High Intensity Interval Training--Why it Works

   I'm a health and fitness junkie. I am also an exercise fanatic. I exercise at least once a day, sometimes two. I want to tell you about a whole new way I've been exercising--high intensity interval training! It's an entirely different trip, I guess you could say. It's my new favorite thing in life, besides my son of course.


   I have an elliptical downstairs in the basement and I had been doing around 60-minutes of steady-paced cardio down there every day. Boring. Yes I had my music I was listening to, but still--boring. Now I am getting a better, more intense workout in half the time! I'm talking about HIIT, or high intensity interval training. I start out by stretching, of course, and warming up my muscles. Then I go straight into an interval. I'll run in place, do lunges, jumping squats, weights, crunches- anything that requires maximum exertion of either my muscles or my heart rate. I'll do that for about 40-60 seconds, then I'll go to steady-state cardio on my elliptical. After one minute of that, I go back into a 40-60 second interval. I switch back and forth like that for around 40 minutes. Then I'm finished. The secret is in the EPOC, or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. HIIT increases the body's resting metabolic rate for anywhere from 24-48 hours post exercise and enhances the skeletal muscle fat oxidation, which basically means that you burn an insane amount of calories without having to do anything! The intervals completely exhaust your muscles of their stored energy, so your energy is coming from the burning of fat. HIIT improves maximal oxygen consumption (VO2-MAX) more effectively than doing traditional long aerobic workouts. Because HIIT is so intense and condense, it increases the length of time it takes your body to recover from each session. This type of exercise also causes metabolic adaptions that will enable you to use more fat as fuel under a variety of conditions. Doing regular steady-state cardio stimulates your aerobic energy system, where as intense cardio or strength-traing stimulates your anaerobic energy system. Anaerobic literally means "without oxygen", where aerobic means "with oxygen". To get the full benefits of HIIT, you need to push yourself past the upper end of your aerobic zone and then allow your body to replenish your anaerobic energy system during the recovery intervals.


  I know this all sounds a little technical and complex, but it's really very simple. This method of exercise training is superb for immediate fat-burning and weight-loss. I have seen results in only a short period of time since switching to this new form of exercise. And EPOC is only the immediate benefit that I'm experiencing. Over time, my body's ability to convert energy directly into muscles increases. Interval training will start convincing my body to "funnel" new energy into my muscles instead of my fat stores. It only gets better! I am excited about high intensity interval training.I  had always known about it, but I didn't quite know the logistics of it or just how effective it was at maximizing fat-burn. It has definitely made a believer out of me, and I hope by writing this, I can make a believer out of you too!