How To Get The Most Out of HIIT

By Howe Russ


For many years, HIIT was one of the hidden secrets of the health and fitness industry reserved for elite athletes. With so many people trying to find out how to lose weight with more challenging and original methods, however, it has now become one of the most popular choices for gym members around the world.





There are a few different ways to perform this particular style of exercise and today we'll teach you how to single out the method which best suits your personal goals.

If you visit any gym around the world you will find two distinctly different types of people working out. Firstly, you will meet those who are happy to spend up to an hour working out at a steady pace on an exercise bike. Secondly, you'll meet those who deem cardiovascular exercise to be too boring and therefore they ignore it and train with weights instead.

High intensity interval training represents a middle ground between both styles.

It is rare that a particular training style provides two very different groups of fitness enthusiasts with equal benefits, but this does. Interval training has been proven to increase muscular hypertrophy, which is great for those looking to increase muscle mass. However, the fat loss benefits are equally as impressive so this style has truly universal appeal.

One of the biggest plus sides of this training style is a phenomenon called Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. You might have heard this called "The Afterburn Effect" by some trainers. When performing a resistance training session your body continues to burn off calories for up to sixteen hours after your session is over, this is also a benefit of interval training.

Like any other type of training, however, there are numerous ways to perform it. Knowing which one best fits your overall goal will allow you to get superior results.

* Tabata Interval Training.

* The Sport Specific Method

* The Fat Loss Method

The first method, known as Tabata Interval Training, was designed by Professor Tabata during the 1990's. This theory was put forward to increase the fitness level of elite athletes so most people who perform this particular style are already very experienced in the gym and consider themselves to be at an advanced level of overall fitness.

Originating from Japan, this style of workout has been proven to increase the VO2 Max in a group of highly trained athletes by a whopping 28%.

Minus the necessary warm-up and cool-down periods, Tabata's involve working out for just four minutes in total. However, don't let the short time fool you into thinking that this is going to be easy. These four minutes will push you harder than any other form of interval training in existence today. The four minutes are split up into sections of 20 seconds at maximal intensity and 10 seconds of recovery, repeated eight times over.

If you are training for a particular sporting event, the second type of interval training is perhaps more suited to your personal needs. Incorporating your sporting movements into a cardiovascular exercise then switching to an exercise which works the opposing muscle groups is a great way to boost overall performance. For instance, eight circuits consisting of 300 meters on a rowing machine followed by 30 seconds of push-ups.

Finally, there are numerous people who are looking to use this training method to lose body fat. The method which has the most scientific research to support it comes from Canada. A thirty minute session which consisted of four minutes at a moderate intensity followed by a thirty second burst of maximal intensity returned superior results to any other time split.

Furthermore, regardless of whether your goal is weight loss or building muscle, recent scientific studies show that performing high intensity interval training before your resistance training increases the body's natural ability to perform both of the goals listed above.

While HIIT is now a very popular choice among exercise enthusiasts around the world, it remains clouded in mystery thanks to the many various styles within it's category. As you can see from the three we have took you through today, it isn't rocket science. There are countless gym members out there who have been trying to figure out how to lose weight without spending endless hours on equipment they don't particularly enjoy. Thanks to this training style, now they can.




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