High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

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High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Studies show that High Intensity Interval Training help burn up to nine times more fat than training traditional ways.

A simple explanation of this is intensity interval training is basically a way of doing cardio training which involves going at a super high pace for a while then going back to a normal pace for a while so you can recover, and then repeating.

High Intensity Interval Training is a fantastic way to decrease your workout time and up your fat burning. One of the key advantages of HIIT is that it does not allow your body to adapt.

To me this is the training method that’s the secret to getting maximum weight loss results in the shortest amount of time.

A great thing about HIIT training is it creates a demand for more oxygen in your body. This is known as EPOC, or Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. What it means is for your body to return to a resting state after HIIT training, it uses excess oxygen over the next few hours. This means you can still be burning calories hours after your workout.

A study done in 2002 showed there was a substantial increase in the resting metabolic rate of participants up to forty eight hours after exercise. This is great news for someone who wants to raise their metabolism and lose weight!

It is very easy to do HIIT training on a treadmill. Your treadmill workout should last between 20-30 minutes. It should include short bursts of intense exercise (between one and two minutes) that will raise your heart rate into your maximum heart rate range, followed by short intervals (from two to five minutes) at lower heart rate levels. You can change the workout around to suit you. You can do several intervals, or just two or three. The duration of the intervals will depend on how many you plan to incorporate into your workout routine.

It is only recommended that you do HIIT training two or three times per week. It is very intense and will put your body under a lot of stress. It is generally recommended that your HIIT training not be done consecutively.

Give your body a couple of days to recover from the workout. The good news is you can take these breaks knowing that you are still burning fat and calories!

Here is an example of the HITT Training I will be doing on the treadmill on my journey to getting my body back in shape which I know is going to be a long road back.

I will be using a RUN/JOG method.

1. Warm-up for 5 minutes at a medium pace
2. After 5 minutes, speed up to a medium/high pace for one minute
3. After one minute, slow down to my original medium pace
4. After one minute of medium, speed up to my previous medium/high pace, but this time add .5 to the speed (so if I first did 6.0 mph…now I’m going to set it at 6.5mph)
5. After one minute, I’m going to go back to our original medium pace for one minute.
6. Alternating every minute between medium and high pace for 20 minutes… Keeping our medium pace the same, but keeping increasing our high pace by .5 until we cannot go any harder for that one minute. (I may drop back down a bit, but I’ll push back up straight after)

One of the reasons I love HIIT training is because of the incredible results it produces. Much of which is down to something called afterburn. Afterburn is the post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) your body goes through. What this translates into is your elevated metabolism after a workout, or simply, the calories your body continues to burn after your workout is done. Afterburn can last anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours, depending on the intensity and duration of your workout, as well as your size, gender and other factors.

So to step up my results I have put together a program for myself that I know will beast my body back into shape. The first 4 weeks I’m going to take it relatively easy, while my body and head gets used once again to exercising.

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About the author: Larry Lewis
My name is Larry Lewis, Health & Wellness Life Coach, Founder of Healthy Lifestyles Living, contributor to the Huffington Post, recently featured in the Sunday Mail Newspaper and somebody who went from being an owner of a chain of gyms and fitness fanatic, to a visually impaired overweight and incredibly sick person. Read about my illness to wellness story.

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