Surely you’ve heard that doing aerobic exercises over and over again won’t yield you the notable results you’re looking to see. But with the addition of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), you may have the chance. As its name indicates, the workout involves various intervals, which typically are of high intensity. This guarantees you experience the maximum gains from your exercise regimen. HIIT is considered effectual in improving your metabolism while torching a significant amount of calories fast. These are just some of the benefits you can get from performing HIIT. Here are more:
1. It helps establish endurance
Performing high-intensity training enables your body to acclimatize to the cellular configuration of the muscles, allowing you to boost your endurance while executing any type of workout. In a study, participants performed HIIT for eight weeks where it was determined that the duration they could ride a bicycle using the same pace had doubled.
2. It burns calories and fat faster
If you’re one of those people who don’t get much time to exercise, HIIT is ideal for you. Research shows that 15-minute high-intensity interval training torches more calories than running on a treadmill for an hour.
3. Efficient use of energy
Basically, HIIT utilizes a scheme of intense-workout-then-recovery intermissions, going from high-intensity exercises to short resting durations. Through this system, your body is able to learn in effectually utilizing the energy that originates from your energy composition. Plus, HIIT also aids in the elimination of toxic wastes from the muscles during your resting gaps. What’s more is that alternating between the workouts also helps you breathe efficiently.
4. It increases metabolism
Research shows that HIIT helps increase your oxygen intake compared with a non-interval exercise routine. The extra oxygen consumed helps boost your metabolism rate from 90 minutes to 144 minutes post interval training session. When you have more oxygen, it means you can torch calories at a much quicker speed.
5. It burns fats and calories post-workout session
Performing high-intensity exercises results in your body’s restoration cycle going into frenzied mode. This means that even after 24 hours of your HIIT session, your body still keeps on torching calories and fat, which is great for weight loss. This isn’t the case for steady-pace exercises though. For this reason, HIIT is recommended as part of one’s fitness regimen.
6. There’s no special equipment needed
One of the best things about HIIT is that you won’t require the use of any special equipment so it’s really cost effective. What you just need is a bit of an open space. Essentially, HIIT uses your own body weight. Hence, any exercises that enable to accelerate your heart rate fast like plyometrics, high knees, and jumping jacks can be employed into a HIIT regimen. As a matter of fact, weights can make the workouts less effectual sometimes since the primary concentration in HIIT is getting your heart rate up and not toning a specific muscle group.
7. It helps get rid of fat and not muscle
Performing cardio consistently is frequently linked to the loss of muscle. This is where HIIT comes in, alongside weight training, as both are noted for their effectiveness in enabling the body to preserve its muscle gain while still losing fat. It is important to note that the weight training mentioned here involves your own body weight.
8. It is great for your heart
It’s been said that intense training helps establish remarkable outcome. However, it’s tough for most individuals to push themselves to an anaerobic mode where one loses his breath with his heartbeat speeding relentlessly. But with internal training, it’s easier to bring yourself to this level due to the rest interval that’s available after you reach that particular point. The result is that you maintain a healthy heart and helps blood circulate efficiently throughout your body.
9. You can opt for any workouts
HIIT is also incredible because it allows you choose any cardio exercise and transform it into an interval workout. You don’t need to settle on just doing biking or running. For example, you can bike one day at maximum speed for 30 seconds and then take 45 seconds gap or interval in between. The following day, you can alternate it with jogging or other aerobic exercises.
10. HIIT offers challenge
Interval training provides those experienced fitness enthusiasts a fresh challenge to face up to while giving beginners faster means to encounter notable results. With HIIT, you’re consistently pushing yourself out of your comfort zone so that there’s variation in your training regimen, which ensures that you’ll never get bored and continue reaping the results.
