If you’re a gym junkie you may have already noticed that all your gym classes, your personal trainers and gym programs are on HIIT trip lately. So what’s this HIIT thing all about and why is everyone doing it? HIIT has totally transformed cardio training! Lets look at why it’s become such a hit!
What is it?
HIIT stands for high intensity interval training, which in layman’s terms means, doing a certain activity/exercise intensely for 30 – 60 seconds and then resting for 30 seconds. If you’ve done any group classes such as 24 offered by Virgin Active gyms, you will have noticed that these classes are exactly that! These types of exercises increase your heart rate and keep it up, which burns more in less time. Some examples of HIIT exercises, doing as many jumping jacks as you can for 1 minute and then resting for 30 seconds or another example is squatting for 1 minute and then resting for 30 seconds. Virgin Active’s class 24, is a HIIT based class, consisting of twenty-four exercises in twenty-four minutes.
Benefits of HIIT
Fat-burning
HIIT training is known for high fat burning properties. Not only do you burn more calories during HIIT, but the intense intervals cause your body to go into a hyper drive repair cycle which means you burn even more fat and calories, hours after HIIT workouts - compared to normal cardio sessions.
Increases Metabolism
In addition HIIT also stimulates production of HGM (human growth hormone) up to 24 hours after you finish your work out. HGH is not only responsible for burning calories but is also beneficial for slowing down the aging process and increasing metabolism.
Equipment Free
HIIT is great; you can pretty much do it anywhere. You don’t need expensive equipment or a gym membership. HIIT ‘s main focus is increasing your heart rate and keeping it there, so your body weight is sufficient. In fact using even minimal equipment such as dumbbells can ruin your HIIT work out. You should be focusing on pushing your heart to its max not your biceps.
HIIT workouts are currently my favorite, why spend hours doing boring cardio, when you can achieve even better results in a shorter, HIIT workout!