Energize and Exercise with the Time-Saving X-iser

Is squeezing even 10 minutes for exercise out of your busy schedule too hard to manager? Well, guess what? I have just the program for your! With a mere 4 minutes a day, you can get a jolt of energy while burning fat, increasing endurance, improving balance, lowering blood pressure, stabilizing your core, and strengthening your muscles. Sound to good to be true?

I sure thought it was. (Remember, I come from the gym culture, where guys the size of barn doors spent entire mornings just doing “lats”.) So convincing me you could get anything done at all in 4 minutes was, let’s say, a bit of a stretch. And then I tried burst training.

WHEN LESS CAN BE MORE
Burst training is 1 minute of high-intensity exercise, performed four times a day, three times a week, using an amazing, multitasking piece of machinery invented by exercise physiologist Mark J. Smith, Ph.D. It’s called the X-iser, and it’s a small, compact, incredibly well-designed and sturdy machine that looks like a miniature version of a stair-climber without the handles.

Stepping on the X-iser is kind of like doing multiple one-legged squats on both legs at the same time. This creates a great demand on the muscles because there is no rest period for the muscles during stepping, which means you’re simultaneously challenging your aerobic and anaerobic systems. That’s why the X-iser produces such incredible benefits in as little as 12 minutes per week and is safe and effective for everybody. I use the machine regularly, and I can tell you it’s without question one of the hardest and most effective workouts you can do. It gives a whole new meaning to energy efficiency.

Now I know you’re probably skeptical. What can 1 minute of exercise, even if you do it four times a day, possibly accomplish? Well, think about it. You know that iconic scene in the first Rocky movie where Sylvester Stallone runs the steps of the stadium in Philadelphia? Suppose you did that exhausting, mind-numbingly difficult run every single day? Think you’d get better at it? Think you’d improve your aerobic fitness? Your endurance? Your energy? Let me save you the thinking time: The answer is ‘yes”. In spades.

In fact, running up stairs is one of the best ways to burn calories, improve cardio conditioning and coordination, and increase energy. In the olden the famous artists’ complex in New York City called Manhattan Plaza (where my neighbors included Tennessee Williams, Larry David of Seinfeld fame, and the “real” Kramer, the one the Seinfeld character was based on), I used to run the forty-five flights of stairs from the bottom floor to the top floor a few times a week. It took less than 6 minutes and was one of the most intense, energizing exercises I ever did. Stair running is the bomb. Problem is, most of us don’t live in forty-five-story buildings or near the rocky stadium in Philadelphia. The X-iser gives you the ability to essentially do the same thing in your living room.

And it doesn’t stop there. Burst training, which is really just a series of short bursts of every high-intensity exercise, is one of the most effective ways to exercise for weight loss, health, performance, endurance, and energy. The research backs me up on this. One study in a 2005 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology found that a mere two weeks of as little as 8 minutes a week of burst training doubled the endurance and energy of participants. A study at Colorado State showed that 4 minutes on the X-iser burned the same number of calories as 20 minutes of traditional aerobic exercise. Burst training also burns fat for twenty-four hours after exercise. It basically teaches the body to burn fat more efficiently.

The X-iser allows you to do a number of other exercise besides the standard (and brutal) burst of 1 minute of stair climbing. You can hold weights in your hands. You can do pus-ups on the steps. You can do all sorts of things, all of which basically come under the heading of interval training, which I now believe is the most effective way to get in shape, lose fat, and increase energy. Whether you use the PACE program (se page 106), the X-iser, or an interval program of your own devising (or one of the many I’ve suggested on pages 106-113), it’s something you should definitely check out if you’re serious about increasing your energy.,

The only downside? You’ll have to say good-bye to a lot of excuses that revolve around time.