long story short. If you challenge your body at the right intensity, your body will work harder to recover oxygen lost during exercise. This boosts your metabolism and makes you burn calories long after your workout is over. It’s simple science and it has been around for many years! Don’t let the industry fool you with their “secret” “unique” workouts, the benefits are free for anyone to reap.

WHAT IS THE RIGHT INTENSITY?

We have five main heart rate zones based on your individual heart rate.
The idea is to spend at least 12 minutes or more in the “EPOC Zone” which is to get your heart rate between 84 to 91% of your unique heart rate maximum.

What is your individual heart rate?
220 – your age = max heart rate.
Max heart rate divided by 100 = “a”
“a” x 84 = the start of your zone
“a” x 91 = the end of your zone.

When your heart rate is elevated, you’ll start to see and feel real changes in your body. These can be made into ordinary workouts you typically find at a local gym, they can be called HIIT, METCON, CROSSFIT, CROSS-TRAINING, CIRCUIT TRAINING, INTERVAL TRAINING but the secret is to work hard to get your heart rate in that zone for that duration of time.

HOW DO I ADD MORE INTENSITY INTO MY WORKOUTS TO GET IN THE ZONE?

RUN! Run at the start for 5min to spike your heart rate, add fast running in between sets or after each set.

ROW! Throw a few fast 500m rows into your workouts

BURPEES! These are almost nobody’s favourite but getting off the floor and back up again and again will spike your heart rate.

JUMP! Moving the centre of gravity up and down will increase your heart rate.

LIFT HEAVY COMPOUND LIFTS! Lifting challenging weights is a great way to pump blood around the body

DO HEAVY LIGHT! Lift Heavy then doing a light exercise with intensity. Like a Barbell Back Squat into Squat Jumps.

DO CIRCUITS! Pick 3-4 full body exercises and do them on repeat with no rest for 4-8 minutes each set

SLED! Push this as fast as your can, take minimal rest

If you are new to fitness you may find even a small hike uphill can achieve this for you, the more advanced you become with your fitness the more speed and explosiveness you will have add to your workouts to get your heart rate in the zone.

The best way to keep track of this is to obviously wear a heart rate monitor – these days they are all pretty good. Personally I use a apple watch, or a myzone device, some people wear garmins, fitbits, there really are heaps on the market, you may even be able to pick one up second hand on ebay/trademe/gumtree. If this is still not a option for you, you can achieve these benefits by simply doing cardio on equipment and using the heart monitor on that.