HIIT Yourself To Get The Body You Want
With January fast approaching many of you will once again turn your attention to exercising. Many of you will have purchased home use cardiovascular equipment while others will be joining a gym. Well I really hope that you can stay committed, and that you will achieve those results you seek.
So if it’s time to get your body in shape I would like to give you some information about the best way to do it. Having worked in the fitness industry for many years, I know that seeing improvements is essential to you staying with your fitness programme.
Let me introduce you to High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT Training) which provides a quick explosive way to burn fat without losing muscle. It’s an aerobic training programme. Rather than waste time exercising at a slow pace, praying the fat melts off before you die of boredom or turn grey, you alternate intervals of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise with periods of near-maximum effort, achieving unbelievable results.
Three or four HIIT sessions a week should produce significant fat-burning effects. HIIT is performing a cardio exercise such as running at a very high intensity then at a lower intensity and repeating the cycle again and again. It can be very hard and to all beginners to training I advise you to take it slowly until you build up better stamina and your fitness levels. You can perform it on a stationary bike, StairMaster, mountain bike, treadmill etc. But the most efficient for fat burning and stamina building is running. A HIIT session consists of a warm up period of exercise, followed by six to ten repetitions of high intensity exercise, separated by medium intensity exercise, and ending with a period of cool down exercise. The high intensity exercise should be done at near maximum intensity. The medium exercise should be about half-maximum intensity. The goal is to do at least six cycles, and to have the entire HIIT session last at least fifteen minutes and not more than twenty minutes. The major benefit of HITT or high intensity interval training is the fact that on a normal exercise routine your body gets accustomed to the pace and exertion and thus does not lose the amount of calories you wished for. So when working with alternate and intense level of exercise, your body is not able to go into a steady or stable state and thus keeps on losing or burning fat and calories without getting a chance to store them.
In addition, HIIT training creates a demand for more oxygen in your body, known as EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. What it means is for your body to return to a resting state after HIIT training, it uses excess oxygen over the next few hours. EPOC will take place in your body once you have performed intense exercise This means you can still be burning calories hours after your workout. The amount of intensity that you put into your intervals directly affects the volume and duration of EPOC. For instance, EPOC will be effective for a few minutes after doing aerobic exercise, but may last up to forty hours with HIIT Training done correctly. Therefore, when you are in a sprint interval, go full steam ahead. A common interval training program is the slow jog-fast sprint interval training. Warm up and stretch thoroughly before you commence HIIT. I will repeat don’t forget, it is very important to warm up and cool down for 5 minutes, every time, before and after each HIIT session. Then start out with a 1 minute jog / 1 minute sprint as fast as you can. For beginners, you can try 2 min jog then 1 minute sprint or adjust the cycle to suit your stamina. For more challenge, try to sprint up hills or inclines and slow jog down. Or use the 30sec/30sec cycle instead of 1 min each. Perform HIIT 4 to 5 times a week for 20-30 minutes and watch your fats melt away fast. Remember, it has to be intense during the sprint phase for it to be very effective. Otherwise, it will just be another cardio exercise you see people doing day in and day out without any real results. You should be extremely tired, sweating profusely, huffing and puffing when you are done. If you are not, you have not been performing HIIT correctly.
So you’re a beginner. Let’s assume you’re going to apply HIIT training. You’ll jog for a set amount of time, sprint for a set amount of time, followed by more jogging, more sprinting, and so on, until you’ve trained for a certain amount of time. Every other workout, you’ll add another minute to your HIIT session. For instance, your first two HIIT sessions during week one will each take only four minutes. On the third workout of week 1, you’ll add another 30-second sprint followed by a 30-second jog. Every other workout thereafter, you’ll add another minute’s worth of HIIT training until finally, by the end of week 8, you’ll be doing a 15-minute HIIT session. Keep building till you get to 20 minutes. Intensity is measured on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 is pretty much standing still, 5 is a light jog and 10’s running as if a lion was chasing you for dinner. Hiit training is about hitting 10 as many times you can. If the point at which you’re starting finds you in a very bad physical state, then here is another alternative. Following the guidelines as above, but add another 30 second period of walking in between each So you’ll walk for a set amount of time, then jog for a set amount of time, sprint for a set amount of time, followed by more waling, more jogging, more sprinting, and so on. The bottom line is that HIIT training burns a greater number of total calories than low-intensity training, and more calories burned equals more fat lost. The majority of calories burned will come after your workout! Try it! You can already visualise the fat melting away right before your very own eyes.