The Benefits of A HIIT Workout

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a way to get in the same cardiovascular shape as you would with traditional training, but with less time spent exercising. It’s also a form of exercise that’s very helpful for our bodies since it replicates what we’ve been doing on Earth for millennia.

If you were a cave dweller hundreds of thousands of years ago, what you did long ago was a primitive form of interval training: You would run like crazy to catch your food or run like crazy to avoid being caught for food. You would usually do this for very short periods. All of the activity you did was in short bursts of high-energy activity to maximize survival and
minimize energy expenditure.

Research has shown that just three intervals over 10 minutes three times a week increases your muscles’ capacity to extract oxygen and do more work. This improves both cardiorespiratory fitness and cardiometabolic health in overweight adults and reduces belly fat.

How it’s done
High-intensity interval training is performed a bit differently from continuous exercise at a moderate intensity. Continuous exercise is when you warm up, move to a moderate intensity level, and then keep it at that level for 10, 20 or 30 minutes.
There’s nothing wrong with the continuous approach. If you’re doing it already, that’s great and it makes it easier to switch to intervals. But if you’re looking for a more time-efficient way to get fit, then interval training might be for you.

Interval training is appropriate even for people who are older, inactive or overweight. It’s also been shown to be safe and effective for people with heart disease and diabetes. It’s all based on your own perception of intensity. You only go as hard as you can go, improving as you’re able.

The three key components of intervals are: 1. Once you warm up, go hard (hard enough that you think this is difficult; I can’t keep this up very long). 2. Before you give out and have to stop, slow down and get your breath fully back so you can go just as hard on the next interval (this may take four or five minutes as you start to get in shape). 3. Do not go too long because if you go too long, you can’t go that hard; 30 to 120 seconds is long enough.

You can do interval training with just about any activity. Depending on what you like to do, you can simply increase your speed or other intensity variable such as the incline or the tension. For example, you might:

• Go from walking to walking briskly or jogging
• Alternate between walking and climbing stairs
• Pedal faster, stand up to pedal or increase the resistance when bicycling
• Maintain or increase your speed as you run or walk up a hill
• Alternate between dancing to music that has faster and slower tempos
• Swim several laps at your regular pace followed by a lap that is faster

Six sessions of repeated 30-second sprints over two weeks with interval training is equal to 90 to 120 minutes of moderate continuous activity a session. In other words, 11 minutes a day of interval activity can equal 45 minutes a day of continuous moderate-intensity activity in terms of the fitness that you can achieve.

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