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• Avoid vigorous exercise directly before bedtime. Leave at least 2 hours between aerobic exercise and going to bed.
  
• Gently stretching for 1 to 2 minutes before bed may help you relax.
  
• Eat your evening meal at least 1 hour before bed, but don’t go to bed hungry, as being hungry may keep you awake.
  
• Listen to the radio (not TV) as you lie in bed with your eyes closed. This is an effective way of falling asleep.
  
• Have a warm (not hot) bath last thing at night.
  
• Drink warm herbal tea half an hour before bedtime. Chamomile is particularly relaxing.
  
• Avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine for at least 5 hours before bed.
  
• Establish a steady bedtime routine with a regular time to go to bed and to rise.
  
• Try not to discuss work or domestic problems in bed. Treat your bed as your sanctuary where work issues are not allowed.
  

Exercise and sleep

Exercise has an important role to play in enhancing the quality of sleep. Hot, sweaty aerobic exercise in the late afternoon has been shown to result in better quality sleep. Sauna baths (thermal therapy) have also been shown to improve sleep quality if performed in the late afternoon. The exercise mechanism may be the same as that in thermal therapy. During hot, sweaty exercise, body core temperature increases, but after exercise has stopped, body core temperature starts to decrease. As mentioned previously, when body core temperature goes down, people become sleepy. Thus, exercise may increase sleep quality by influencing sleep centres in the brain such as the hypothalamus and sleep hormones such as melatonin. Exercise in the morning, however, does not appear to affect sleep onset or quality. There are a number of things to consider when using exercise to increase the quality of your sleep:

• Exercise in the late afternoon.
  
• Use vigorous aerobic exercise that induces sweating.
  
• Participating in resistance exercise does not appear to improve sleep quality.
  
• The effect of interval sprinting on sleep quality is unknown.
  

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It’s clear that high levels of stress and not enough sleep can severely affect our health, and that we can improve our health by improving stress-management and poor-quality sleep. The key points to keep in mind are:

• People who have high levels of daily stress and who sleep poorly tend to have higher levels of cortisol in their blood and typically have more belly fat.
  
• There are a number of dietary and behavioural strategies you can use to reduce the effects of stress and to enhance sleep quality.
  
• Relaxation techniques and interval sprint training can help you cope with stress, while moderately vigorous aerobic exercise in the late afternoon is more effective than less vigorous exercise for sleep enhancement.
  

As has been previously discussed, many of the key health benefits of interval sprinting occur after 6 weeks. Just 1 hour of interval sprinting each week for 6 weeks can significantly decrease belly fat, as measured by waist circumference, and insulin resistance. Interval sprinting has also been shown to significantly increase leg and abdominal muscle mass and aerobic fitness. We think interval sprinting is one of the 4 pillars of health; the other pillars include healthy eating, controlling the effect of daily stress and ensuring good-quality sleep. It is clear that making changes in these other areas will further enhance the health benefits of interval sprinting. This chapter contains a 6-week lifestyle program for someone who requires change in each of those 4 areas. The goals for each component are listed, together with examples of a weekly program.

To begin the program, first complete the self-tests that assess your fitness levels (Appendices A and B) and add them to those you completed earlier for your body composition (Appendix E), your diet (Chapter 4), your amount of daily stress (Chapter 5) and your sleep quality (Chapter 5). It’s a good idea to photocopy these pages so you can continue to assess your performance as the program progresses. Keeping records will help you to adjust the program, according to your individual assessment, your personal preferences and time availability.

Developing an interval sprinting program

Choose a form of exercise, such as cycling or sprint skipping, from those described in Chapter 3. If you choose the stationary bike, select a pedalling rate and resistance to help determine your exercise intensity. Other forms of interval sprinting, such as swimming, may only involve determining rate. Determine how many times per week you want to sprint, at what intensity and for how long each session.

It is important to perform interval sprinting with the correct technique and at the optimal intensity. Details on developing the best interval sprinting program for your level of fitness and health are described in Chapter 3.

Interval sprinting goals

• Have your health checked before undertaking interval sprinting.
  
• Determine the mode, rate and exercise intensity preferable for you.
  
• Gradually increase the length and intensity of your training during the first 2 weeks.
  

Examples of light, moderate and hard interval sprinting programs that can be performed in the morning, at lunch-time, and in the evening are described in Chapter 3.

Adding an interval sprinting exercise program for the upper body

A lower- and upper-body interval sprinting protocol on alternate days is likely to result in a better total body workout. For example, a session of rowing, boxing or rope skipping as a combination or individually for 20 minutes is likely to result in extra health benefits. Of course, if you can only do 60 minutes of exercise a week, then the 3 20-minute sessions on the stationary bike is optimal. This would still only add up to 1 hour of interval sprinting per week, plus 24 minutes of warm-up and cool-down. An example of a lower- and upper-body interval sprinting program at a light intensity is described below.

Example of a lower- and upper-body interval sprinting program at a light intensity (rpm = revolutions per minute; RPE = rating of perceived exertion).

Adopting the Mediterranean eating plan

To gain the best results from your interval training program, you should make an assessment of your current diet by completing the diet assessment in Chapter 4 or by using a free online dietary analysis program like www.nutridiary.com.

If you have an unhealthy diet, then follow the Mediterranean plan for 6 weeks as outlined in Chapter 4. Most people will not need to count calories on this diet. After 3 weeks you should feel more energy and less tiredness. The recipes for Monday’s and Tuesday’s meals are included in Chapter 4; please consult the endnotes for recipes for the week’s remaining meals.

Controlling daily stress

As well as an interval sprinting and heathy eating program, it’s important to limit the amount of stress in your life for optimum belly fat loss. As discussed in Chapter 5, individuals exposed to stressors may increase their belly fat stores due to elevated cortisol and insulin levels.

Regular exercise, breathing, muscle relaxation, imagery and time-management skills are likely to be helpful in reducing the negative effects of daily stressors. Poor-quality sleep also results in elevated cortisol levels and increased belly fat, thus stress-management techniques and sleep quality enhancement strategies need to be implemented.

Below is an example of a practice schedule for stress-management enhancing strategies, for implementation alongside interval sprinting and healthy eating.

Stress-management practice schedule

Enhancing quality of sleep

If after completing your sleep quality assessment in Chapter 5 you find that your sleep needs to be improved, then you can work your way through the suggested techniques and tips to see which ones work best for you. For example, you could set a goal of creating a pre-sleep routine, perhaps aiming to drink a cup of herbal tea and do 10 minutes of relaxation using the imagery technique every night.

Consuming the appropriate nutrients before and after interval sprinting

As discussed in Chapter 4, digesting nutrients before, during and after interval sprinting affects fat burning. Consuming sugary drinks and eating protein snacks before exercise will impede fat burning and reduce long-term fat loss, while other nutrients can enhance fat burning after and during exercise. Ingesting green tea before exercise significantly increases fat burning during the hour after a session of interval sprinting.

Exercising in the morning, before eating, is the ideal time to burn more fat during exercise and to put the body into fat-burning mode. Drink water or good-quality green tea before, during and after exercise, but try to refrain from eating for at least 45 minutes after exercise. If you can only exercise in your lunch hour, the best strategy would be to not eat anything for 3 hours before exercising.

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The 4 pillars of a healthy lifestyle have now been described, and suggested programs for interval sprinting, healthy eating, stress-management and sleep quality have been outlined. An example of a weekly program involving these 4 critical behaviours is: 20 minutes of bike interval sprinting, 3 times per week; Mediterranean eating every day; daily stress-management technique practice; and the use of sleep quality enhancement strategies every night.

Try it for 6 weeks, recording your results at the same time each week, and discover the difference just 1 hour of interval training a week can make.

Monitoring progress

As described in Chapter 3, to monitor your progress, you need to record a certain amount of information. This information could include the following:

• heart-rate response during exercise
  
• heart-rate response during the 4-minute cool-down
  
• pedal rate during bike exercise
  
• pedal resistance during bike exercise
  
• rating of perceived exertion during exercise
  
• weight and/or body fat change
  
• waist circumference change
  
• abdominal width change
  
• waist skinfold site change
  
• mid-thigh circumference change
  
• lower leg circumference change
  
• diet assessment
  
• daily stress level assessment
  
• quality of sleep assessment
  

What to expect

We and other research groups have shown that because interval sprinting imposes greater loads on all 3 muscle fibre types (slow, intermediate and fast-twitch), its impact on total and belly fat, aerobic fitness, insulin resistance and muscle mass is both greater and quicker than that of other forms of exercise.
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As the average person does not have the equipment or expertise to directly measure these health changes, indirect and simple measures can be utilised. We have shown that many of these positive changes can occur after 6 weeks – just 18 sessions – of properly performed interval sprinting on a stationary bike.

Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed a consistent increase in the amount of studies examining different aspects of interval sprinting in research labs in Australia, the USA, Europe and Asia. The results have been impressive and consistent. We have no doubt that, for reducing belly fat and decreasing insulin resistance, interval sprinting is the premier form of exercise. Given that it produces these effects with at least half the exercise time, it is ideal for those of us who live busy lives.

We have given you a substantial amount of information in this book, but it’s up to you how you use it: for some, the information on how to do interval sprinting may be enough; for others, changing their whole lifestyle may be appealing.

We believe that embarking on an interval sprinting program will significantly enhance your quality of life, and may even prevent or decrease the effect of a number of lifestyle diseases. And it only takes 6 weeks.