HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING (HIIT)
HIIT Can Burn a Lot of Calories in a Short Amount of Time. ...
Your Metabolic Rate Is Higher for Hours After Exercise. ...
It Can Help You Lose Fat. ...
You will Gain and Maintain Muscle Using HIIT. ...
HIIT Can Improve Oxygen Consumption. ...
It Can Reduce Heart Rate and Blood Pressure. ...
Blood Sugar Can Be Reduced by HIIT.
HIIT training is efficient as it burns 3X the Calories than steady-state cardio
The fitness world touts high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, as a way to pack more punch into your workouts. And for good reason. Its many benefits include weight loss, increased metabolism and improved heart and lung function, but they don't come easy. The target heart rate zone of a HIIT workout is 85-95 percent of your maximum heart. Or 9-10/10 on the Exertion Scale (how you feel). Basically, you want to feel out of breath at the end of the interval.
You can calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you're 45 years old, subtract 45 from 220 to get a maximum heart rate of 175. This is the average maximum number of times your heart should beat per minute during exercise.
HIIT Explained
HIIT refers to any manner of exercise during which short bursts of intense activity are followed by periods of recovery at a low or moderate intensity. An example is doing sprint intervals during a jog. High-intensity intervals can last anywhere from 5 seconds to 8 minutes. The recovery periods are typically as long as or longer than the high-intensity periods.
The reason HIIT is so effective is that it produces excess post-oxygen consumption, or EPOC (yes, another industry acronym!). EPOC raises your resting metabolic rate for twenty-four hours or more after your training session. In other words, it turns your body into a fat-burning machine.
Two to three days a week is a solid amount of HIIT as long as you build in 24 hours of rest and recovery between sessions. So, if your goal is to work out four -5 times per week, do two HIIT sessions and two three resistance training sessions.
