5 Reasons Why HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) is Better Cardio
Posted by fitnesscoach101 on July 25, 2008
Most people think that in order to lose a significant amount of fat, they have to do long aerobic workouts. That is FALSE! There are actually much more effective ways to lose fat that take up less of your time. For example, there’s High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT). Usually, your HIIT sessions only have to be around 20 minutes long and will have much more effective results towards your weight loss goals.
What is HIIT? It’s basically a technique where you have short bursts of very intense workouts followed by short resting periods. HIIT can help you lose 9 times more fat than those who train train the normal way in a low-moderate intensity for 20-60 minutes. There are in fact, a lot more advantages to HIIT. Here are 5 reasons why HIIT is better cardio:
1. Longer After Burn Effect
There have been many studies which show that after using high intensity workouts that result in EPOC (Excess Post Oxygen Consumption) levels remaining at a high level for more hours compared to regular low intensity aerobic activities. A better EPOC level means that you will continue to burn calories at an increased rate long after a workout.
Regular low intensity aerobic exercises only burn fat while you’re doing the exercise itself. This is steady state cardio, where you’ll be burning less and less calories each time you exercise for the same amount of effort (this is also one reason why you may hear fitness experts tell you to change up your routines significantly and add variety!). If you’re doing steady state cardio, it’s not going to be great in the long run because your body’s just going to adapt to it. You’re most likely going to have to do major changes in order to see good results again.
2. No Loss of Muscle
Low intensity workouts for weight loss is always known for muscle loss. High intensity workouts on the other hand, will spare your muscle tissue at the expense of other tissues if there’s a need for it offers the stimulus necessary to tell your body that it needs muscle. This is basically the way bodies protect itself against stress, and exercise is one thing that causes stress.
Therefore, when you bring your muscles towards its point of failure, a signal goes off in your body that tells your body that it must do something to protect itself. This is the point where your muscles will be protected and your fat will be consumed.
Low intensity workouts will cause weight loss, but as I said, muscle may be lost too. During a low intensity workout, there are no signals going off in your body. Not enough work is being provided to trigger it.
Remember that it is never your goal to lose muscle. You only want to lose weight. In fact, having muscles helps you lose weight because your muscles will burn fat even as you’re resting!
3. Lowered Chance of Injury
By doing long aerobic exercises each day, it puts a lot of stress on your joins. In the long run, people find that they have many problems due to overuse of their knees, ankles, and backs. Your continuous loss of muscle from low intensity workouts may also increase the risk of osteoporosis.
4. Takes Less of Your Time
As I said before, HIIT workouts only have to last for about 20 minutes long. This is good for a person who’s short on time. You can just get into the gym quickly and get out equally as fast! With all of these great advantages of interval training, why would you also want to waste your precious time doing a slow workout?
5. Can Be Done with Different Types of Equipment
HIIT workouts can be done on different types of machines, such as elliptical trainers, stationary bikes, treadmills, stair climbers, or even walking and running outside. For those who want to work their muscles, you can even do it for exercises such as body weight squats and lunges.
Save yourself a lot of time and improve your body quickly with these high intensity interval training workouts.
Here is a sample HIIT workout using whatever piece of equipment you want. Adjust it to fit your needs.
a. 3-5 minute warm up at 40% intensity level
Then repeat these sets 3 times:
b. 1 min. at 70-80% intensity level
c. 2 min. at 50% intensity level
(repeat 3 times)
d. During your last 5 minutes, cool down at a nice slow pace.
