Benefits of HIIT
- josephplatt1979
- Aug 23, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 20, 2022
We should all include some Cardiovascular activity in our fitness program as Cardio is a great exercise for those looking to slim down because it helps you burn fat, lose calories and is a tool to help keep are hearts and cardio system healthy. While diet is important in weight loss, you will want to work cardio into your routine to further advance your goal to shed a few pounds and improve health. HIIT is a form of cardio and benefits of HIIT work wonders to help lose weight and improve health.
If you have a busy life, trying to fit in thirty minutes to an hour of cardio into your day can prove difficult and to be honest for most of us, it is just not that fun. But, what if there was a way to make cardio more exciting, more effective and most importantly even shorter. Well HIIT training will be music to your ears and this training helps you get the benefits of cardio in a short time.
WHAT IS HIIT
HIIT workouts generally combine short bursts of intense exercise with periods of rest or lower-intensity exercise and these workouts often mix aerobic and resistance training. When you do a HIIT workout, you need to be pushing hard to get the most benefit from it, and it’s also important to try and maintain a consistent level of effort across the work periods.
When you do a HIIT training session, you can achieve more progress in a mere 15 minutes of interval training than the person jogging on the treadmill for an hour.
Interval training is meant to be tough but quick, so you can work harder and smarter for a short period of time. The single most well-established benefit of interval training has to do with heart health. Intervals can boost cardio-respiratory health with a smaller time investment compared to continuous forms of exercise.
You will be amazed at the benefits of HIIT and the amount of calories you’ll burn , which are many, not only during the workout but also in the hours afterwards. This is due to the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) effect, where your body burns more calories as it returns to its normal resting state after a workout and adapts to the exercise you’ve done. The EPOC effect increases with the intensity of the exercise you do, which is why HIIT is such an effective fat burner.
There are also logistical benefits to HIIT, like the fact your workout takes less time so you can fit it into a lunch break. And while it’s tremendously hard work, the short, sharp challenge of HIIT ensures you’ll never get bored with your training.
BENEFITS OF HIIT
There are lots of good points to adding HIIT training to your training routine and the benefits of HIIT include:
Improves your stamina - By pushing the body into the anaerobic zone, where the heart is performing to 80-90% of its maximum rate, the heart, lungs and muscles will learn to adapt to the challenge. In time you will be fitter and exercises become easier.
Increases your strength - HIIT will build muscle while burning fat at the same time, giving you a more rounded athletic physique.
Burns lots of fat – This type of training is perfect for those wanting to lose fat as HIIT is renowned for burning lots of calories and fat. HIIT will burn around 15 calories per minute by pushing the body to meet the demands of the heart’s maximum rate.
Continuous fat burn - HIIT increases a person’s resting metabolic rate. This means that the body will continue to burn calories after the workout has finished, making managing calorie intake much easier.
Healthy heart - HIIT will boost your cardiovascular fitness faster by working harder instead of longer. HIIT workouts can produce equal or greater improvements in blood pressure and blood sugar compared with moderate-intensity exercise. HIIT can improve heart health and help to prevent, or even reverse, the symptoms of stable coronary artery disease.
Keep you young - During HIIT, the production of the hormone HGH is stimulated, which in turn increases hair and nail growth. So not only will HIIT help to keep you in shape, but you’ll maintain a youthful look.
Stress relief – HIIT is a quick workout so it’s perfect if you have a busy schedule. It requires the utmost concentration to maintain the high intensity levels. This distracts the brain from worrying about the stresses and concerns of everyday life, helping the mind to relax. HIIT training has be proven to help to reduce stress by stimulating the release of endorphins and provides relief from depression and anxiety
Regulate blood sugar - HIIT leads to rapid improvements in glucose control in individuals with type 2 diabetes. It’s good news for people who aren’t diabetes sufferers, too, as regulating blood sugar levels helps to maintain energy levels and avoid that mid-afternoon slump.
HIIT can be broken down into two main categories: SIT (sprint interval training) and HIT (high intensity training).
HIT is more appropriate to the general public or normal gym-goer. This involves work periods ranging from 30 seconds to three minutes, working between 80–100% of your maximum heart rate with shorter recovery periods. There is no specific formula to HIT, but remember your recovery period should be around the same as your work interval, and can become shorter as you get fitter.
HIT WORKOUT example
Minutes 1-2: Burpees and jump squats. Complete each exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 15 seconds between each set.
Minutes 2-4: Mountain climbers and push-ups. Complete each exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 15 seconds between each set.
Minutes 4-6: Running in place followed by jumping jacks. Complete each exercise for one minute and rest for a few seconds between.
Minutes 6-8: Burpees and jump squats. Complete each exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 15 seconds between each set.
Minutes 8-10: Mountain climbers and push-ups. Complete each exercise for 20 seconds and rest for 15 seconds between each set
SIT is a form of very intense interval training that should only be performed by already well-conditioned people who have no contrary health conditions. SIT is very similar to HIT, but even less time consuming. In SIT, you give a supramaximal effort for even shorter periods of time. To put it simply, a SIT workout may include the exact same exercises as a HIIT workout, but the intensity of the SIT workout is higher and the rest periods are shorter. SIT workouts delivered slightly more results than HIT, both are totally worthy of your time in the gym but SIT is extremely more difficult than HIT.
SIT WORKOUT example
Minutes 1-2: Burpees and jump squats. Complete each exercise for 30 seconds and rest for 5 seconds between each set.
Minutes 2-4: Mountain climbers and push-ups. Complete each exercise for 30 seconds and rest for 5 seconds between each set. Minutes 4-6: High-knee running in place followed by bear crawls. Complete each exercise for one minute before immediately starting the next. Minutes 6-8: Burpees and jump squats. Complete each exercise for 30 seconds and rest for 5 seconds between each set. Minutes 8-10: Mountain climbers and push-ups. Complete each exercise for 30 seconds and rest for 5 seconds between each set.
DIFFERENT WAYS TO DO A HIIT WORKOUT
There are many benefits of HIIT and ways to do a HIIT workout and that can be at home or in a gym. Find out what types of training you like to do and incorporate a HIIT workout around that. You want it to be tough but one you can enjoy and stick to. Below are a few examples of how to Do a HIIT workout
Treadmill HIIT - warm up at a brisk walk for about 5 minutes. Depending how fit you are will depend on your treadmill speed. If you are at a decent fitness, you can run at 10 miles per hour for 1 minutes and then switch to 6 mph for 1 minute. Alternate these two speeds for 15 minutes for a quick and effective HIIT workout. To make it more differcult you can push yourself even further by running at 12 mph for 30 seconds and then walking at 5 mph for 1 minute. Once you’re used to sprinting and walking in succession, you can also play with the treadmill’s incline settings.
Exercise bike HIIT – This would be the same as the treadmill workout but on a bike. Start off with a warm up for a few minutes, after the warm up, pedal hard for 1 minute and rest for 30 seconds. Continue this for 15 to 25 minutes, and increase the difficulty if needed.
Dumbbell HIIT – All you need is a set of moderate weight to light dumbells that you can perform high reps with. This is a fat burning workout with a focus on intensity with a high volume of reps in a short period of time, which fires up your EPOC engines to keep your body burning fat for hours after the workout.
Complete each exercise with 20 seconds on / 10 seconds off for 8 rounds and a workout total of 4 minutes. You will then rest for 2 minutes, you then continue and complete as many sets as you can
Dumbbell Goblet Squat – works glutes, quads and hamstrings
Single Arm Dumbbell Row – works upper back and biceps
One Arm Dumbbell Swing – hits glute, quads, hamstrings, lower back, core and shoulders
Dumbbell Lunge – works the legs and core, also works grip strength
Incline Dumbbell Press – targets shoulders, chest and triceps
Renegade Row – works back, shoulders, triceps, biceps and core
Skipping rope HIIT – This workout involves short bursts of jumping with even shorter breaks for rest. You could try a standard jump on both feet on and off, but there’s other jumps you could incorporate for more of a challenge: single leg jumps, high knees, and even double unders can add intensity and variety to your workout. You can try jumping for 20 seconds and resting for 10 for several rounds. Make sure you give yourself a minute or two to rest between sets, and repeat 2 to 4 times.
HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD YOU DO HIIT
It would be ideal to do HIIT About Two to three days a week as long as you build in 24 hours of rest and recovery between sessions. A perfect combination of 2 days doing resistance training and add in 2 days of HIIT on other days will be a good plan.
There are many benefits of HIIT training but doing it everyday could cause the risk of injury. Your risk of getting injured due to overtraining increases when you don’t give your muscles enough time to repair and grow.
Don’t just do the same HIIT training as this could get boring or your body may get used to it. Mix up the sessions and try and mix up all the different types of HIIT. Keep your body guessing and keep progressing
Protein is perhaps the most useful supplement for muscle recovery. It helps the muscle repair faster and more effectively after a grueling workout. It is even more important if there isn't enough protein in the diet. Its important to rest and recover after training, so make sure you feed your muscles with the protein it needs. CLICK HERE to get your quality MYprotein recovery supplements
The most important thing to know about HIIT workouts is that it’s you put in the effort whatever that may be. You’ll start to see the many benefits of HIIT workouts even after the first session. Also, it’s important you realize that it’s a tough workout, regardless of your fitness level and that you can only keep up the required intensity for a short period of time, whatever your fitness level may be.
HITT is not for everyone and you will need great motivation and physical stamina to push yourself to the limit. If you’re not used to this type of training, your muscles and joints may pay the price through sprains and strains.
Adding HIIT training to your routine will have you getting the benefits of cardio sessions but in a shorter time which will make it better for you to make use of planning time.
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