What is HIIT?

HIIT or High-intensity interval training describes any workout that alternates between intense bursts of activity and periods of less-intense activity or even complete rest. HIIT is an amazing workout for any fitness level, and a great tool to use in everyone’s fitness routine for many reasons.

HIIT is great for the busy life; whether you want a fast workout before work, during your lunch break, or to get in quick shape for an event. You can fit this kind of training literally anywhere at any time with no equipment necessary.

Research shows you can achieve more progress in 15 minutes of interval training 3 times per week than the person jogging on the treadmill beside you for an hour. According to a recent study at the American College of Sports Medicine, just 2 weeks of high-intensity intervals improves your aerobic capacity as much as 6 to 8 weeks of endurance training.

More calories are burned during HIIT workouts and the effect of this intense exertion kicks your body’s metabolism into high speed.That means you will burn more fat and calories hours after your HIIT workout than you do after steady rate cardio.
The trade-off for this type of training offers seasoned exercisers and athletes a new challenge to bust out of plateaus and new exercisers a quick way to shed fat. Keep in mind that this is very challenging, and if you have been sedentary for a long time, you should start with continuous cardio to get your fitness level up.

An example of HIIT is running as fast as you can for 1 minute and then walking for 1 minute. Repeat these intervals 10 times during a 20 minute session for a fat-blasting workout which will leave you sweating and feeling amazing.

Most people do not like pushing themselves into the anaerobic zone (when you feel like you can’t breathe and your heart is bursting out of your chest). The fact of the matter is that extreme training produces extreme results, like better aerobic capacity and faster fat loss.

When an individual wants to lose fat, muscle loss can happen as well. Steady-state cardio may encourage muscle loss which needs to be avoided as much as possible, but fortunately studies show that both weight training and HIIT workouts allow dieters to preserve their hard-earned muscle while ensuring most of the weight loss comes from fat.

In addition to increased fat burning and saving your muscle mass, HIIT studies have shown that your natural human growth hormone (HGH) is stimulated during the 24 hours after you finish your workout. HGH is responsible for increased caloric burn but also slows down the aging process, which makes us look younger on the outside and keeps us younger on the inside.
This is not a workout you can do while gossiping with your friend. Because the session is so short, you should be working hard the whole time. If you feel like it was just an “ok” workout, then you did not perform the intervals properly. This type of training definitely won’t bore you like continuous cardio bores most of us. You may be uncomfortable and cursing the treadmill, but stick with it because the results are amazing and worth it!