The term HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training and is a style of exercise that can be incorporated in almost any traditional cardiovascular exercise format. Some examples include running on the treadmill, the elliptical machine, the stationary bike, jumping rope, shadow boxing and so many others. HIIT can be a very effective way to improve sports performance, lose weight faster and make workouts more enjoyable.
Here are just a few examples of the many benefits of High Intensity Interval Training
- More calories burned in a shorter amount of tim
- Increased compliance due to variety (less boredom)
- Improved neuromuscular coordination
- Better trained slow and fast twitch muscles
- Increased tolerance for lactic-acid buildup
- Increased aerobic and anaerobic threshold (aerobic capacity)
- Improved ability of the body to use fat as fuel
Some fitness professionals believe that you need expensive equipment in order to do HIIT cardio, but the fact is HIIT training can be performed by making simple modifications to any existing style of cardiovascular exercise. Basically, interval training consists of bursts of high intensity exercise that you can only perform for a short period of time, followed by a period of much lower intensity exercise giving yourself a chance to recover and simply repeating the process over and over, hence the name High Intensity Interval Training. You can do HIIT training at home without using any equipment at all.
Here are a few examples of plyometric and Tabata style HIIT exercises you can do at home that don’t require the use of any equipment.
- Burpees
- Explosive Lunges
- Jumping Jacks
- Vertical Jumps
- Squat Thrusts
- Mountain Climbers
- Fast Feet
An example of a HIIT exercise would be to exercise on a stationary bike at a comfortable pace at a steady speed for 4 minutes, allowing yourself to get warmed up, then while maintaining the same pace and speed, increase the intensity of the bike to its maximum resistance and maintain the same pace for 1 minute. Repeat this cycle for 30 minutes.
High intensity interval exercise should only be performed 1-2 days per week, or 3 days per week for more experienced athletes. You should allow yourself 2 days to recover between interval days. On your recovery days you can still exercise but at lower intensities.
HIIT was debuted and took top spot as the 2014’s #1 trend in a report called “Now Trending: Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2014” from the American Counsel of Sports and Medicine. Some of the highest grossing fitness programs, such as CrossFit and P90X use HIIT as their core foundation and have a reputation for being not just tough, but really tough and have adopted the “go-hard-or-go-home” philosophy. With new programs coming to market such as The Asylum Workout from Insanity suggests that this trend is only going to escalate.
HIIT is hot for a reason. We live in a society of more is better and hard work equals success, so an exercise program that makes you feel totally “wrecked” afterwards gives exercisers a greater feeling of accomplishment. Everything about High Intensity Interval training sounds great but it’s important to understand that everything should be done in moderation. There is a very big difference between exercises that are challenging and exercises that are hard. Challenging asks a person to dig a little deeper and push a little further, perhaps to a point where you weren’t sure you could go, but ultimately you achieve success in a safe and responsible manner. Hard is where you push yourself beyond a point where you should actually go and may not achieve success and also risk getting injured. This is why it’s very important to have an understanding on HIIT’s necessary counterpart, the recovery phase.
It’s not going to benefit you to exercise at high intensity, get in great shape, then get burned out or injured and then get out of shape. The recovery phase is not only important on a weekly basis between exercises but it’s also very important during the rest intervals of the exercise being performed. The rest intervals during exercise are equally as important as the work intervals because the body has to go into overdrive to recover from the high intensity work interval. You must allow yourself enough time to recover during HIIT to avoid burn out or injury.
High Intensity Interval Training is not for everyone. You should already have built a solid foundation of good fitness and good movement patterns before attempting to do Interval training on a regular basis. There are many things to consider when determining how you’ll respond to HIIT, such as sleep, nutrition, medication, kids, work, emotions, time of day and motivation just to name a few. High Intensity Interval Training is not a requirement for you to reach your goals. Consistency is the only requirement and it doesn’t matter how hard or intense your workouts are. Results whether it be physical fitness or fat loss, will always take time and patience.
Some final tips I’d personally like you to consider when doing HIIT exercise is to consider high impact exercises verses low impact exercises. High impact exercises present a higher chance of muscle soreness or injury. Some examples of high impact exercises include plyometric style exercises and running on the treadmill because your feet are constantly making impact on a surface. Most low impact exercises require equipment, such as a stationary bike, elliptical machine or row machine. The advantage to these machines is that you can increase intensity simply by increasing resistance. There are some low impact exercises you can do without equipment such as body weight squats and push-ups.
