EPOC- what the heck is that?

If you have never heard the term don't worry, I hadn't either till I returned to college. The acronym EPOC stands for excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. Essentially it means that after exercise your body is trying to replace the oxygen stores that became depleted. When one works out at a high intensity more oxygen is consumed and therefore a greater debt is accumulated. Over time, doing a high intensity workout can increase the VO2 max, which is the body's ability to use oxygen for energy. Working out a higher intensities means that when you go back to doing slower workouts, they will feel like a breeze. Runners do interval training for this very reason. Some believe that interval training burns more calories in a shorter period of time. But back to EPOC, which is basically that you continue to burn calories long after the exercise is over.