Pressed for time and cannot devote three hours to a walk for your heart’s health? We understand. When you grab your breakfast on the go, or drink your lunch at your workstation, devoting that full hour especially during working days can be challenging in itself. Enter HIIT or the high intensity interval training.
HIIT is the exact opposite of slow, continuous jogging, walking or a full two hours of spin and Pilates where you are sweating bucket loads by the end of your workout session. The trick with HIIT is that you perform a series of super high intense exercises. That you would not normally do long term – but for shorter spans. Research shows this is extremely efficient and effective and helps burn fat faster. HIIT workout sessions are extremely satisfying and enjoyable, say experts who design transformation challenges online. And this is proper science. Let us see why and how!
How HIIT works
Apart from improving heart health and promoting spot fat loss, we personally love these HIIT sessions because it is like a booster shot. Extremely time efficient, we always have time to squeeze in 30 minutes here and there to keep us going, don’t we? But the goodness doesn’t end there. Here are some more ways where HIIT scores way well as compared to steady state training.
The Research
Aerobics were a hit in the 90’s when popular actresses used aerobic exercise routines in their fitness regimes. Suddenly the whole world was improving their aerobic capacity – the body’s ability to burn fat cells aerobically. A research involving around 40 men with no pre-existing medical conditions, showed that just one session of HIIT per week improved their aerobic capacity by close to 15%. It was also observed that blood glucose levels considerably reduced. Cholesterol was well within limits, indicating this improved heart health and controlled diabetes. Studies have also shown that this keeps the metabolism intact throughout the day. Meaning even after the workout session, your body is burning fat cells at a rate higher than it otherwise would not. It specifically tackled belly fat; so for all those trying to lose that paunch, here is your god sent!
Balances Hormones
While every form of exercise is known to keep cortisol or the stress hormone in check, HIIT because of its intensity also keeps adrenaline or the fight-flight hormone and the growth hormone in check. Meaning you won’t pile up extra fat, and also will maintain a cooler demeanor. For women, estrogen and progesterone are better regulated – fight those PMS and menopause symptoms better with HIIT.
As with the growth hormone, it creates a kind of after burn – the metabolism fire it creates is kept burning for a long time afterwards. A word of caution here – for continuous high intensity workouts like professional athletes do increase cortisol levels immediately. While the level of cortisol is maintained in limits in the long run, these prolonged cortisol shots that your body gets also increases cravings and hunger pangs.
Use math for HIIT
Remember that HIIT is great, but must be done in moderation. We recommend cycling it with moderate and low intensity workouts. A good well balanced diet is crucial for HIIT or any other workout. If you want to enjoy the full benefits of HIIT, you must reach out. At least look up for Indian diet plans online. HIIT is tiring, and to keep up with that, your body keeps demanding sources that can feed this demand, which explains the extreme hunger.
Unless your goal is training for professional athletics or endurance training, you must give your body time to recover between spouts of HIIT. You could start with one session of HIIT per week and add it to your plan gradually. Also, you must note that building lean muscle is not one of HIITs strong points. Couple this with weight training to gain that shredded, ripped look. Listen to your body most importantly. You can also cycle between one week of HIIT cardio and one week of simple cycling, jogging coupled with stretching. This will keep you motivated while looking forward to your workout sessions, while also ensuring you don’t hit a plateau. Moderation is always advisable in the fitness world. But, why not enjoy the best of all worlds?
Trina Roy is a renowned nutrition and fitness coach whose aim is to being people closed to their fitness and health goals sustainably. With a team of trainers and certified sports nutrition specialists, we help people identify. Formulate what works best for them and help them achieve it.
