Now that 2017 is underway, you may be looking for a way to kick your exercise routine into high gear. Your regular cardio routine has been working for you for the past year, but now you want to get things shifted into high gear. If you’ve gotten bored with your standard cardio routine, you might want to consider supercharging it by adding in some interval work. Below, Dr. Nathen Horst explains the science behind how cardio interval training works and how you can use it to jump-start your New Year’s resolution to get in better shape and lose weight.

What Is Cardio Interval Training?

Standard cardio training is low- to high-energy aerobic exercise that pumps oxygenated blood into the muscles and raises the heart and breathing rate for long durations in order to burn calories. Running, swimming, and cycling are excellent examples of cardio training. The advantage to this type of exercise is that once your heart rate is in the target zone (approximately 50% to 65% of your maximum), you can keep it in that range for an extended period of time.

In comparison, cardio interval training alternates bursts of low- to high-intensity exercise with brief rest periods. Instead of only keeping your heart rate at about half of its maximum capacity, you push it to almost 100%, so that you are getting an anaerobic workout (your body is getting its energy from blood sugar instead of oxygen). You can take any standard cardio exercise and turn it into an interval exercise, so long as you keep moving during both periods of high-and low-intensity exercise.

Advantages to Cardio Interval Training

Perhaps the biggest advantage to interval training over standard cardio exercise is that you can burn the same amount of calories in a shorter amount of time. Pushing your heart rate to the max during your high-intensity bursts allows you to burn that same level of energy continuously, even during your lower-intensity periods. Your 20-minute interval workout could burn the same amount of calories as your 50-minute standard cardio workout. In fact, some experts say that you can actually continue to burn calories two to four hours after stopping your interval workout, unlike with a standard workout, in which your body stops burning calories as soon as your workout ends.

Another advantage of interval training is that you get the best of both aerobic and anaerobic workouts. Aerobic exercise burns fat, while anaerobic exercise helps you build lean muscle. So if you are looking to lose weight and improve your overall fitness, interval training will allow you to do both. Dr. Horst often recommends interval training for his patients who need to not only lose weight, but also improve their cardiac health.

Building Up

Although you may be able to easily handle a standard hour-long cardio workout, interval training is far more intense. This is why Dr. Horst recommends building up your interval periods. For example, you might want to start with a 30-second set of a high- and low-intensity interval, a one-minute set, and a two-minute set. Then scale back down to a one-minute set, a 30-second set, and finally a 10-minute cool-down session. As you progress, you can extend each of your interval sessions, but keep to the same basic pattern of ramping up, then scaling back down.

The start of the year can be a great time to rethink your workout routine. Upping your game to interval training may get you the results you want in half the time you thought possible.