Getting fit and changing your body composition from mostly fat to mostly lean muscle, and making efficient use of your time exercising, credible research shows (and the results experienced by my clients) is best done with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and I wholeheartedly agree.
A High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session often consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by timed intervals of high intensity exercise, separated by either no or low intensity exercise for recovery, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. That’s YOURnear maximum intensity, don’t get caught up trying to go as intense as the person in front of or next to you. They are exercising at THEIR maximum intensity.
There is no specific formula to HIIT. Depending on one’s level of cardiovascular development, the moderate-level intensity can be as slow as walking.A common formula involves a 2:1 ratio of work to recovery periods, for example, 20–40 seconds of hard ALL OUT work alternated with 10–20 seconds of rest or medium intensity.
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The entire HIIT session may last between four and thirty minutes, meaning that it is considered to be an excellent way to maximize a workout that is limited on time. And most of you can relate that there never seems to be enough time in the day to get things done, phooey on trying to fit in exercise.
HIIT can be done in a class setting, through running, on cardio machines like stair climbers and elliptical machines or with body-weight workouts. For example you might do vigorous jumping jacks for 20 seconds and then rest for 10 seconds and repeat that for 8 rounds. I guarantee that for a beginner or novice exerciser you’ll say “wow that was only 4 minutes, I don’t feel this great after an hour on the treadmill”. To top it off, you will be so high and at peace from the endorphins you’ll release.
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A 2012 meta analysis in the journal Australian Family Physiciandescribes the benefits of HIIT exercise for patients with cardiovascular and metabolic disease and details the numerous benefits. For one, people with cardiovascular disease, the article states “that HIIT methods worked better than continuous moderate exercise in reducing blood pressure and improving cholesterol profiles.” HIIT does a better job strengthening the heart, increasing aerobic capacity and improving blood levels of fat, cholesterol and glucose. For those with Type 2 diabetes, it was found to reduce blood glucose after just two weeks of three times a week, 20-minute sessions. Moderate exercisers saw no such changes.
Another recent study from Australia found that women who followed a 20-minute HIIT program lost six times more body fat than women who followed a 40-minute moderate intensity cardio program. Get off the treadmill, bike or elliptical doing the same steady-state routine and mix it up with intervals…and put down the freaking magazine/newspaper/cell phone and give it your ALL.
Do not attempt to go from a couch potato to full throttle without any preparation as there’s a good chance of you getting hurt. I advise you to work with an experienced professional who is certified as a personal trainer who can help you set reasonable goals for you to progressively work towards SAFELY.
A final note; as much as I like writing this blog and dispelling fitness myths, please do not read me while doing steady-state cardio on the freaking treadmill.
In Exercise and in Life, Don’t be Afraid of Giving it your All!
