

Halfway through this one, you might wonder if you were crazy for trying it. This type of training is amazingly effective for quickly blasting fat and building total-body strength. This workout takes intensity to the next level with plyometric bodyweight moves (moves that involve jumping) like push-up jacks and power jumps. Think at least 75 percent of your maximum effort for those 20 to 45 seconds of work. This means you should be pushing yourself hard during every second of the “intense” or “work” phase of your HIIT workout. Whether you’re doing a HIIT workout of bodyweight exercises like burpees and mountain climbers, or you opt for interval sprints on a bike or treadmill, you shouldn’t be able to maintain a conversation while you’re doing them.

In reality, HIIT workouts done the right way should be intense. Yes, while a little intensity is better than nothing, true HIIT workouts are not necessarily a jog in the park. Often, when people think of HIIT, they think of speeding up their jog to a run a couple times during their workout, or adding in some other exercise with a slightly higher intensity. Speaking of long-term, HIIT has also been shown to improve glucose tolerance, blood sugar regulation in Type 2 diabetics, and even increase the function of your mitochondria, which are your cell’s energy “powerhouses,” allowing you to fuel your body more efficiently ( 2, 3, 4). That requires extra calories, which is the EPOC effect – for hours post-workout, your body burns up that extra fuel. The ramp-up in after-workout fat burning is due to a phenomena called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC.Īfter you do a hard workout, your body has to work extra hard to return your systems to normal: body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and more.

This is another reason they can be so short yet still effective. HIIT workouts actually help your body burn more calories after your workouts than steady-state workouts. However, the fat burning doesn’t stop there. In fact, in one study, HIIT exercisers burned 900 percent more fat than their steady-state cardio counterparts ( 1). More and more studies are pointing to HIIT’s fat-melting benefits.įor instance, HIIT workouts have proven in countless studies to be superior to steady-state cardio when it comes to burning fat. Her workouts are fun and they really get me working hard.While at first glance HIIT might not look like anything special, once you learn its benefits and fat-melting powers, you’ll want to add it to your workout regimen a couple days a week. As you become more fit, you can adjust the duration of the intervals (for example, 2 minutes of hard work and 2 minutes of recovery).īelow is a YouTube video by Jessica Smith that I love to practice. You can start with a 1:1 ratio, which means 1 minute of high intensity and 1 minute of recovery. I like to march around lightly to catch my breath before the next round. Recovery time should place you at 40-50% of your estimate maximal heart rate. As a good subjective indicator, the work interval should feel like you are exercising “hard” to “very hard” and you should be out of breath. Intensity during the high intensity work interval should range around 80% of your estimated maximal heart rate. The purpose is to get your heart rate up. HIIT training involves repeated bouts of high intensity effort followed by low intensity recovery times. Too much exercise can work against your recovery). HIIT are efficient: you only need 15 to 20 minutes 2 times per week to achieve great results (if you are dealing with an autoimmune condition, start slowly and increase gradually.They are part of my weekly exercise routine, along with two 20 minutes sessions of weight lifting and 1 hour of longer but moderate cardio exercise like bike riding. These low impact cardio routines are designed to get your heart rate up while protecting your ankle and knee joints from aches and pains. Low Impact means that there is no jumping around, no burpees or jumping jacks. Nowadays I am a big fan of low impact HIIT cardio training or High Intensity Interval Training.
