Losing the unwanted body fat everyone of us stores is always a long and usually boring road. We are all accustomed to the typical gym cardio sessions staring at the clock, counting down the seconds till your done. But what if I told you there is another way to do cardio and get great results in about a third the time? This style of cardio is called a HIIT workout.
High Intensity Interval Training, also called HIIT, is a very intense (if the name hasn’t given it away) and grueling form of cardio, but it can do remarkable things for shedding the fat and raising your metabolism. HIIT was first studied by Dr. Tabata of the National Health & Nutrition Institute in Tokyo, Japan. He was researching ways to improve aerobic exercise leading to better results.
Dr. Tabata’s research showed a number of benefits of performing a HIIT workout. His subjects showed a 14% increase in there VO2 max (represents aerobic fitness) and a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity (represents muscle power). These 2 results alone where nearly 3 times better than his subjects performing mundane hour long cardio session. Other benefits of doing a HIIT workout include:
- Increased fat burn
- Supressed appetite
- Increased Metabolism post exercise
- Improved aerobic recovery
- Natural Growth Hormone(GH) release
- Increased lactic acid threshold
Before I explain some sample HIIT cardio days, let’s set some guidelines to follow. Since a HIIT workout is so demanding on the body, I want you to be prepared as possible for the upcoming workouts.
- - First, NEVER do a HIIT workout on an empty stomach. If you do your cardio right after you wake up in the morning, grab at least a handful of almonds and a protein shake before you begin HIIT. One of the main purposes of HIIT is to preserve the muscle you already have, doing anything high intensity on an empty stomach will turn you catabolic causing protein (muscle) to be used for fuel. Try and eat something 30-60 minutes before HIIT.
- - Until you’ve done HIIT cardio for at least 4 weeks, keep 36 hours between the cardio exercise and a leg day of weights. HIIT is very taxing on the legs and is almost treated like a leg workout day.
- - Start slow. Don’t all of a sudden change all your cardio days to HIIT exercise. The first week, only do 1 day of HIIT and gradually increase the amount of HIIT you do. I don’t recommend ever doing more than 4 days of HIIT in a week. HIIT workout recovery should be treated like a weight day recovery.
- - Push yourself. It may be difficult to walk after your first session of HIIT. Your body adapts to the stress you put upon yourself. HIIT is all about max effort. Even when you don’t think you can go anymore, hit your second wind and finish strong.
HIIT will increase your metabolism for 16-20 hours after you’ve completed the exercise. Because of this, I like to do thr HIIT workout early, so that I’m burning fat consistently throughout the day. I also recommend eating a good meal about an hour after the exercise.
Ok, here is how you perform a HIIT workout. I will start by giving a sprint example. Start out by perform 5 minutes of a nice solid warmup. This helps get the blood pumping decreasing your chance for a muscle pull or strain. This warm up pace will be at about 40-50% max effort. After the warm up is done, begin sprinting as hard as you can for 30 seconds. Slow your pace down to your warm up pace again and keep this pace for 1 minute and 30 seconds. This 2 minute period is considered 1 repitition. To start off complete 4-5 reps with no breaks. Even though this routine is only 10-15 minutes long, it’s very difficult. But, that’s why we start out with only 4-5 reps. Each week increase by 1-2 reps until you are doing 20 minutes of HIIT. Don’t do more than 20 minutes. You’re overtraining at that point.
Our second example will be for my gym rats who live and die by the elliptical. Of course, start with a 5 minute warm up. When I use the elliptical for HIIT, I watch the rotations/minute or steps/minute to gauge my speed. My nice steady pace is at 150 rotations/minute. For 30 seconds, I will increase my speed to 300+ rotations/minute (so far 325 is my max but its painful). Then slow my pace to 150 rotations/minute for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Just like above, repeat 4-5 times starting off.
Once you hit the 20 minute mark, start increasing your 100% effort phase and decreasing your 50% effort phase. So, your sprint may last 40 seconds and your rest only 1 minute and 20 seconds. Once your max effort last longer than your slow pace, you’re in damn good shape.
A HIIT workout is all about increasing your heart rate then decreasing it. Your body realizes it needs muscle to withstand the stress HIIT delivers. So, throw these routines in place of a 60 minute boring cardio and reap the benefits. Enjoy.
If you are really wanting to trim the fat, take a look at Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle. This book will help you learn how to control your weight and find the best diet specifically for you.
Travis
