• Blog
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Basics
    • Beverages
    • Breakfast
    • Desserts
    • Grain-Free
    • Main Dish
    • Sauces, Spreads & Condiments
    • Side Dishes & Salads
    • Snacks
  • Blood Sugar Masterclass
  • Clean Beauty
  • My Shop
  • Articles
    • Beauty
    • Digestion
    • Detoxification
    • Exercise
    • Essential Oils
    • Faith and Encouragement
    • Home and Cleaning
    • Marriage, Friendships, and Community
    • Nutrition
    • Pregnancy, Birth, and Baby
    • Stress Management
    • Supplements
  • Podcast
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
Meghan Birt

Meghan Birt

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Crunchi
  • Shop Supplements
  • Dr. Meghan’s Substack

August 14, 2013 ·

Burst Training

Detoxification· Exercise

I thought it was time for an exercise post. The first one (hopefully of many) on the blog!

Burst training is one of my favorite forms of exercise. It’s also known as Surge Training or High Intensity Training. I’ve been doing this for years, and is now coming out in more and more research that this is a type of exercise everyone can and should incorporate into their workout plan!

Burst training is a high intensity, fat burning workout that saves you lots of time working out and can be done at home or in the gym. Burst training doesn’t burn as much fat during the workout like a steady cardio does, but it does elevate your metabolism for up to 36 hours following exercise. You will end up burning much more fat than traditional, long cardio. Burst training uses up the glycogen within the muscle tissue and allows your body to use fat for metabolic processes instead of sugar. It also raises your fat burning hormones and increases your overall metabolism. This type of training is not easy, you should be out of breath and feel tired, but very accomplished. Plus, any fitness level can do this training. The best thing about it is you go to YOUR maximum effort. And everyone has a different maximum effort! You can also make it very low impact and choose exercises that are gentle on the joints. If you are more advanced, feel free to kick it up a notch and add jumps into it too. You can see examples of exercises below. There are also apps you can download for your phone that are timers for bursting. I have two of them on my phone set up for different workouts.

I perform Burst Training about twice per week. I am usually doing this at home when I am not at the gym. It’s so quick I don’t have an excuse not to fit it into a couple days per week. If I can do it, you can too!

Here’s how you burst train:

–Warm up (2-3 minutes)

–Burst for 20 seconds with 20 seconds of rest (x3)

–Rest for 2 minutes

–Repeat 2-4 times

–Cool Down (2-3 minutes)

 

You can also try Tabata Training. It is a form of burst training that consists of performing 20 seconds of maximum effort followed by 10 seconds of rest, this cycle is to be repeated 8 times, for a total of 4 minutes of work. It’s an extremely effective workout that can be done in a little amount of time.

 

Here are a few examples of exercises to Burst Train:

1. Run in Place: You will run in place (move those arms) as fast as you can for the burst.

2. Jumping Jacks: You will do jumping jacks as fast as you can. If you are more of a beginner, move your arms together and alternate each leg. Then it is low impact and won’t add stress to your body.

3. Squats: Perform squats and repeat as quickly as you can, while still maintaining good form.

4. Mountain Climbers: You put your hands on the floor and start in a plank position. You bring one knee at a time up towards your chest as fast as you can. This gets your heart rate up, works your shoulder, and is very low impact.

5. Alternating Lunges or Jump Lunges: Go at your own pace alternating legs for jumping jacks. You can also jump into lunges alternating legs in the air. The jumps are more advanced and can be hard on the joints.

6. Push-ups: Do a few rounds of push-ups and you will quickly realize how out of breath you are. And how much your arms are burning!

7. High Knees: Jump up alternating bringing your knee up as high as you can go. The goal is to jump and get your knees to parallel.

8. Treadmill: You will set the treadmill to a high speed (I start at 9.5, but I also am tall and have long legs). I keep the treadmill going quickly and just jump off the side between bursts and rests. When I am resting 1-2 minutes, I will turn the speed down and walk on the treadmill

9. Bike, Eliptical or StairMaster: Set each of these pieces of cardio equipment to your maximum and perform your bursts. I guarantee you will get looks if you are at the gym because most people are walking or doing some type of LONG cardio.

10. Grab a light set of hand weights and do squats with shoulder press. Or lunges with bicep curls. Then you get cardio + some resistance training.

11. Get Creative! You can do any exercise in any way (even abdominal exercises) and have it be a burst. The goal is for you to be tired and worn out at the end of your exercise.

There is so much more research studying the benefits of Burst Training. I feel like I actually am leaving you hanging without giving you a list of sources and a lot more information. But, for this post, the bottom line is for you to know HOW to burst train and that it’s amazingly beneficial to your body.

So.. get to bursting!! 

Have you ever done a Burst Training workout before? What did you think of it?

Get Dr. Meghan Mail

Don't miss out on anything! Join my healthy living community for encouragement delivered right to your inbox.

Success! Now check your email to confirm your subscription.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by Kit

Don’t Miss out

Join our newsletter to get all the latest!

Previous Post: « Mexican Skillet Breakfast
Next Post: Italian Stuffed Zucchini Boats »

Primary Sidebar

About Dr. Meghan

Hi, I’m Dr. Meghan. I love Jesus. I'm a wife to Phil, mom to two little girls, chiropractor, and healthy living encourager. Oh, and I adore a cup of weak coffee with (lots of) heavy cream. I’m passionate about inspiring women to fall in love with natural health. I break down the complex world of healthy living into simple steps you can take wherever you're at with your wellness journey.

Stay up to date

Subscribe to get all the latest

Latest on Instagram

drmeghanbirt

Simplifying health: take action from freedom, not fear
👏🏼On IG break👏🏼
Healthy Living Encourager
Clean Beauty Enthusiast
💗Jesus
Everything you need ⤵️

Well, I have to start somewhere. Celebrating the l Well, I have to start somewhere. Celebrating the little victories (that are actually really big) and trusting God in the process!!
Do your attempts to get healthy borders on obsessi Do your attempts to get healthy borders on obsession or orthorexia? Somehow you are now stressed about EVERYTHING being a toxin and brain is swirling with that all day, every day?. 

Does that sound like you? Or maybe just me 🤷🏻‍♀️ (please tell me I'm not the only one!)

I just don't think that's the Lord's plan for our lives and thought lives. I think there is another way to do health differently than our country and yet not become fearful and all-consumed with it all. We can be aware, make wise decisions, and let the rest be in the Lord's hands.

Most of you know I've taken 7 months off of posting regular content on my Instagram page. I only intended to stop posting for 2-4 weeks. But I realized I was stuck in this mental loop of always thinking about my health and my symptoms and then I was in a business where I only posted about health. That needed to stop. And when I slowed that loop I realized hey, I don't even want to post, so I didn't. 

Are you living in that balance now? Or teetering in the imbalance? If you are feeling imbalanced, the first thing is to NOT beat yourself up about it. If you have had chronic symptoms, I think it is our body's protective mechanism to put us in this loop. But the lie is that we aren't safe with symptoms... but we are safe if things medically check out fine. 

To get out of that mind loop, I would encourage you to take these thoughts captive. When they come in, give them to the Lord, and choose to think about something true and lovely and beautiful. Do this as often as you need which will probably be numerous times per day! 

It sounds easy but it isn't. Simple, yes. Easy, no. Put your faith in Christ and trust that he can renew your mind back to a healthy balance of holistic health. And if you suffer from symptoms... I do believe this is foundational for symptom resolution too.
I am totally a fair weather Minnesotan. I wish I w I am totally a fair weather Minnesotan. I wish I wasn’t, but I have been my whole life. 

So when the sun peaked through the days of dreary cloud cover I bundled up and bolted outside for a walk. It was 35 degrees and felt so nice. 

The 1 mile walk and the sun on my face was what I needed. I miss my nice weather walks. Only 4.5 more months of the cold here 🤣

Ps. Yes, I know that there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. But really, I get cold easily and don’t like it. So it’s bad weather to me 🤷🏻‍♀️.
I didn’t realize that Beautycounter shutting dow I didn’t realize that Beautycounter shutting down was going to be the catalyst for me stepping back from social media.

It was. And it was one of the best things I’ve done in a long time. 

Why? I didn’t realize I was addicted to it. To checking. To learning. To creating content. It all. The business part and the learning about health. (Ouch that hurts a bit admitting it). 

It was all tied into nervous system dysfunction for me. Just feeding the circle of vigilance. And that wasn’t good for me body, mind, spirit. 

And it was SO hard to step away from this account. It took me about 6 weeks to stop picking up my phone to take a B roll video. Or to think “hey, I want to share with IG”. 

I really do miss you all… that’s what I miss the most. Interacting with you all! 

But my brain needed the time away. And honestly I’m still away. I just have felt like sharing a few things lately because of the November holiday sales. 

You know what I feared if I stepped away? I was scared I’d miss something shared about health that was what I needed. That I would miss some kind of magic bullet or clinical pearl and I wouldn’t heal without it. 

Guess what? That wasn’t true. 

I actually could think and focus on my health in a different way. I could surrender to God in a different way. I wasn’t cluttered with all sorts of thoughts on here. I’ve made some really good decisions about my health and healing with deep confidence. 

And I didn’t peace out of IG fully. I check mostly non-health related content on a private account. (Hello politics, I need some IG fill for that 😂). 

But I did take ALL of August off of IG and broke my dependence and need for it. It was SO good. I thought I’d kiss out so much. I didn’t miss anything. I found all the news and learning I needed from podcasts. And I bought less because I have no idea what’s trendy 🤷🏻‍♀️

I still like social media and Instagram. But I do think many of us need much better boundaries. It sucks you in… it’s supposed to! 

I share because I want to invite you to do something similar if you feel the pull in your spirit. 

Step back, you’re not going to miss anything. 
And think of what you may gain?!?
Robert F Kennedy Jr. was just named Secretary of H Robert F Kennedy Jr. was just named Secretary of Health and Human Services. And I am so excited. 

It's been a full week watching Trump make his cabinet selections but this one felt surreal. 

The corrupt natural of the medical system and Big Farma has been on my radar for almost 2 decades. And it has seemed to get worse vs better (ie covid jab mandates). 

Now we see this cabinet selection for this big position be a man who has fought for decades for children's health, for real meaningful healthcare reform, and spoke endlessly about jab side effects... it just takes my breath away. 

WHAT?? Is this real? 

I have so many thoughts. So many memories flood my mind about talking with my patients when I was a chiropractor about our medical system. The need to educate yourself about holistic and alternative health and to make better decisions than the standard american way of health. And of course, the endless conversations about the risks of jabs to new moms and dads so they can make the best decision for their kids. 

It used to feel like there were so few voices speaking out. And has now grown to a very large and loud group. 
I'd love to see the data on how many people voted for Trump because of the MAHA movement. What kind of needle moving did the partnership with RFKJ bring? I think it was quite a lot! 

Coming soon could be real change. And I'm not sure how much he's actually able to do. How deep does the corruption go? I don't know. 

But I do know that for now I am going to have hope and celebrate because this is a BIG win for medical freedom and the health of our nation. 

MAHA friends!! For ourselves, our families, and our country! 

#MAHA #makeamericahealthyagain #rfkj #houseinhabit #chronicillness #invisibleillness #healthykids #healthyfuture
I wanted to give you a link to shop the Beautycoun I wanted to give you a link to shop the Beautycounter in-between sale. I will give you the link first and explain the sale and my thoughts below.

Here is the link to shop with me: https://www.beautycounter.com/MEGHANBIRT​  and it is also in my bio. 

Beautycounter is not open, but has a month long sale. while they wait to reopen. My link is different and all products are there but many could sell out.

When is the Sale: November 1-December 2

How do you shop: You need my link above. It is good for 72 hours and if you shop again, you need to choose my link again. You can't look me up and you're not attributed to me like you were when I was a brand advocate. 

Also, I wanted to share a few thoughts, I am participating in this Beautycounter in-between sale to give you opportunity to purchase your favorite Beautycounter products. I don't know what the future of Beautycounter looks like yet and haven't decided if I will pursue anything in the future.

I still really love my Crunchi products, and will be sharing Crunchi also. But I am choosing to give you the opportunity to choose both companies. Some of you want to shop Beautycounter and some people want to move on and not support it anymore, and for right now I'm here for you with both. 

Thank you for choosing me and my links, it makes such a big difference and I appreciate it.
Follow on Instagram
Favorite

Subscribe for updates

Footer

Your body was created and designed to heal

  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Disclaimer

Consult your practitioner before beginning or making changes to your diet, supplements, exercise program, diagnosis or treatment of illness or injuries and for advice regarding medications. Statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Nothing on this website should be taken as medical advice. This is all information on this website is based on the opinion of Dr. Meghan Birt, DC. The information on this website isn’t to replace a relationship with a qualified health professional. It is only information to encourage you to make your own health decisions based on your own research. You can read the full Privacy Policy here. 

Disclaimer

Consult your practitioner before beginning or making changes to your diet, supplements, exercise program, diagnosis or treatment of illness or injuries and for advice regarding medications. Statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. Nothing on this website should be taken as medical advice. This is all information on this website is based on the opinion of Dr. Meghan Birt, DC. The information on this website isn’t to replace a relationship with a qualified health professional. It is only information to encourage you to make your own health decisions based on your own research. You can read the full Privacy Policy here. 

  • Blog
  • Privacy Policy
  • Shop

Copyright © 2025 · beloved theme by Restored 316